1 way car rental from west coast to east across USA

BlueVinney

I'm planning an 11 day coast to coast drive (from Seattle to New York City) in late August/early September. Previous one way rental between different states have only attracted a small additional charge. This time the drop-off fees for all the main rental firms are larger than the actual cost for rental.

As an example Avis rental total for a mid-sized car with unlimited mileage is about $400 but the drop off fee is around is about $1100.

I'd appreciate any help in locating a rental company which will be more economical or any rental strategy (or discount codes, etc) which will help reduce the cost.

Thanks for any help.

blindman

BlueVinney wrote: »

I'm planning an 11 day coast to coast drive (from Seattle to New York City) in late August/early September. Previous one way rental between different states have only attracted a small additional charge. This time the drop-off fees for all the main rental firms are larger than the actual cost for rental.

As an example Avis rental total for a mid-sized car with unlimited mileage is about $400 but the drop off fee is around is about $1100.

I'd appreciate any help in locating a rental company which will be more economical or any rental strategy (or discount codes, etc) which will help reduce the cost.

Thanks for any help.

Murphy_The_Cat always advocates National rental

jackieblack

I think National may have changed their policy since Murphy started that thread.
I've just got a quote and they'll charge a few cents under $400 one way fee between the two points I was looking at, plus an additional fee to recover the vehicle back to the pick up location

Murphy_The_Cat

jackieblack wrote: »

I think National may have changed their policy since Murphy started that thread.
I've just got a quote and they'll charge a few cents under $400 one way fee between the two points I was looking at, plus an additional fee to recover the vehicle back to the pick up location

Blimey, you lot have a good memory :beer:
This section on USRentacar is quite handy as a reference tool.
Seattle to NYC with National has a $400 one way charge (cheapest of the ones that were on offer), which will end up a lot more than $400 when the multiple inventive taxes have been added ! Thrifty wanted a cringeworthy $750 (+ inventive taxes). But none of them mentioned a additional fee for recovery to the pick up location.

Alan_Bowen

One way charges are only low if you remain in the state of rental or on the west coast between California, Nevada and Arizona. Everyone is going charge a huge fee between west and east coasts as they will have to return the car to the original state of registration. 11 days is not that long a trip unless you want to spend 50% of your time on the road, in which case you will see very little in between. Either spend longer to make the costs worth while or review your plans

Murphy_The_Cat

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

One way charges are only low if you remain in the state of rental or on the west coast between California, Nevada and Arizona. Everyone is going charge a huge fee between west and east coasts as they will have to return the car to the original state of registration. 11 days is not that long a trip unless you want to spend 50% of your time on the road, in which case you will see very little in between. Either spend longer to make the costs worth while or review your plans

I've never heard of that before Alan, you learn something every day.
Seattle - NYC comes out at just shy of 2900 miles, by the most direct route, over 11 days is a horrible prospect unless a) you were being paid to do it or b) you've a massochistic tendency.
The one way charges just make you feel even worse

EssexExile

I don't understand the "return to original state" fee. I go in their parking lots & there are cars from all over the place, they don't seem in any hurry to get them back from whence they came.

blindman

Alan_Bowen wrote: »

One way charges are only low if you remain in the state of rental or on the west coast between California, Nevada and Arizona. Everyone is going charge a huge fee between west and east coasts as they will have to return the car to the original state of registration. 11 days is not that long a trip unless you want to spend 50% of your time on the road, in which case you will see very little in between. Either spend longer to make the costs worth while or review your plans

In those circumstances tere is NO one way fee.;)

There is Autodriveaway which pay you to drive one way. Though you have to be flexible.

I did think that 11 days to go coast to coast was mad TBHO.

BlueVinney

Thanks to everyone who has replied already. Originally had almost 4 weeks for the trip but unavoidably reduced to 11 days. Almost 2 years of my life has been spent travelling to, from and in the US so appreciate the cons of such a trip.

We'd already been exploring using air or even Amtrak for part of the journey, reinforced by the earlier comments. However, will still need an economic car rental solution for the one-way, out-of-state road trip portion.

Any more suggestions will be grateful received.

Backbiter

I tend to fly between cities on my travels in the US but have done several road trips: Nevada - Arizona - Calfornia, Florida - Georgia, Florida- the Keys, Seattle - Vancouver - Victoria, Atlanta - Nashville - Memphis - Destin - New Orleans.. We've avoided the dreaded one-way fees on most of them, but they were unavoidable on the last one.
The fees quoted varied massively, with National seeming to be the most expensive by a distance. We hired a car from Atlanta to Memphis and were charged $160 drop-off fee with US rentacar - easily the cheapest we could find (car was with Dollar).
From Pensacola airport we used a company called Affordable car Hire, who gave a great all inclusive price with Hertz (much cheaper than Hertz were quoting), with a one way fee of $50 'to be paid locally', but they've never taken the fee from our card.
So it pays to explore all suppliers, and you'll notice huge variations, but the rental agencies seem to undercut the individual car hire firms.

danandjens_worldtravels

If there is a smaller fee between neighbouring or nearby states can you string together a series of rentals rather than keeping the one vehicle?

Also Google relocating cars/campers as the vehicles have to be returned, the companies need someone to do it. I've relocated in the USA for $1 a day, 18 days Iowa to LA. It happens around April and May each year with Apollo.