Hire Car Choices

[a311]

Seemed like I'd get more hits here than the holdiay sub-forum.

Going to Canada (Vancouver) in a few weeks and I'm currently mulling over car hire choices. We'll spend time in Vancouver City where we won't need a car then heading to some ski areas, and on to visit family on Vancouver Island. Given the time of time the weather 'should' be ok getting around the ski areas. Main consideration is getting some thing that we can fit our luggage in along with a ski bag-around 2m long. Looking at the website of the car hire sites I've used in the past it does mention racks but no prices etc.

There's only 2 of us so long as the back seats can be put down we should be OK from a Focus size up? Curent choices are

Ford Focus or similar

Not too much more expensive a Rav 4 or Jeep Liberty

For another £80 on top of the above gets a Jeep Grand Cherokee, Chevrolet Impala, Dodge Caliber.

Anyone with any experience that can comment on how they got on would be apprecaited.

[XplusYplusZ]

I went to calgary a couple of months ago and had the same dilemma. Fuel is cheap and i figured it's not every day i'd get to drive something obscene. So I went for the grand cherokee. It was ok, but surprisingly basic - no parking sensors, no satnav, weak engine for the size of the thing, i'm not even sure if it had 4wd! But it was quite nice cruising around in something different to my daily driver.

A LOT of people have massive trucks there, the Grand Cherokee felt small in comparison to some of the beasts out there, however, the roads were very well kept and so i wouldn't expect you to have much trouble in a front wheel drive car.

I guess it's up to you and your budget, if you can splash out a bit, it IS pretty cool driving a 4x4 through the Rockies. If you're trying to keep the budget down, then maybe the rav4 could be a good compromise. But if you really are looking for value, than i'd fully expect the main roads to be driveable in a FWD beast.

In terms of ski sizes.. most cars are going to be autos, so very worst case, you can pop the skis between the seats and have the added benefit of an arm rest..

[a311]

XplusYplusZ said:

In terms of ski sizes.. most cars are going to be autos, so very worst case, you can pop the skis between the seats and have the added benefit of an arm rest..

Thanks for the reply. I figured this there's some sort of big Ford which is £100 more expensive than the Jeep. The Rav 4 smaller Jeep is £380 for the duration of our stay the Grand is £460 I'd budgeted upt o £500 it's just wether it's worth the extra or if in fact a £280 Ford Focus or similar cat will do us and allow the cash to be spent elsewhere.