Cheap USA car hire - any ideas?

skr80ab

AllStatesCarHire.com was the cheapest for me for this October... they all vary prices often it seems!

Baz-Bee

skr80ab wrote:

AllStatesCarHire.com was the cheapest for me for this October... they all vary prices often it seems!

I have just done a quick comparisson of http://www.allstatescarhire.com/ v http://carhire.airline-network.co.uk/carhire/car.asp v http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/

For 10 July 2005 to 29 July 2005 all inclusive rates picking and dropping off in Las Vegas at airport for 7 seat mini van (Grand Voyager or similar) allstates quote £585, whereas Airline Network quote £462, which incs their Platinum upgrade of all drivers over 25 and a full tank of gas; and Holiday autos quote £797.60 on phone or £616.40 if booked on line!

Just an example of the price differences you can get!!! This was purely an example, but is illustartive of what I said above. You need to shop around and do a good bit of surfing before you book. The only consistent thing I have ever found is that Holiday Autos is never the most competitive!!!

Justin_Scotland

I hired a 4x4 for two weeks over the winter and checking hertz etc avis etc all came out at about $1200 for two weeks without CDW insurance. However using http://www.priceline.com and putting in a fake zip code when booking got me a great rate of $600 for two weeks. For insurance as I travel a lot to the US I purchased a CDW policy from http://www.insurance4carhire.com this covers all my car hire for the next year.

I am booking a car for a month when I go back in September and plan to do the same process of booking through priceline. I still pass all my UK postal address details but put in 77777 or something similar for the ZIP code. The rental company were fine as they still have my credit card details for reservations.

The price I ended up paying was as cheap as using the best discount codes on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=392

good luck.

Justin

Justin_Scotland

Just done a quick check for two weeks with midsize car and best prices look around £210 for two weeks in mid size + additional insurance cover. However good thing with priceline is you also see all the other car sizes and deals being offered by other companys and for same period you can get an SUV (4x4) for £202 for two weeks again + insurance. This was for two weeks from San Francisco airport pickup.


The £99 car hire cover for 1 year covers all additional drivers of the rental vehicle

Info from link I posted earlier -
Take out annual Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) before you travel and avoid costly insurance charges of as much as US $30 per day, sold at the car rental counter.

• Covers the rented vehicle for Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Loss Damage Waiver (LDW) up to US$ 80,000
• Supplemental Liability Insurance (SLI) up to US $1 million
• Lock-out provision to cover up to US $60.00 for a locksmith
• Covers all additional drivers named on car rental agreement

Conditions Applicable
• Not valid for USA and Canadian residents
• Not valid for exotic cars (above US $80,000 value) or antique vehicles more than 20 years old
• Not valid for commercial vehicles, camper vans, mobile homes or vans with more than 8 seats
• Restricted to those aged between 21 and 74 years old
• Rental limited to 31 continuous days on any one rental

Cardew

Justin,
I have had that insurance for quite a while and it is excellent.(it is now £103.80 as they charge the tax) If you have a NatWest credit card you can get the same policy for £75 if you pay for car using their card. The same firm does a cheaper policy for Europe.

You can actually find some UK firms will hire you cars without insurance and that can be even cheaper than getting them in the States.

A word of warning. If you attempt to use this policy on a fly/drive package the operators will throw every obstacle in your way. (they make huge profit from selling you their own compulsory car insurance)

Dollar and Alamo have sometimes refused to accept the policy for Fly/Drives although it is a legal policy in the USA.

jonnibgood

I have found the cheapest car hire for a 2 week one way rental to be joint between airlinenetwork.com (using Dollar) and cheapestflights.com (using Dollar/Alamo), competitive prices included extra driver, all insurance and no one-way rental charges.

I'll let you know if they're true to their word once I return!

MDUK

how were they, i used alamo for one leg and yes care hire ( a reccomendation from here) and was very pleased

photome

I have just booked a one way hire from LA to Vegas with https://www.yescarhire.com which was a recomondation from here

I have a 7 seater for 14 days with no one way charge for £320 all in,which was £60 less than I could find it anywhere else.

Hope this helps

ps it is for March next year

jnd

Here's another recommendation for you to check out http://www.usrentacar.co.uk/