Rental car advice needed - American cars???

[tinkintraining]

How big is a Chevrolet Tahoe?

The reason I ask is next year we are flying over to Washington and driving down to Florida on a little road trip. We have done is before and loved seeing the country. However, this time my parents are coming and we are struggling to get a rental company to rent us a big enough car as they do not want to let us have a one way hire. There will be 4 adults, 2 children and luggage of 5 average sized suitcases. Is the Tahoe going to be big enough?

Advice please

 

[debster812]

We had to drive from Massachusetts to the Ft Myers area in 2010 due to a massive snow storm all along the east coast. We had 4 adults and 3 average sized 12 year old kids. With a ton of luggage (my cousin is a chronic over-packer) We had 2 adults in the driver & passenger seat. 2 adults and one kid in the middle row. 2 kids and some of the luggage on the last row, with the rest of the luggage crammed in behind the last seat.

We also had some carry ons at our feet.

Our drive took about 29 hours all told, due to the weather. Your drive will be several hours shorter in distance, and you hopefully won't have the bad weather to deal with that we did.

If you can get a Tahoe XL, or even a Suburban, they are a bit longer, and have more storage behind the last row. You could also try for an 8 passenger mini-van, and that should do well for you also.

Good Luck!

Also, slightly OT, DS and I were in your neck of the woods in August '11. We were in England with his soccer team, and spent 4 days at Mottram Hall in Macclesfield, and the boys trained and played a team there as well. Lovely part of the country.

 

[tinkintraining]

Hi. Thanks for your reply and advice. Looks like we are going to be struggling.

 

[disneyag]

Have you looked into a minivan rental?

 

[kristenrice]

Another option would be the Tahoe for the people and a U-Haul trailer for the luggage.

 

[tinkintraining]

No one wants to hire us a minivan on a one way hire

Dont have the first clue on how to hire a uhaul from an airport but it might be worth investigating.

Thanks

 

[Lewisc]

I don't think many (any?) rental agencies let you put a trailer or roof carrier on a rental vehicle.

A PITA but you might see about a one way rental to an intermediate city (Raleigh/Durham?) then another one way rental for the rest, or part, of the trip.

The problem isn't just the luggage. A full size car won't seat 6.

What time of year is your trip? In the fall rental agencies off great one way deals in order to move cars to FL, in the Spring the have great one way deals to customers who want to drive cars out of Florida. That's your best bet.