Thread: Car hire in USA?

Only the large national renters will allow one-way rental, so you must choose from Hertz, Avis, National, Alamo, or Budget. Check ahead of time, as some agencies will not rent one way to specific destinations if there are already too many cars headed there (probably not a problem any more in this economy ). Surprisingly, Hertz and Avis (the largest) often have the best rates. The others will beat you to death trying to sell you extras.

Choose your car size based more on your luggage than the number of people. Hertz and Avis web sites indicate how many pieces of luggage can reasonably be stowed in each type of car.

I suggest this approach: Go to the web site of a few agencies and put in your arrival date, destination city, etc and they will show you the exact available rates. Then you can choose for yourself.

http://www.hertz.com/rentacar/reserv...OnHomepage.jsp

http://www.avis.com/car-rental/avisHome/home.ac

http://www.nationalcar.com/

HTH

What Bob said, especially for the one-way rates. Each company may have different surplus situations at one end or the other, and thus different rates each way. Your objective may be more favorable for at least one of them.

Cheers,
Joe

Make sure you check the vehicle for damage before you take it out.
I was given the choice of a number of vehicles (keys in the ignition, take what you want) one was damaged.
If you havn't driven there, it takes a little bit to get used to the other side of the road and the camber going the other way. My daughter tells a great story about my first attempt.
I wouldn't take on New York.
Mal

Thanks guys.

This is a bit like playing hopscotch.......in a minefield. the killer is in the fineprint. It's also in the 'one way trip' fee, which is up to US$600.

There can be lots of traps, one is some companies will not let you travel more than two states away from where you start. So you can go into the next state but if you go to the one after you are not covered by insurance.

I would think the cost of hiring two cars to travel such a distance and then drop off would be excessive. I have travelled widely in the States and always try to arrange my drives so I can do a circle and return to the point of hire. Don't know what your plan is but if you havn't locked yourself into doing the one way drive looking at alternatives. such as driving part way then catching train plane or bus. and then hiring again.

What may also be worth a look is buying outright a vehicle or vehicles and then selling them when you are finished. Cars are really cheap, and you can get late cars which cost little and would not suffer greatly from loss of value by driving them just a few thousand miles and then selling them again. If you add up 11 days hire plus drop off fee plus insurance etc you could afford a bit of a loss and be way in front. If you have friends in the States thay may be able to help you by buying the insurance rather than you trying to get your own as some states require you to be a resident to insure.

You may also be able to find people who will pay you to drive their car from one place to another.

Have a look at some of the vans, although luggage might be a problem. I've used Hertz and found them OK, the buy a vehicle option is not one I'd consider, much of the hire cost is insurance. If you want to fully insure an older vehicle for all the possibilities I doubt you'd come out in front.

I an aware that you can buy a bomb, drive it around and just leave it at the airport. The authorities wont like you, and you would be a public menace, but it works for those that think the world owes them something.