About Castrelle Hire

Who we are

Castrelle is a small self-drive hire company in Salford running one Moskvich 5. We deliver and collect free inside the M60, so there is no forecourt, no counter and nothing for you to travel to.

How we ended up with this car

Honestly, curiosity first and business sense second. There are very few of these in the UK, and when the opportunity to run one came up the interesting question was whether a car with that badge could do an ordinary job competently. It turned out it could, which is less of a story than we expected and better for the customers.

The badge does bring a steady trickle of people who simply want to see one, and after answering the same questions a hundred times we wrote the full history of the name down properly — including the twenty-year gap that most accounts leave out.

What we tell curious customers

That the car is not a continuation of anything. The modern Moskvich 5 is a rebadged JAC Sehol X6, built on a mainstream platform, and the engineering has no lineage to the Moscow factory. We say that plainly because a customer who arrives expecting Soviet character and leaves disappointed is worse for everyone than one who knew what to expect.

How the car is looked after

One independent garage in Salford has had it since the first service, which matters more than usual with an uncommon model — they know the car and they know where the parts are catalogued. Servicing runs to the manufacturer's interval, transmission fluid included, and anything flagged on return keeps the car off the road until it is dealt with.

If you want the service record before booking, ask and we will send it.