Author Topic: Best Place to rent a car  (Read 3028 times)

Hardehout

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Best Place to rent a car
« on: May 26, 2015, 01:06:27 PM »
We will be flying in from South Africa and visiting friends in Detroit and Sarnia Canada from mid july to august. We are a family of four - two small kids.

I have been looking at all the traditional (Avis etc) car rental options but the cost of the rentals is almost equal to that of the plane tickets.

These alternatives do have drawbacks due to not operating in the areas we will be visiting.
http://wayfarer.lifehacker.com/the-best-alternatives-to-traditional-car-rentals-1640639954

Are there any other alternatives?

Thanks

SK Joyous

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2015, 01:49:47 PM »
Hi Hardehout - although this link is to mousesavers (used for disney discounts etc) I use their codes and tips anytime I rent a car anywhere in North America.  I always end up with really reasonable rates due to stacking discount codes, etc.  Also, keep in mind that you can book a rental car without giving a deposit or credit card, so if you come across a better deal later/somewhere else, you can just cancel the old one without penalty (generally the best deals are found a couple of months in advance).  One general tip is that renting from airports is always more expensive than renting from other locations, as there is always a premium for having a captive audience at the airport (of course, weigh the cost of taking a cab to a different car rental place for example). A quick search is showing me rates for an economy car of $170 per week or so in July in a non-airport Detroit location.  Good luck!

http://www.mousesavers.com/transportation-for-disney-vacations/rental-car-discounts/

daverobev

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2015, 02:08:56 PM »
How many days are you looking to rent? Shouldn't be more than $15-20 a day.

RangerOne

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #3 on: May 26, 2015, 04:17:27 PM »
Also make sure you aren't paying for extra rental insurance if you don't have to since that dramatically increases the cost of renting.

Many credit cards and or your actual car insurance insure damage to a rental vehicle. Double check with both to see if they cover you.

All large rental car agency will carry costs similar to Avis though some may be a bit cheaper.

If you will be staying in the US for more than 2 weeks you should try to see if you can find a locally run shop which rents out vehicles. The cars they rent may be older and be really high mileage but many times they will have dirt cheap rental rates for people who need a car for a long time.

Returnoftheyeti

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2015, 06:45:40 PM »
Detroit is stupid expensive for rental cars. Check out AutoSlash. Also, I get good deals by using my Capital One Credit Card travel portal.

forummm

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2015, 07:03:02 PM »
I generally find Enterprise to be the cheapest of any of the major companies.

Another trick is to not rent from the airport location. Find one near the airport and check out the price. It's usually about half of the airport location. You can just take a taxi from the airport to the off-site rental car location (and back after you drop off). I've saved hundreds of dollars doing this.

GlobeTrttr

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Re: Best Place to rent a car
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2015, 10:05:05 AM »
Check Kayak.com and reserve whatever is cheapest and most reasonable for your rental period.  You can cancel at any time if you find better rates.

Sometimes car rental companies drop the rates 1-2 weeks before rental, which you can re-book and lock in lower rates.  Also, I've found deals for $10-15 per day on Hotwire.com, but you pre-pay the rental and can't cancel.  But if you find a car for that cheap, you've already gotten the lowest rate, most likely.