Rental car - how far can you drive it?

[bgula]

I know that most rental car agreements have unlimited mileage in their contracts, but what if you wanted to drive a rental car from say Buffalo to Orlando over 2 days? Would they just charge you for the 2-day rental, or is there a special provision for something like this?

 

[DebbieB]

Do you mean a one way rental? Just return the car when you get to FL? Some have a dropoff charge.

 

[bgula]

Yes, that's what I was referring getting at - a one-way deal.

 

[seashoreCM]

Even if you were to drive the car back, there are usually some surcharges for going out of a specified (geographic) area.

Most one way rentals involve a dropoff charge roughly equal to what it takes to get the car back to the original rental agency.

Keep checking back. Special deals with no dropoff charge come and go, for example you might find an agency with a car that needs to go back to the agency at your destination.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, when I accidentally mixed up my two trips (Disney and Las Vegas), the rental rate increased by, um, about $1,300 dollars.

 

[Epcot4Me]

As long as you put in your drop off location as Orlando and it says unlimited miles, there should be no extra charge. I rented a car on vacation in San Francisco for 6 days, dropping the car off in Phoenix and the total cost was 270 bucks for an intermediate. No extra charge for miles, no one even questioned the mileage (and we had put a LOT on). This was through National.

I will say I used to rent for work maybe once a week always through Enterprise and there I know I was only allowed to travel within New England. But this could have been something to do with the government rate and not with normal rentals.

 

[kaytieeldr]

There actually probably will be an extra charge for a one-way out of state rental. Renters who can time their trips 'right' - south in the fall, north in the spring - may, as seashoreCM indicates, be able to get a deal. Those are the times that the rental agencies will want to move cars, semi-permanently, to the more popular locations.

 

[francie57]

Check to make sure that the agency you want to rent from is still offering unlimited mileage. Many of the rental agencies have started giving a mileage limit of 1,000 and then you will pay for anything over that. Saw that on a few of the FL rental sites and know someone who rented in Georgia and they had a limit also. Guess it must be a way for rental agencies to make some more money!!