Car Hire - Confused!

monty100

Hi there.
Am planning family holiday to USA this summer. We want to hire a car from Las Vegas - Grand Canyon - San Diego - Los Angeles. I have been checking out various recommended sites - Car3000 etc, but need one of you to give me the DEFINITIVE LIST of what cover I need to include when booking!

Different companies seem to call insurances different things, or don't mention some. I want to be able to say to the person at the hire desk in Las Vegas 'No Thanks, we're covered' with total confidence when they say I need to pay for 'this vital insurance'.
Many thanks in advance:T

Nordictat2

I'm using carhire3000 in May for our trip to PHilly and I was a bit unsure too about the insurance but i spoke to them and they said :

"Included in the rental is unlimited mileage, collision damage waiver(LDW,CDW), theft protection(UMP) and third party liability(SLI) all with no excess. All airport fees and locale sales and state taxes are also included together with all additional drivers aged 25 and over and the first tank of fuel.
The only insurance not included is your personal accident insurance, but if you have a travel insurance, that would normally go in and cover you."


Because I went for the prem. package I got the extra driver and tank of fuel...(that's why they mentioned that in their reply)

Hope that helps

jayne26

hi i go with autoeurope car hire everytime , i pay aproxx 220 all in for two weeks fully comp , for me as named driver and 3 additional drivers so that covers hubby , its called gold cover i think you also get a tank of gas and bring it back empty . i have been going for 20 years and find this is the best company for me, when you arrive at say las vegas and hand in your paperwork , they dont seem to try and hassel you for extras or upgrades , i just smile when they say ,,,,oh you have booked the smallest car.... and point to a fiat punto on a a picture card... i say " WE HAVE ONE OFF THOSE AT HOME ,,,, BRILL" when we get out to the car lot its always a fab car with all the bangs and whisles air con electric windows and four door and ample boot size. they cant make you buy any extras and i find these people dont push or intimidiate have fun on your hols , in san dieago go into tijuana its bonkers and check out corinado ,

Murphy_The_Cat

Here's an important one for you - make sure that whoever you hire the car from, doesn't spank you for a one way drop off fee because your taking the car out of State.
The fee can be horrendous.
I'm doing a Nevada-Arizona-California trip and after quite a bit of searching, I found a company that won't spank me for one way hire, has me fully insured and will take a deposit for the car now, with the rest to follow 8 weeks before we go -- would you like the details ?

eslick

Hi try fifteen02.com, they have 2 type of cover, most companies do the only difference between the two types of cover are one has a free tank of fuel and multiple drivers and the others dont. They cover all of the rental companies and at the moment Budget (dont think of it as the cheap alternative) offer free upgrades.

You want all of the insurance and taxes before in your booking.

We have used many of this type of websites before and havent had the aggressive upgrade tactics since we booked with a tour operator many years ago.

Dont look at the cars in the pictures, you seldom dont get those, choose by amount of passengers and luggage you need and the journey you are on, you dont want a small car if you are doing lots of miles. Last trip (through fifteen02 and Budget) we had ordered a full size got a free upgrade to a premium and then got offered an SUV, 4x4 because of the luggage and the kids, went to put the luggage in and it wasnt big enough went back in to the rental desk and they gave us a bigger model with no questions asked and the car even came with a DVD player to keep the kids happy.

We normally do at least a thousand miles, and always go for a mid size or larger just for the comfort.

Hope this helps.

monkeyspanner

As suggested by Nordictat2 try one of the agents.
I have used this holidayautos link successfully several times for USA and Canada.

http://www.holidayautos.co.uk/cgi-bin/liveweb.sh/QSearch.w?ctryref=GBR&lang=EN&aff=xOneAccount

The link will get you about 15% off the prices you get by just going onto their site. If you have a quidco account (easy to open if you haven't) you can also get £10 back for each booking by opening this link after you log into quidco and select holidayautos. Take the upgrade to extra driver and tank of petrol and cosider the excess waiver upgrade.

Alternatively you can get separate insurance for USA with www.insuranceforcarhire.com which will cover you for all your insurance needs and you can use this for flydrive or direct car hire company bookings. Cost is £109 for 31days or £129 for 31days including excess cover.

One way car hire in California will be free with some sites but not others and may be listed as a local charge.

For a more personal service you could try trailfinders who will talk you through the details.