California Rental Car?

[Conor D]

I'm going to CA for a holiday with my family at the end of June. We'll be in Los Angeles, San Diego and maybe Vegas.

I had a look at rental cars and it turns out I can rent one myself (at 20), it comes with an under 21 premium.. But if I can have a car in Los Angeles, even for a day or two is not something I want to pass up.

I can get a Ford Mustang Convertible for about $70/day or a Mazda Miata (I drive an older MX5) for about $90 - with 200 miles free.

I'm thinking Miata, purely for the fun of it..

Does anyone have any thoughts about what rental to look for? Mustang vs Miata?

[greeneggsnsam]

If I were in that situation I would definitely live the American dream and get a mustang! There's no corners in America anyway so don't worry about handling.

[Conor D]

I think you just have to look for them..

http://youtu.be/XqQD1U_o2ck

[W7NNS]

Go for the Mustang - if you already drive an MX5 then goin for the Miata would be a bit like a busmans holiday. Whenever I go to Vegas I always rent a Mustang Cab - get the top down & enjoy it

I normally use Dollar as the price you pay is inclusive of insurances (make sure you book through the .co.uk site though - not .com). When I was 20 they didn't charge an extra premium for young drivers but that may have changed now as it was 6 years ago.

[TVR Sagaris]

Any chance you could give me a link to the rental company? (Even if it's by e-mail.)

OT, get the Mustang.

[HD Adam]

greeneggsnsam said:

There's no corners in America anyway so don't worry about handling.

Clarkson fan?

Plenty of corners in the LA canyons and don't worry about the handling, the new Mustang beats a BMW M3 round the track.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/24/video-mt-pits-m...

[Conor D]

HD Adam said:

Plenty of corners in the LA canyons and don't worry about the handling, the new Mustang beats a BMW M3 round the track.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/24/video-mt-pits-m...

To be honest that's what I was concerned about.

The article seems to be about the Mustang GT. I'm guessing the Mustang rental will be the boggo V6.

[HD Adam]

Conor D said:

HD Adam said:

Plenty of corners in the LA canyons and don't worry about the handling, the new Mustang beats a BMW M3 round the track.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/08/24/video-mt-pits-m...

To be honest that's what I was concerned about.

The article seems to be about the Mustang GT. I'm guessing the Mustang rental will be the boggo V6.

Not necessarily.

Hertz have their Prestige Collection. You can get V8 Mustangs, V8 Dodge Challengers and the Corvette.
I'm currently in Houston and tripping around it in this.
It would definitely not beat an M3 anywhere but it is huge fun in this environment.



If you do end up in a V6 Mustang, you could still be ok. Rental companies mostly have new cars and the 2011 Mustang has the new 3.7 litre 305 horsepower engine.

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/03/29/2011-ford-musta...

I haven't tried one yet but it's rumoured to be quite a performer.

Get the convertible Mustang, drive the pacific Coast Highway and tick that one off your bucket list.

[starmonkey]

When I did this a year and a bit ago a group of friends and I hired 2 yellow Hertz corvettes and 2 mustang convertibles - we didn't plan to get the corvettes but if you spot them in Hertzs car park they seem to let them go out for only a small extra charge - they even waived the under 25 charge for me at Seattle airport!

[jbi]

Conor D said:

To be honest that's what I was concerned about.

The article seems to be about the Mustang GT. I'm guessing the Mustang rental will be the boggo V6.

Even the V6 mustang has over 300hp these day's, so you can still have a bit of fun with it.

Of course if I was on holiday and wanted a blast in an american sports car as part of the experience I would take the 420hp V8 anyday

[Conor D]

I did a bit more reading, and did a bit of research on the company.. They were listed as one of the smaller ones, and seem to be getting alot of bad reviews. For poor (borderline fraudulent) service, and hidden charges. Although the odd reviewer was happy.

I guess it was never going to be that straight forward - None of the big companies will touch Under 21's (alot won't even entertain Under 25s). Although Enterprise seem to say that if someone 25+ hires, then under 21s can drive the car.

Does anyone know other companies who might be able to facilitate?

[Conor D]

Also, are the mustangs/chargers etc spacious enough for four adults? Or would the rear leg/headroom be an issue (maybe not so much in the convertible)..

[white90]

Mustang Convertible is not big enough really for 4 adults and luggage, we ended up with cases on the rear seats.
it was also too hot most of the time with the roof down.
highway 1 on the TV this week had large sections closed due to landslips.tour of California was re routed to avoid these.
We had a Dodge Charger the last trip,this was ok but not as nice as the Mustang.
both cars hired from http://www.auto-europe.co.uk/go/car-hire/us/