Car Rental Suggestions?

[srl506]

I'm planning a trip for February and need to rent a car from wednesday night til noon on saturday. Does anybody have suggestions or websites to find the best deal? I've been doing research, but I'm still struggling. Also, do I have to pay for insurance? Thanks for your replies!

 

[toesmom]

I'm planning a trip for February and need to rent a car from wednesday night til noon on saturday. Does anybody have suggestions or websites to find the best deal? I've been doing research, but I'm still struggling. Also, do I have to pay for insurance? Thanks for your replies!

try priceline.com

 

[carrie6466]

I just wanted to say don't use Payless. We had nothing but trouble with them. We always rent from the in Las Vegas, so we figured to give them a try in Orlando. We got a Huyndai Santa Fe. By the second day the liftgate in the back had stopped working. We couldn't get anything in or out of the car unless we put it through the back seats. I called them repeatedly. Their solution after 2 days was for us to return it (near the airport) and they'd give us another. DH took a few hours one night to do this. Upon arriving he was asked if he'd put gas in. He replied no, because he's trading it for one that works properly, not returning it. They then tried to charge him 3.99/gal for gas, at which point he left, got gas and came back a second time. After an hour's worth of back and forth arguing, the original woman I spoke to came back from her break and told the argumentative employee that she knew all about this and handled it. She told DH we could return the car with 1/4 tank, even though it had 3/4 at the time, to make up for him having to go to the gas station.

 

[firsttimer2007]

I'm planning a trip for February and need to rent a car from wednesday night til noon on saturday. Does anybody have suggestions or websites to find the best deal? I've been doing research, but I'm still struggling. Also, do I have to pay for insurance? Thanks for your replies!

We just got back from a trip where we rented a Hertz car from priceline. Had a great experance and named our own price to boot.

 

[j2huns]

Try carrentals.com for comparision between companies to see the lowest quote then bid less on priceline.

Our auto insurance policy covers car rentals. We never pay for additional insurance through the car rental agency. Be sure to bring back the car with a full tank.

 

[Darcy03231]

www.mousesavers.com has a rental car page with discount codes. If you rent using a credit card many companies offer free insurance on rental cars.

 

[StampMom]

You may want to post over on the Transportation board for more responses. Priceline definitely seems like the way to go, at least for certain dates. What I did was to "shop around" for the best deal I could find online and then book it -- they don't charge your card until you check in. My trip isn't until December, so I just plan to keep checking (and trying a low bid at Priceline) every so often to see if I can get a better deal. If I do, I'll just cancel the current reservation, but if I don't, at least I have that as "insurance" in case rates go up.

If you have AAA, the best deal I found was from Dollar, with the AAA discount.

As for the insurance question, you may want to double check with your car insurance carrier, but my understanding is that most people are already covered under their own policies and do not need to purchase the additional insurance through the rental company. I think that extra insurance is pretty much a racket.

(Edited to add that Priceline DOES charge your card immediately if it accepts your bid, and it's non-refundable. So you should shop around to find the lowest non-Priceline price to use as your "backup" reservation, and then see if you can do better than that on Priceline.)

 

[JimboJones123]

Vote 2 for mousesavers codes. I use these codes for ALL my rentals. The extra driver bonus on some is AWESOME!

 

[limace]

Hotwire.com-like priceline, but you know the price up front, just not the company. We just got a midsize through Budget for next week in Anaheim for less than $20 a day.

Don't get the insurance if you have your own car insurance-and check w/your credit card-they may insure you, too. Don't let them sell you anything else, either, like having you "prepay" for gas. It's a ripoff and can easily double the cost of your rental, if you add all the extras together.

 

[HeatherFeather]

Also used priceline for Anaheim. Got a full size from Hertz for $16 a day.

 

[all4fun]

I'm planning a trip for February and need to rent a car from wednesday night til noon on saturday. Does anybody have suggestions or websites to find the best deal? I've been doing research, but I'm still struggling. Also, do I have to pay for insurance? Thanks for your replies!

We sometimes get good tips from mousesavers.com

http://www.mousesavers.com/rentalcar.html

I agree w/not renting from Payless in Orlando. We also did not have a good experience w/them.

 

[srl506]

Thanks for all your suggestions! I did call my insurance and I am covered!!! SWEET! Thank you, thank you! Too bad I didn't know that in May when I rented from Alamo! They didn't mention that to me either, shocker! But I know now and it'll never happen again!

 

[lg3]

Do you have an Entertainment Book? They have a lot of coupons in there for car rentals. We got a better deal that way than some other discounts.