Return-Path: <@CS.CMU.EDU:wang@LCL.CMU.EDU> Received: from cs.cmu.edu by K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU id aa01273; 10 May 90 10:33:19 EDT Received: from lcl.cmu.edu by CS.CMU.EDU id aa20709; 10 May 90 10:32:10 EDT Received: by CAESAR.LCL.CMU.EDU (15.11/15.6) id AA02038; Thu, 10 May 90 10:31:39 edt Date: Thu, 10 May 90 10:31:39 edt From: Jinhao Wang To: bovik@CS.CMU.EDU Subject: Car Rental Info Many thanks to Forrest Wade, Mark Simon, Ben Kisslinger, Ching-Ping Tseng, Henry Kichun Shen, Stephen Wadlow, Paul Fussell and Ravi Shankar for replying to my post. I have called several places myself. It looks Hertz has the best deal, $21/day with unlimited mileage (have to be picked up and delivered in Monrovl or the Airport, though). But AVIS and National have very competitive rates, $108/4days or $27/day with unlimited mileage (National is at the Exxon gas station across the Forbes bridge and AVIS is across from Giant Eagle on Center Ave., which is on the shuttle route). Some other places: Automate Auto Rental, with pickup and delivery, $80/4days, 1000 miles limit, extra miles $0.20/mile. Enterprise Rent-a-Car, with pickup and delivery, $19/day, 150 miles/day limit, extra miles $0.20/mile ACE $130/4days unlimited mileage. Budget $42/day unlimited mileage. PAYLESS $18/day, 150 miles/day limit or $35/day unlimited mileage. -- Jinhao Wang Note: 1. The rates quoted are mostly weekend rates for drivers at least 25 years old and do not include insurance which ranges from a few dollars to more than ten dollars per day. Since I have my own liability insurance and will have collision and will have comprehensive insurance when I charge my credit card, I did not ask for that information. 2. All prices have been rounded up to the nearest dollar. 3. The above info might not be accurate. Replies to my earlier post follow: --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Forrest Wade Call Hertz 21.95 per day unlimited mi (mid-size) 20.95 per day (Dollar Rent) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Mark Evan Simon Jinhao, When I was in Florida, Avis was $14 a day,unlimited mileage. If you are looking to go one way, National has no dropoff fee, which can save you $$$. For example, I am driving home next week to NY., so I am dropping the car off on Long Island. Hertz wanted $500 so they could get the car back to Pittsburgh! National wanted a flat $180 (quite a difference from the $14 in Florida, but no dropoff). So, just call as many rental places as you can find in the Yellow Pages to see who is the cheapest. Most numbers are (800), and will give you info for a rental in any state. Good luck. -- Mark --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Ben Kisslinger It's getting very hard to find places that will rent cars w/o mileage charges; National used to do it, but now they only give you a certain milage allowance. You might try Rent A Wreck; they're pretty inexpensive. They also may want to only give you a (perhaps 200 mile) mileage allowance, but you might be able to work out a deal. But be _sure_ to check out there cars thoroughly! (Really, this applies to any rental.) I once rented one from them and was fortunate enough to notice that the turn-signal didn't work before I took off. You might also try calling used car places, if all else fails... offer one of them a hundred bucks or so to use an old car for a few days; they may go for it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Ching-Ping Tseng I've rented cars from National twice: $178 for 1 week during last winter recess, including collision damage waiver(CDW) which was $3~6/day. The car was a Dodge Arise K (mid size w/crouse, powered steering and powered break) $22.5/day + $12CDW/day for 2 days during Spring Break. It was a Geo Metro, a small size, noisy, w/o any options but easy to park. The major reason I rented cars from there was the place for picking up cars is right at the gas station across the Hamburger Hall down the bridge on Forbes. Other car rental companies also deliver cars to a place near you. But I don't know the details. -Robert Ching-Ping Tseng P.S. If you charged and paid the rent by using American Express, you don't need to buy the CDW which can save you a couple dollars per day. If you don't have one, I strongly suggest you to buy the CDW. P.S. After you have received all the information, could you compile them and post to the BBoard? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Henry Kichun Shen Most of the car rental companies only rent to people over 21 or 25. But if you are AAA member, you can rent from Hertz, Budget, and National. You need to call around to get the best deal. Car rental rates changes a lot. My experience is that Hertz usually has the best deal. Also, if you rent with American Express, you can save the collision insurance which is usually $10 to $12 per day. Henry --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Stephen.Wadlow@cad.cs.cmu.edu I believe it was Alamo that had an ad in yesterdays paper listing unlimited mileage for a few types of cars.... I seem to remember it wa about $80/week for a compact car... steve --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Paul.Fussell@styx.edrc.cmu.edu I've found that the majors, in particular Hertz and Avis and to a lesser degree, National, tend to offer good weekend deals (small car from thursday to tuesday for $90 is my recent experience). They are extremely easy to deal with (in contrast to the smaller companies) and their cars always seem to work. Shop around, though. The various companies always have very different rates. And give serious thought to the waivers - if you accept all of the extra's, you could be adding up to something like $20/day. Good luck, Paul --------------------------------------------------------------------------- >From: Ravi.Shankar@IUS2.CS.CMU.EDU Jinhao, About 5 weeks backs I rented a compact from Hertz for a week. This was in California and the rental charges came to only $111+ for a week. I think I got an upgrade since the Ford Tempo which I was given seemed much bigger than a compact. Please forward the info to Bovik, in case you haven't done so already. Cheers, Ravi ------------------------------------------------------------------------