Anyone ever rent a vehicle for the long drive?

[Zippa D Doodah]

Since our last trip we traded in our van, and now are looking at a 10hour drive in our 4-door Saturn SL-2. With me, DW, DD7, and DS4 it is doable but not the best of plans.

Have you ever rented a van or SUV or something in order to drive it to WDW and back?

Which company might have good rates?

Can I get unlimited miles?

I never have been much of a car renter, so your advice is much appreciated.

 

[manning]

I rent with Hertz only because I like the large car. The Crown Victoria or it's sister car from Mercury.

If you are a member of AAA you will get a discount of 10 %.

If you have Diners Club, use that to rent they offer auto rental insurance at no extra charge and it is primary coverage which means your personal auto insurance isn't involved. I think they are the only credit card that offers primary coverage.

 

[LeftCoaster]

I've never rented a van or SUV to drive to WDW (waaaay too far!) but often rent a van / SUV for long road trips in California.
Check with Mousesavers.com for various codes for the car rental companies. They generally include unlimited mileage on these. Also make sure that there are no interstate restrictions for these rentals. I know when I rent here in SoCal, they usually specify that it is good for California and Nevada only. I have no idea what they do in other states.
My philosophy is to always rent a vehicle for a long road trip. I have a little better piece of mind and I'm not putting that wear and tear on my vehicle.

 

[Uncleromulus]

We now take our own car, but in trips past, we always rented a car from Enterprise for the 940 mile trip.

 

[Mark P.]

Another renter here....

We rented a minivan last March for the 1,000+ drive, and was darn glad we did. It even had a DVD player for the kids.

We also look at is less 'wear and tear' on our primary vehicle.

Have a nice trip

 

[Aimeedyan]

We rented a van for our drive from Texas to Florida last May. Found the best rate through AVIS using a USAA members code. Paid about $300 for 10 days, unlimited mileage on a Ford something or another.

It was fully loaded and got pretty good gas mileage. I compared TONS of rental companies online and found theirs was the best. BTW- I found the rates were MUCH higher at an airport pick up, in comparison to a neighborhood pickup. So check out several diff locations to pick it up at and your prices might change a bit. Drop off points didn't seem to matter, as we dropped ours off at the airport late since the neighborhood stop wasn't open anymore.

 

[bear74]

Originally posted by Aimeedyan
We rented a van for our drive from Texas to Florida last May. Found the best rate through AVIS using a USAA members code. Paid about $300 for 10 days, unlimited mileage on a Ford something or another.

It was fully loaded and got pretty good gas mileage. I compared TONS of rental companies online and found theirs was the best. BTW- I found the rates were MUCH higher at an airport pick up, in comparison to a neighborhood pickup. So check out several diff locations to pick it up at and your prices might change a bit. Drop off points didn't seem to matter, as we dropped ours off at the airport late since the neighborhood stop wasn't open anymore.

How many people and pieces of luggage did you take?

Also where in texas did you drive from?

 

[Aimeedyan]

Originally posted by bear74
How many people and pieces of luggage did you take?

Also where in texas did you drive from?

There were just three adults, though once in Florida we added two more to our party =)

We left from Waco, but picked up the van in Austin, and left going south through Houston. Drove straight through overnight.

We ended up removing 1 captains chair to make room for a cooler and my husbands legs We probably took 3 suitcases and bunch of other junk, like bags of groceries, laptop, etc. Since there were only three, we were able to stick more stuff upfront. They really aren't that big, minivans that is, but it worked.

 

[TowerOfTerrorFreak]

It is an eleven hour drive for my family. We always rent a SUV with unlimited miles. This last time we rented from Budget for 6 days and the total cost was 196.00 (this included all taxes).

 

[SB in KY]

We took 6 teenagers this summer to WDW for a week and rented from Dollar (I had reserved a midsized - since we were taking our minivan and the second car was mostly for luggage), but I had a free upgrade coupon from joining their Fastlane program - free on line) and they upgraded us to a dodge Durango (massive, but a gas guzzler)...it had seating for 8 plus lots of luggage space. In spite of the gas bill it was nice to have all the room so we could split up the girls (6 in one vehicle tended to cause hearing damage for the driver!!)

In the past I have rented from Budget (where in town pick ups and drop offs tend to be much cheaper, although with Dollar they were higher) Alamo and Avis for road trips...a couple of times we have used Priceline also...just shop around and don't be shy when you pick up the vehicle...make sure you get one you like!!