Car hire in the U.S

Wormwood_Scrubs

I will be in New Jersey for a fortnight soon and I am looking at renting a car for the duration of the trip. (it will cost a fair bit, i know)

My queries are for people who have rented on their U.S visits....

Any favourable companies? Is paying the excess damage waivers and loss damage waivers etc worthwile in your opinion?

Any other help/tips will be great.

Thanks.

Benny24

Try https://www.usacarhire.so.uk I have use their sister company floridacarhire before with no porblems. Very reasonable, and go for the gold option, where you get the free tank of petrol and unlimited drivers over 25.
It is fully insured, never think of anything else in the US, not worth it! and by paying the petrol first it's cheaper than last. It's only about an extra £17 anyway!

And finally depending on how many of you there are, always go for the smallest car. We always book the two door economy, they never have any of them, which American drives a "small economy"? SO...they usually ask/show you when you collect the car a picture of what you are getting, and ask if you want to upgrade for such and such amount, ALWAYS SAY NO!!! You are happy with what you've got......BECAUSE you'll always find they don't have the car you want (small economy) and they are obliged to give you the next the upgrade WITHOUT payment!!

Works every time!!

UnitedFlyer

https://www.airlinenetwork.co.uk has always come out the cheapest for me.

LDW/CDW/UMP, make sure that the insurance covers ALL!! Are they worth it it?
Well, think of it this way?
Are they expensive? If you think so, think how expensive a crash would be if you ain't got them!!

Murphy_The_Cat

I've used both of the above companies and for differing parts of America they are VERY competitive.

I am going to offer differing advice to Benny24 and suggest that you hire the biggest & most luxurious car that you can get (not a SUV or minivan though).

It costs comparatively little over a standard car and having a V8 rumble under your right foot is always a pleasant thing to have..

If you do go for the Platinum option (for about £17 ish), a luxury car will have about a 20 gal tank so you're already on the good side. Just make sure it goes back empty.

As for the insurance, its DEFINITELY worth it.

MTC

wdyw

We go down the Benny line and choose the smallest (or next smallest) option possible (we generally always use Dollar and insurance for some reason comes out a lot cheaper for a slightly bigger car a lot of the time), and never fail to end up with a 2-3 grade upgrade. Really depends on the size of your party though. theres always just the two of use so a mid size (which is generally what we end up with) is fine. If there are 4 of you, use the MTC method.

In the USA - always take out LDW, SLI or whatever they call it nowadays!

The_Saving_Man

Just come back from Florida with my family and hired a mid-size car through Airline Network, who use Dollar. Echo everything that has been said. Take the full package, as the petrol pays for it on it's own and then you've always got the option of registering additional drivers when you pick up the car. I was lucky enough to get an upgrade to a full size automatically, which was nice, but pick the car for how many are traveling and where you are going, i.e. less people, smaller car. That said if i'm in Florida again on my own, i might treat myself to something sporty or maybe an open-top!

Wormwood_Scrubs

Thanks a lot everyone for your help. The airlinenetwork site produced a very good price with the price seeming to cover the general insurances as well. Was that the case with you The Saving Man?? or did you pay any other waivers??

I do understand though that I will have to pay $20 plus tax per day as I am under the age of 25 which is fine. There will be two of us so we arent really looking for a major upgrade.

Thanks again for your help everyone it is very appreciated.

melancholly

it looks like usrentacar doesn't do new jersey but does do new york - guess it depends where you're flying to because if it's jfk or la guardia they can do there.

i used it last year as it was the only place i could find where they didn't charge anything extra for under 25s. went with dollar (via usrentacar) and got a second driver free. had the car hit in a car park and the standard cover from them included all insurance - had to fill out some forms at the airport but they were fine about it (tbh, i think anyone you use from the uk will include all the necessary insurance)

mclaren_2

Wormwood_Scrubs wrote:

I do understand though that I will have to pay $20 plus tax per day as I am under the age of 25 which is fine

no - you wont get a car under the age of 25 for rental in the us atall as far as i know

completely_lost

mclaren wrote:

no - you wont get a car under the age of 25 for rental in the us atall as far as i know

No my friend and I went last month and hired a car in LA. She was 21 and I am 22. We used dollar rent a car but had to pay around $20-$25 dollars a day for being under 25. We booked through airline network.

Wormwood_Scrubs

completely_lost wrote:

No my friend and I went last month and hired a car in LA. She was 21 and I am 22. We used dollar rent a car but had to pay around $20-$25 dollars a day for being under 25. We booked through airline network.

Did you pay any other waivers, or just what was required on the online booking screen?

I'm probably going to use airline network