Rental Cars

[pamtar]

I have a rental car lined up with Budget for this weekend. It was by far the cheapest deal I could find - by like $200-$300 dollars. Is that too good to be true? Have any of you guys ever rented/had problems with Budget?

[CMS2478]

I have a rental car lined up with Budget for this weekend. It was by far the cheapest deal I could find - by like $200-$300 dollars. Is that too good to be true? Have any of you guys ever rented/had problems with Budget?

My wife and I rented a car in Maine for a week for like $225 for the entire week. :eek:

[devildeac]

same as real estate: location

Try Enterprise. May be a bit inconvenient but they advertise pickup-delivery but may be off-site from an airport. Use an AAA or AARP or any discount you may have available to you. Try for a weekend "special" from noon Thurs. to noon Monday if possible. Rent for a week instead of 5-6 days(may be cheaper) but try to avoid the 8th day as it will be at the expensive "daily" rate. Look for coupons or memberships as above for "upgrades". Hope that helps.

[hurleyfor3]

Budget should be OK, but if it is in a touristy place (Orlando or Vegas, say) expect to stand in a LONG line behind a bunch of clueless people. Alamo is like this too.

Enterprise sucks. Crappy cars, creepy agents vaguely reminiscent of Mormon missionaries, lots of hard selling on insurance and completely distrusting of its customers. It is NOT worth $20-30 in savings to rent with them. I doubt I'd rent from Enterprise if they were free.

Dollar and Thrifty are slightly better but not great. I rent from Dollar once or twice a year when they are half what Hertz charges. 90+% of the time I go with Hertz, which may be a bit more expensive but nowadays service matters a lot more to me than saving $5 or $10.

[HaveFunExpectToWin]

Yeah, that seems really high. I recently rented a car for a 3 day weekend and it was under $100 with all the fees and taxes. That was from National Car Rental.

What city/airport are you renting in? Do you need a regular mid size car?

[pamtar]

Thanks for all the great help guys!

We're flying into Denver International then driving to Boulder. We don't arrive till 11pm so hopefully the lines will be short. We're paying extra to get an SUV cause there's five of us. While I'm at it, anyone know a good place to get a beer in Boulder?

[devildeac]

Thanks for all the great help guys!

We're flying into Denver International then driving to Boulder. We don't arrive till 11pm so hopefully the lines will be short. We're paying extra to get an SUV cause there's five of us. While I'm at it, anyone know a good place to get a beer in Boulder?

Not sure whether to reply here or on the "ymm, beer' thread. If I reply on both though, I could certainly pad my post counts:o :D . I would PM (not PW;) ) rockymtdevil and ask his/her suggestions. Lots of great breweries in Colorado so if you like the bottled variety for later in your trip, you could try various offerings from New Belgium, Fort Collins, Avery, TommyKnocker, Left Hand, Oasis and perhaps a few others I cannot recall after a Bigfoot Barley Wine Style Ale tonight. Plus the fact that I don't live out there either. Have a great trip, take some notes and give us a review or five on the beer thread when you return:D .

[JBDuke]

Thanks for all the great help guys!

We're flying into Denver International then driving to Boulder. We don't arrive till 11pm so hopefully the lines will be short. We're paying extra to get an SUV cause there's five of us. While I'm at it, anyone know a good place to get a beer in Boulder?

Unfortunately, you're really kind of stuck when renting at Denver. Since the airport is so far from anything else, all the rental car companies have to be on airport territory, and they have to pay big fees for their facilities, which get passed on to the customers. It's pretty routine for me to rack up costs approaching $90 a day there, with all the fees and taxes, even for a mid-size car. (I fly to Denver a lot on business - often for just a couple of days in the middle of the week, so I can't take advantage of some of the weekend rates.)

I typically use Avis at Denver, although I'm a little peeved at them because they stuck me with repair costs for a dent I didn't put in the car. (A big hint - inspect the car before driving it off the lot, note any bad scratches and dents of any size, and have someone witness it.) Usually, I have a pain-free rental experience. But I have rented from Alamo at Denver before and it was fine. Never tried Budget, but they should be okay, too.

A tip for future trips - don't rent from the airport unless you have to. Rental car facilities on airport grounds often have extra fees and taxes - like at Denver. If you rent from a hotel location, you often avoid all that. If I'm arriving in the evening and just planning to go to the hotel room from the airport, I'll take the hotel's shuttle or a cab that night and rent my car in the morning. Not only do I avoid the extra taxation - I've also saved myself a day's rental.

[allenmurray]

Thanks for all the great help guys!

We're flying into Denver International then driving to Boulder. We don't arrive till 11pm so hopefully the lines will be short. We're paying extra to get an SUV cause there's five of us. While I'm at it, anyone know a good place to get a beer in Boulder?

I've flown into Denver twice recently. Both times I had an intermediate sized car reserved (National). Both times I was put in an SUV at the same price because that was all they had. When I went out on the lot there were about 30 SUVs, nothing else. If you are willing to risk it you might want to reserve a smaller car - you'll probably end up in an SUV at a lesser price.