Choosing a car to hire in the US

[Sheaf]

Well, it's the last thing we need to book up for our holiday in June, but I cant decide what to rent.

I dont want to pay a fortune, but even in my budget there's a fair few cars to choose from, and I cant quite decide.

I can go for something cheap and economical...

Chevrolet Aveo or Cobalt

Some thing a little bigger, what they call a midsize...

Pontiac G6, Chrysler PT Cruiser

A fullsize car....

Dodge Charger

A 'specialty model'...

Mini Cooper

Or a 4x4

Toyota Rav4 or Jeep or something

All these range from about £85 - £130 for the 5 days we want (plus about £75 young drivers surcharge, despite I'll be 25 the following month, grrr).

My preference atm is the Charger, esp if I can get a nice 2dr one. Only downside is the stupid fuel economy (19mpg).

We're going to be going to Yosemite National Park and Lake Tahoe, I'm assuming that a 4x4 wont be needed, but I dont know if more places to see would be available if we had one maybe.


Petrol prices are about 50-55p/litre over there atm.

There are more luxurious models available, but some cant be rented to under 25s and they're all more expensive.

So, what would you lot rent?

Alex

[calibrax]

Quite often you won't get what you ask for - when they say "Dodge Charger" it's just an example of a type of car in a particular class - you might end up with a Mustang instead, or even a Hyundai Coupe! (all fall under "sports")

Depends on the stock they have available.

Personally I'd go for a convertible.

[420gazza]

charger ftw

[Punx0r]

I'd definitely get an American car if possible - when else will you get to drive one? Hang the extra expense and fuel economy, it's a holiday and you're ment to enjoy yourself

[stefaclese]

Fuel economy shouldn't matter should it? Its America, land of tax free fuel, so get the charger!

[Mynheers_a_pint]

viper.

[CoupeRugby]

I'm off to Vegas in 5 weeks and booked a Chrysler Sebrig soft top for 3 days to go to the Grand Canyon

[Sheaf]

viper.

Unfortunately things like vipers are specialist sports cars and cost a sodding fortune to hire over there... think it was something like £250/day or £160 for 5 hours, something silly like that. Not practical for a 5 day drive round california anyway, lol.

I definately want something american, or rather something not available over here. Shame nowhere hires out manuals, would be amusing to see if I got any 'OMG, you can drive stick' comments. Ah well, an auto will make it easier to adjust to driving on the right, without smacking my left hand into the door every 10 seconds to change gear with the imaginary gearstick, like I did last time

[Leo]

55p/litre and they're moaning about expensive 'gas'......

[Sheaf]

Yeah, but dont forget the dollar is very weak atm. £1 = $2, so that seems cheap to us, but expensive to them.

Plus they have to drive about 5 times as far to get anywhere.... on holiday in the UK I might drive 150-200 miles a week getting about. Over there I'm expecting to drive about 850 in 5 days, everything's so dam far away from eveything else.

[Clare]

Neil and I are going to have the same dilema in a few weeks as we are off to southern california and Las Vegas. We Fly to LA on 12th June when are you off?

I think we will probably wait until we get there to arrange our car unless you can find a really good deal and let us know

[Mynheers_a_pint]

55p/litre and they're moaning about expensive 'gas'......

I think you'll find thats per GALLON

And theres no excuse not to have a Viper

You cold be ultra cool and use a prius.

[Leo]

No it's per litre Liam... if it were 55p/gallon that would be insanely cheap

[Mynheers_a_pint]

No it's per litre Liam... if it were 55p/gallon that would be insanely cheap

I've e-mailed my cohorts in Olathe...

EDIT; thinking back to when we were chatting about it, it worked out that a gallon was rjust over the price that we pay for a litre so it does make more sence for it to be 40-45p per litre- i think they said about $3.00 per gallon Bit more than .

Hi Liam –



I believe it’s around $3.50/gallon right now for the lowest grade – up to $3.75 for higher grade.



That’s in Kansas, also. Maybe more or less expensive in other areas.

There you go

Eitherway you're a jessy.

[Leo]

Haha

I may be a jessy but you were still "WRONG!"

[Mynheers_a_pint]

Haha

I may be a jessy but you were still "WRONG!"

I can admit i am wrong every now and again....

Apparently their fuel price has rocketed up by 10% in one week. Shocking.


I just told them how much it is over here and am waiting for them to fall off their chairs.

And being a jessy is worse than being wrong.

[Sheaf]

Yeah, in California it's getting close to $4 a gallon. Note though that that's a US gallon, not a UK gallon, so it's 3.785 litres rather than 4.546 litres.


Clare, the best prices I've seen so far have been found here:



We're flying out on the 31st May to SFO, hiring the car on 2nd June til 7th, at which point we fly to Chicago, doing a circle round bits of CA.

I like to get stuff booked in advance, mainly because over there there's all sorts of hidden taxes, fees etc etc, while if you book it via a UK site/agent then they usually include all extra fees, plus I think they pay the returnable deposit, so it makes life easier than sorting it out at the time.

[bigfoot217]

My preference atm is the Charger, esp if I can get a nice 2dr one.

You do realise that the current dodge charger

only comes as a 4 door, don't you?

The Dodge Challenger

is a 2 door though

[Sheaf]

Well, carhire300 seems to list both the 2dr and the 4dr, so I can select whichever one I want

I'd guess it's not the current model then.

Ooo... just checked to confirm they do and it's £97 for the 2dr! Awesome.

[bigfoot217]

I hired a car through Carhire3000 for our holiday in vegas last week. They don't guarantee you a make or brand of car, just a type (compact, midsize, etc) so it would be a 2-dr full size, not a 2-dr charger as Dodge don't make 'em

We hired a compact (chevy cobalt) and got a midsize (toyota corolla) for no extra cost as Alamo were all out when we got to the rental garage. Carhire3000's "premium package" is well worth the extra £10 -15 for additional driver and a tank of petrol (take it back empty)

It can be worth bribing the garage attendant as he has the power to upgrade you for less than it would cost otherwise.

Hope this helps

[Jonny 5]

Haha

I may be a jessy but you were still "WRONG!"

I can admit i am wrong every now and again....

Apparently their fuel price has rocketed up by 10% in one week. Shocking.


I just told them how much it is over here and am waiting for them to fall off their chairs.

And being a jessy is worse than being wrong.

When your taxed as much as us we are insulated from tripling oil prices to a certain extent, America however has taken it pretty much full in the face.

[Clare]

Clare, the best prices I've seen so far have been found here:


We're flying out on the 31st May to SFO, hiring the car on 2nd June til 7th, at which point we fly to Chicago, doing a circle round bits of CA.

I like to get stuff booked in advance, mainly because over there there's all sorts of hidden taxes, fees etc etc, while if you book it via a UK site/agent then they usually include all extra fees, plus I think they pay the returnable deposit, so it makes life easier than sorting it out at the time.

As our first port of call is to visit my uncle, I was thinking he can do the shopping around and sort it all out for us

[stefaclese]

Bring back some petrol in your luggage for us

[420gazza]

Bring back some petrol in your luggage for us

or failing that i'll call dibs on one of the dodge chargers

[Vard66]

F**k the whole lot. Search around and try to find someone that'll rent you a '67 GT500KR. How many opportunities are you going to get?

[benno_bro]

just make sure you get something full size....as everything will tower over you on the roads

[Sheaf]

F**k the whole lot. Search around and try to find someone that'll rent you a '67 GT500KR. How many opportunities are you going to get?

Actually... that sounds like an awesome plan.


I presume you're paying?

[Vard66]

Am I F**k. If I'm paying for your rental, you can return the favour, and purchase the car, and pay shipping to get it back here to me, then give it to me. Only if it's in a nice colour though.

[monster hunter]

I use ALAMO, and always ask for the alamo gold package,ALWAYS RESERVE IN THE UK so I get a compact or mid size, that includes CDW plus exta protection, free tank of gas and up to three named drivers, normally costs me £114 a week, plus they alway run out of compacts so you alway get offered a bigger vehicle, last time in Vegas I got a 4x4 that seated six for an extra 32 dollars for the week........,
ps I was in Florida three weeks ago and it was only 120 for the week.... try to avoid cars in New York, your talking 300 dollarsfor 48 hours RIP OFF
H,,,,as for milage, I have done the route 66 a few times, I normally do anything from 1,000 to 4,000 on an avergae trip.
H

[mini_vtec]

Petrol prices are about 50-55p/litre over there atm.

Petrol is £1.75 PER GALLON

I was there at beginning of april

[Sheaf]

Petrol prices are about 50-55p/litre over there atm.

Petrol is £1.75 PER GALLON

I was there at beginning of april

Yep, about $3.50 per gallon... except in the last week it's risen by about 10%, so it's around $3.80 (£1.90) per gallon. In fact, my friend in Chicago confirmed this week he's paying $3.72 a gallon.

There's 3.78 litres in a US gallon, which means it's 49p/litre.

Also, dont forget 'gas' prices vary per state, CA I believe is a bit more expensive, bordering on $4/gallon.

[Sheaf]

Well, I'm back from holiday.

As I think I mentioned before, I plumped for the charger.... only to find when I got there they didn't have any in. They were going to give me a Magnum but that had to go for oil change.

After a little waiting the guy came in with a grin on his face, he says:
'Have I got a surprise for you...... vroom vroom, king of the road'

He gave us a Chrysler 300 Hemi C, which I think's very similar to a charger 4dr, but more exec like, so all the toys.

It had 18" chrome wheels, which we both found hilarious for a hire car.

After the initial adjustment of getting used to driving on the right and driving the massive car I put my foot down... for a massive car I was impressed, it really moved well. So, I couldn't resist, had to look under the bonnet... it had a friggin 5.7L V8. No wonder it shifted.

Was a awesome car for the highways, so effortless. So comfy. I got about 24mpg too, so almost 29mpg in the UK, which I thought was really impressive for a huge car with a huge engine. I at one point got it to 45mpg over 16 miles when driving down from the top of Yosemite Valley.

Was a boat though, zero steering feel, huge overhangs, basically handled terribly. Oh, and I couldn't live with an auto on a day to day basis. So many times I just wanted the feeling of downshifting. Was great at what it was designed to do though.

[618ireland]

You averaged 29mp UK gallon
They really do have the best of both worlds over there, huge engines, cheap (relatively fuel) and efficient (ish) running costs. (Admittedly that's three worlds). Any pics of the beast Alex ?? Particularly under bonnet shots ?

[Sheaf]

Yeah, I was shocked. I mean, it's 2.6 times the size of my engine in the accord and the most I've ever got out of my car is 36mpg, so I thought 29 was dam impressive myself.

As I had pre-paid for a tank of fuel and towards the end of the journey I had some left I was booting it rather a lot. Even then I only got it down to 26.5m per Ukg.

Ok... just looked up the specs. No wonder the bloody thing shifted.
340bhp.
390lbft torque.
1857kg.

Like I say.. an absolute barge, but with that kind of power and torque it really did shift in a straight line. Got to admit, the torque was mightily impressive. Was stupidly easy to accidentally spin the wheels when pulling away, in the bone dry.

Was funny though, on anything other than the straight highways I still would have swapped it for the ATR. Big engined auto cars, although impressive just aren't as fun as a manual rev happy car that'll actually go round corners.


However... when in chicago we borrowed my mates car for the day. An Acura TL type S. Why oh why do we not have acuras here?!?! (Ok, we have honda, but acura just seems to be bigger, better hondas with higher specs... please Mr honda, bring Acura to the UK)
Was very similar to the ATR in feel, except with a 3.5L V6 286bhp engine and all the modern toys.
Only complaint was the auto gearbox, would have been much better with a manual and I couldn't get along with the silly tiptronic, but that was a very nice car to drive, much better size, good torque, actually revved and it went round corners quite nicely too (although was clearly heaver than the accord, but handled well enough). I'm guessing it's a C series engine, some kind of relation to the NSX engine, but I dont know. Went well though

I have pics of both, have to sort out all holiday pics yet, will post a load of scenic/car ones in the gallery at some point.