California car insurance ??

[nismobrown]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 21 April 2012 at 21:07

[Ten Ninety]

I'm not an expert, but your list seems to cover everything. I've never had anything more than that when I've driven in the US and I had no problem with National when I scraped their Impala down a car park wall having momentarily forgotten that there was several feet of car to my right. No excess or anything to pay.

You might want to consider adding roadside assistance, which you can only do at the time of pickup. Not sure if it's really necessary though.

[chrismcg1]

They tried to flog me roadside breakdown cover stating it would cost me about $300 to get the car towed - a quick conversation with the nice gal meant it was included gratis.

[davepoth]

If they have any other insurance, you can get it at the desk when you pick the car up. The rental companies usually can sell you enough to cover you properly.

[onny]

If you have travel insurance then it will usually cover your excess if you damage the rental car. So there is no need to get any extra insurance apart from the basic mandatory ones.

[K50 DEL]

SLI and CDW are really the only ones that you 'need' as a Brit hiring in the US (US credit cards generally include insurance for some reason, hence the pricing is separate)

You'll be offered PAI - don't bother as long as your travel insurance covers medical expenses in case of an auto accident.

Other than that... enjoy.

[Deva Link]

chrismcg1 said:

They tried to flog me roadside breakdown cover stating it would cost me about $300 to get the car towed - a quick conversation with the nice gal meant it was included gratis.

Breakdown cover is always included with rental cars.

The extra charge covers things like losing they keys etc. They'll tell you it's also needed for tyre damage but I've never heard of anyone being charged for tyre damage anyway.

[Deva Link]

onny said:

If you have travel insurance then it will usually cover your excess if you damage the rental car.

Well, it's a bit of a moot point as there is no excess on US car rental - it's illegal in most States.

However your normal travel insurance certainly wouldn't cover damage excess in countries where there was one.

[cjs]

Just a tip, unless you've already decided on a car? If you're doing a one way between two states then they often have cars they want to get back to the correct state, in your case CA to Nevada. I just did Las Vegas to LA, paid for a compact and got an upgrade to a Mustang! Result! (though it was only the V6)