Car hire help!

[california37]

Hi folks! I am hoping you can help us!

We are traveling to the magic next month and we are trying to find and book our car. Problem is for the last few years my father in law booked the cars so I've no idea what's a good price and I'm looking at the car hire sites and I'm getting confused between the different car types-some call them mid-size, intermediate, standard.... They offer a 'type' of car for comparison but these tend to conflict between companies for example some say a RAV4 is standard whilst another classes it as intermediate.... So we're left confused

Basically we like to hire from Alamo as we like to head over to the garage and be able to choose the car from the ones available.... We know Alamo does this. We once, a few years back, rented through dollar and we were given a car which was frankly rubbish and th electrics cut out after 3 days so we had to swap the car (!) didn't like that and prefer to choose (and I'll wait until a car I want comes into the garage!!

Last year we rented a VW TOREG (spelling!) and its this size of car we want again. (So similar for us would be a grand Cherokee?!) We thought this was 'standard' but as above, we thought a RAV4 would be a class less than this...

Looking at Alamo Brits site for our dates (19th aug till 5th sept) were quoted £458 for a 'Hyundai Santa Fe or equivalent.... Is this the class of car we need?

We need an additional driver added for both me and DH to be able to drive out there...

We like and are used to SUV's - there is me, DH, dd5 and dd20 month- we will have 3 medium suitcases, 1 small, 1 pushchair, 2 trunkis and additional stuff!!

So my question is-is this the right class of car for us? Is it a good price or would it get a bit less the closer to our dates we get?!?

I'm confused

Please help!!

 

[wayneg]

Rav4 is intermediate SUV(Shouldn't be offered as Std), you will be wanting Std SUV.

Will try get time to look at prices tomorrow.

 

[wayneg]

Also Dollar now give you choice of cars same as Alamo.

 

[wayneg]

Virgin Holidays/Alamo just slightly cheaper at £448.82

Or if you use Quidco, eBookers/Alamo pay 6% cashback.
Std SUV = £461.38 less 6% = £433.70
Personally I would go for the 7 seater Chevy Tahoe full size SUV at £509.46 less 6% = £478.90 only £45 more

 

[california37]

Thanks muchly wayneg! We booked the standard suv but will look into the upgrade as we are meeting friends out there so it might be good to have a bigger car to travel around together....

Thanks again-much appreciated!!

 

[chmurf]

We booked the standard suv but will look into the upgrade

if you go for the upgrade, do it here, not at the desk in Florida, it would cost you more.
so if you don't have cancellation fees and wish to upgrade, then cancel and rebook.

 

[wayneg]

if you go for the upgrade, do it here, not at the desk in Florida, it would cost you more.
so if you don't have cancellation fees and wish to upgrade, then cancel and rebook.

Totally agree.
I have never upgraded at the desk but Alamo at Tama airport once tried the hard sell so I went along with no intentions to buy but see how low he would go. He started at about $50/day. I refused, the agent then tapped a few keys and said "wow its offering an amazing deal, best I have ever seen on this class, $18/day" again I declined I said I would take the car I booked.
I would guess the $18/day is plus tax? certainly not a cheap way when you can do it here for about £3/day.

 

[Jon84]

Us Rent a Car is a really good site to compare the prices. I use them along with the Dollar Express to go direct to garage and drive out