Renting a Car

Kyougu

So later this month, me and two other friends are planning to drive up to Dallas, and then to Austin, for just a week of fun and sightseeing. Problem is that with one friend having taken his car to Vegas on spring break and not wanting to put more miles in it, my car being a POS and my other friend having a two seater, we find that we need to rent a car. None of us have ever done it, so I'm looking for some help.

We are all 25.
We all have texas driver licenses.
We all have insurance.

What's the best places to rent cars? Best car to get for 4 average size guys?(We are picking up my brother at Dallas). Any tips, etc, that would make the process easier?

Thanatos

I highly recommend buying their supplemental insurance, so that if anything happens, you don't have to worry about shit.

Newton

Thanatos wrote: »

I highly recommend buying their supplemental insurance, so that if anything happens, you don't have to worry about shit.

Don't some insurance carriers cover you if you are in a rental car? Is that the same amount of coverage as if it was your own car? If any of you have comprehensive auto insurance already, check with them and see if they extend coverage to a rental car.

I'm going to be renting a car next month, and I've been looking around at prices. From what I can see, stay the hell away from Hertz. They were quoting twice as much as any other place. Something like $230 for a weekend. Enterprise, Dollar and Budget all had much better rates and offered unlimited miles.

For the type of car, I would probably go with a full size, or maybe even a sport utility or minivan if you don't mind paying more and have a lot of stuff.

Feral

I disagree with Thanatos about the supplemental insurance (usually called a loss damage waiver), but that's because I have good car insurance already. If you do go with the LDW, remember you're paying $10 a day for your piece of mind, not for any serious mitigation of risk.

Anyway, regarding the actual rental, you usually want to rent the smallest car you can get away with. Three guys and a week's worth of luggage? You could probably get away with a basic sedan (Stratus, Taurus, etc.) unless you're bring sports equipment or a tent or something. If you're lucky you might get a free upgrade if the place you rent from doesn't have the car you chose in-stock.

Don't bother with their GPS systems, they're usually pretty dodgy and overpriced.

Fill up the tank to whatever it was at before you bring it back in, it'll save you their "service fee" of $4/gallon or whatever they're raping people with these days.

Shop around. Your big national chains are Enterprise, Hertz, National, Avis, Budget, and Dollar. I tend to like Hertz and National, personally. Enterprise is typically more expensive and I've had problems with their customer service for years (they think I owe them $150 even though they've supposedly "cleared my account" of the mistake three times.) The others aren't bad from what I've heard, I just don't rent there because they have fewer locations in my area and aren't any cheaper.