Car Hire for Las Vegas to Santa Barbara Trip

grubby23

Hi all,

We are four people, and we need a car for 8 days in August, pickup would be Las Vegas, Nevada airport whereas we return the car in Santa Barbara, CA. I was thinking of booking at Hertz.co.uk and getting the following car for £240.


Full-Size 2-4 Door Automatic Aircon, FCAR
Chevrolet Impala or similar

• 4-5 Passengers
• 2 Large Suitcases, 1 Medium Suitcase, 2 Small Suitcase
• Air Conditioning
• Dual Airbags
• 25 miles/gallon
• 15 g/km CO2

My question is, if anyone has an estimate how much litres the boot might have of such a car. We might have 4 pieces of medium luggage and 2 pieces of small rucksacks, so we are wondering if we could somehow fit this stuff into the car. If someone has a voucher we could use for booking we would obviously be very thankful.

Many thanks!

Max_1066

Thats a really tough question !! I always find fitting four adults plus their associated luggage into one car is always a challenge. The Impala is a full size car so its pretty large (by UK standards) although don't know what the boot space is like unfortunately.

In the worse case, it its doesn't all fit you could always upgrade to a mini van or something which would provide plenty of room. More cost unfortunately though.

gerrydoyle

You should probably also check that the rate you have been quoted includes the additional cost of returning the car to a different location.

A lot of quotes don't include it and it's often about $250 on top of the hire cost.

cubegame

What dates do you need?

grubby23

gerrydoyle wrote: »

A lot of quotes don't include it and it's often about $250 on top of the hire cost.

Good point, for what do I need to look to make sure that I do not need to pay this additional cost of returning the car? "Free car return included" or something like that?

These things are included:

Total Approximate Charge includes

Airport concession fee recovery

Loss Damage Waiver

Tax and other charges

Liability Insurance Supplement

Vehicle license fee recovery

Customer Facility Charge:

grubby23

cubegame wrote: »

What dates do you need?

pickup: 10.8 08.00am
return: 17.8 9.00pm

8 days in total

grubby23

gerrydoyle wrote: »

A lot of quotes don't include it and it's often about $250 on top of the hire cost.

Good point, for what do I need to look to make sure that I do not need to pay this additional cost of returning the car?

gerrydoyle

I'm afraid there's no way around it as far as I know.

All the hire companies I've checked charge a 'one-way' fee from $250-$300. The only way to avoid it is to return the car to the original pick up point.

cubegame

If you go to Holiday Autos via the one account link (google holiday autos one account) you can get a Chevvy Trailblazer (definitely big enough for 4) for £278. They don't charge a one way fee.

grubby23

Thanks for that link, however, when I try to book the car it tells me the following:

extras payable locally

The following extras are subject to availability. We can guarantee child seats if booked and confirmed at least seven days before the start of your rental period. Although you can book these extras now, you must pay for them when you pick up your hire car. Prices may be subject to change. one way rental charge 250.00 USD


That does not sound too good

cubegame

My bad. When a car comes through Alamo via Holiday Autos there is no one way charge between Nevada and California. It must be throwing up a different supplier at the moment.

My next best suggestion would be Carhire3000. https://www.carhire3000.com

However, instead of using the website phone them on their freephone number. That way they can find you the best deal inclusive of a one way fee. For example, last year we went from Seattle to San Diego. The website showed 480 UKP as the price but there was a $300 one way fee. However on the phone they offered another supplier for 520 UKP with no one way fee.