Anyone used Turo in the US?

Dentoned

I've been reccomended Turo (a peer to peer car hire service like Airbnb) for an upcoming trip to the US by a friend. Has anyone used it? It's looking dramatically cheaper than than car hire companies... can't find much online of uk citizens hiring in the us.

mmouse

Your post is old but the topic is still relevant to many. 

I have used Turo before - they are a valuable attempt to disrupt the stale, horrible car rental industry - rather like AirBnB.

HOWEVER.....
There are significant problems with renting from Turo in the US, as a non-US person.  If you rent certain cars they will no longer offer their "premium" level insurance.   Their standard level has a $250 excess for collisions, which is ok, but for liability they only provide the state mandated minimum which is $15k in California for example.

This means that you could pick up a car in California and essentially be self-insuring $1m of risk.

Turo do this because most US drivers have personal insurance which provides primary cover.  This isn't the case for international drivers.

Next, we get a problem when we try to buy cover in the UK.  Many, perhaps most, of the companies who sell annual car hire policies EXCLUDE the peer-to-peer platforms like Turo, Getaround, etc.  It is very hard to find out whether they cover these platforms or not - you have to wade into the detail of the policy and even then it is unclear.   Several have told me that they don't cover Turo because the fleet is not owned by the company (and therefore it does not meet their definition of "car rental").

This is an area where the regulators need to catch up, quickly.  Travellers are buying policies without knowing that they may in fact not be covered.

There is one company who does cover peer-to-peer platforms, rentalcover, but they don't offer an annual policy and they also don't offer supplementary liability insurance which is the core problem here.

jamesbrownontheroad

This recent article on The Autopian might help - since it explains how (even for a US resident with a US drivers license) it is not always straight forward to pick up your car.

https://www.theautopian.com/renting-a-car-from-turo-was-somehow-more-convoluted-than-picking-up-a-car-from-the-airport/

From my point of view, I always stick with national/international rental chains in the USA, because while it is expensive, the cars and the backup (in case of problems) is more consistent. Also, I tend to arrive in the USA very tired from a long flight, and I just want to walk out to the rental lot, pick out the car I want (usually possible from airport locations of big chains) and go.

WT70

I've used Turo in France and had a really positive experience. The car was basic (which was all I needed) - and the owner was really nice and helpful. I'll definitely use it again.