Car rental in the US

[Ford 2]

well lads. Sorry now if this is the wrong section. Me and 3 or 4 friends ( not 100% on the forth yet ) are doing the LA - New York trip via route 66 on hopefully the 3rd of march and trying too be in new york for paddy's day. Now I'm sure alot of ye have done this before so I'm looking for advice, All of us will be 23 by the time we go so that's causing an issue. Not with renting a car as such, but the extra charge's that go with it. the very best we can come up with inc 2 under 25 yo driver's for a eco car is about €1600 one way drop off and that does not inc petrol,tolls etc. surly too god it can be done a bit cheaper than that can it ? any help will be greatful.

Jason

[R360]

Did a road trip with a few mates earlier this year and used a broker called Car Hire 300. They were great, really well priced, really helpful. In the end we had 2 x Mustang Convertibles, Dodge Charger, Caddilac DTS and a Chevy Tahoe over the course of 12 days and 4000 miles.

[sherman]

Do it Topgear style

Buy a shed of a car in LA and drive it to New York and sell it at the other end recouping some or all of your money

[jpringle819]

Not sure on the age side of things but National were doing no fee for one way rentals when I was looking at doing similar. I can't remember the hire car cost but my entire trip with flights and hotels (excluding fuel) was going to be about £1400 to do Chicago to LA.

[Ford 2]

Thanks for moving the post. Thanks for the car company above too lads. We wont be needing a big petrol guzzler as the trip is about the 3000 miles so the best mileage possible is the idea. Its pretty much going too be non stop driving we think so something with good mpg will be best. we plan on staying in hotel's/motels on the way but also camping it too so wont need too stay every night somewhere. What are the toll's like ? the petrol is meant too be cheap enough too. We recon maybe if we upped the budget too €4k which if we get the two flights for €700 do ye think we should have enough ? Is about the 2 weeks enough time too cover it ? we don't plan on spending really till we get too New York and at that time it don't really matter as we have mate's too stay with. We also all have credit card's too just in case. We'd rather not buy and sell a car as were under pressure with time too. Thanks again

[mattmurdock]

euroboy said:

sherman said:

Do it Topgear style

Buy a shed of a car in LA and drive it to New York and sell it at the other end recouping some or all of your money

Almost impossible (if not actually impossible) to get insurance. At least it was when we tried about 4 yrs ago.

Provided you can give a US address, I think it should be possible. In 2006 I bought and insured an RV using a family friends address as the insurance/correspondence address with Progressive, and they had no problems with the fact that I was not a US resident. I took out 1 year insurance and they refunded me the difference when I sold the RV and cancelled the insurance 6 months later. However, it could be that motorhome insurance is slightly different from car insurance (as the insurance assumed the vehicle would be our home and so included contents insurance).

[Matt Harper]

Unless you have a US address that you can demonstrate you have ties to (i.e. a utility bill with your name on it) you most positively cannot do this anymore.
Sure - if you have a friend or relative, who will register, title and insure the vehicle, with you added on to the policy, you are good to go, but there are ever increasing tactics introduced to make it harder for undocumented aliens to thrive here. One is make it tougher to get a license without paperwork and another is to make it much more tricky to operate a vehicle here, without the appropriate visa/immigrant status. Visitors, in the USCIS sense of the word cannot own vehicles here.

Under 25 y/o drivers are going to hurt, in terms of car rental and one-ways usually only include the dullest of rental cars (not always, but usually).

[mattmurdock]

Fair enough, I presumed things must have changed in the last 4 years.

You are right that the family friend did share title (as Oregon law prevents any non-Oregon person from registering title there, whether they are US citizens or not), but I went to the DMV alone to pick up the plates without any issues, and when we challenged Progressive (because to be honest they gave us what we considered to be a crazily low quote and we assumed they thought we were US citizens) and made it 100% clear we were not US residents, they said it did not matter. The family friend was never insured on the RV, just me and my wife.

[Roo]

If you intend going that distance in two weeks you'll miss anything worth seeing.

[Ford 2]

euroboy said:

example:

http://www.hittheroad.ca/rides.html

http://www.autodriveaway.com/

I cant imagine these people would be too happy about 4 lads driving there car across the country But i will look into it. thanks

[Matt Harper]

mattmurdock said:

Fair enough, I presumed things must have changed in the last 4 years.

You are right that the family friend did share title (as Oregon law prevents any non-Oregon person from registering title there, whether they are US citizens or not), but I went to the DMV alone to pick up the plates without any issues, and when we challenged Progressive (because to be honest they gave us what we considered to be a crazily low quote and we assumed they thought we were US citizens) and made it 100% clear we were not US residents, they said it did not matter. The family friend was never insured on the RV, just me and my wife.

Those happy times all gone - Dept of Homeland Security is worried about visiting extremists loading up pick-up trucks with fertilizer bombs and heading downtown.....

[Ford 2]

Roo said:

If you intend going that distance in two weeks you'll miss anything worth seeing.

Its all in the love of the trip been honest

[bull996]

I rented a cabrio for 3 weeks this summer in JFK. I couldnt believe it, but Virgin Atlantic car rental was LESS THAN HALF the price of any other company (and I checked every company out there).

I have no idea why, as they use other companies. But if I had gone direct to the comapny, it was double

[F i F]

Roo said:

If you intend going that distance in two weeks you'll miss anything worth seeing.

This ^^ sums it up tbh.

I've seen your later answer about it's all in the lurve of the trip but I'll just say that any road trip that we've done in US, absolutely the best bits have all been done by getting off the Interstates onto the back roads.

You don't do as many miles but you do have some experiences, have some weird conversations and encounter some genuine people who would share their last pie with you. Maybe we've just been lucky but that makes the trip for me rather than blatting thousands of miles.

[shakotan]

R360 said:

Did a road trip with a few mates earlier this year and used a broker called Car Hire 300. They were great, really well priced, really helpful. In the end we had 2 x Mustang Convertibles, Dodge Charger, Caddilac DTS and a Chevy Tahoe over the course of 12 days and 4000 miles.

It's CarHire3000, I've used them for several years...

www.carhire3000.com

Not found anyone cheaper, and trust me, I've looked!

EDIT: Jusr ran the figures, for rental for 14 days, 03/03 to 17/03, one-way LA to NY drop off, including young drivers add-on, tank of fuel, and all Insurance, is £492.16 for a Dodge Charger (or similar). If you want something smaller (I wouldn't go smaller than an 'intermediate' if it's 3/4 of you with luggage), then this comes down to £467.83 for a Chrysler Sebring (or similar).

Edited by shakotan on Wednesday 3rd November 16:36

[cjs]

bull996 said:

I rented a cabrio for 3 weeks this summer in JFK. I couldnt believe it, but Virgin Atlantic car rental was LESS THAN HALF the price of any other company (and I checked every company out there).

I have no idea why, as they use other companies. But if I had gone direct to the comapny, it was double

I also found Avis, via the BA website, very good value, all inclusive prices, no 'extras', and way cheaper than booking direct. They do 23 year olds and over and a second driver is no extra.

[Ford 2]

Some very very good info here. Thanks a mill lads. I'll go through it all and keep the post updated