Rental Car hint/tip/gripe/trick/review/kvetch Thread

I haven’t tried Toru yet. The only place I’ve had a problem with ground transportation has been at Beaufort South Carolina. Will Touro just drop the car off at the airport? Or do you call them up and give them a time once you’re in route?
Turo is like the Airbnb for cars. You are dealing with individual car owners. Some will be very helpful, others less so. Contact one and ask for what you want. When I did the owner said no problemo. In my case the owner left the car at the airport with the key hidden on the vehicle.
 
Although I have not used Turo, I have looked in to it and saw that many of the vehicles in the area I was interested in could be delivered to a location within a certain radius for an additional fee. Worth paying, in my opinion, for getting a car at a small airport with little/no services but close to my final destination.
 
Turo has always brought the vehicle to the FBO, left the keys in a hidden spot or lockbox on the vehicle. They typically send a pic of the vehicle and where parked so it’s easy to locate. I always get their cell to text directly with for any issues. Many of the Turo operators have multiple vehicles, operate as a small business and focus heavily on personalized service. Some of them seem to have ID’d the opportunities to serve GA and specialize in filling the gaps of the large rental companies. (Service, reliability, cleanliness and treating you like a person who matters to them)
 
I used Turo once in Los Angeles. Worked fine. I lived in the States at the time, had a U.S. driver's license. Then I moved to Canada, got a Canadian driver's license and wanted to update my account accordingly. Didn't work. They said because I opened a "U.S. based account", I can't change to a Canadian driver's license and they wanted me to open a new account. Tried that but because my phone number was associated with my original account, I couldn't sign up. Then my account was suspended for "suspicious activity" - having two accounts at the same time, as advised by them, flagged me I guess. I reached back out to sort that out, none of the customer service people could help. They ended up suspending both of my accounts and I can no longer sign up on their platform. Talked to customer care twice about this, both times they were less competent than a first grader doing the job so I gave up on them and kept renting with the regular rental companies.
 
I used Turo once in Los Angeles. Worked fine. I lived in the States at the time, had a U.S. driver's license. Then I moved to Canada, got a Canadian driver's license and wanted to update my account accordingly. Didn't work. They said because I opened a "U.S. based account", I can't change to a Canadian driver's license and they wanted me to open a new account. Tried that but because my phone number was associated with my original account, I couldn't sign up. Then my account was suspended for "suspicious activity" - having two accounts at the same time, as advised by them, flagged me I guess. I reached back out to sort that out, none of the customer service people could help. They ended up suspending both of my accounts and I can no longer sign up on their platform. Talked to customer care twice about this, both times they were less competent than a first grader doing the job so I gave up on them and kept renting with the regular rental companies.
That’s what a $50/month full-time 6 days a week 12 hours a day employee from Bangladesh will provide for you.
 
If anyone is coming to Gallup, NM and needs a car, let me know. There is a good chance I can get you the Subaru you want.

(Local law enforcement is pretty lacking here so you probably won't get caught driving it...)
FTFY. Don't know why, but I see way more Subarus in New mexico than anywhere else I've been.
 
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Instead of saving money flying to small airport in BFE, why not land at a better airport with more support?
 
At the smaller airport, I started with the Enterprise GA phone number. I was told "our agreement with the airport expired, so we can't deliver there". I called the airport and they claimed enterprise had just dropped one off yesterday. A call to the local Enterprise office went unanswered.
I would be curious what “agreement” the local Enterprise office had with the airport. I don’t have any formal agreement with our local office, but they will happily drop a vehicle off and even pick up for a customer. We don’t arrange it, it’s just all done through the customer and Enterprise. Last year, I tried calling Enterprise to see what we had to do to set up a satellite office, so-to-speak, where we have a car or two in the parking lot and my desk staff can facilitate the rental process on-site. They had a minimum number (I forget how many) of rentals per month that we’d have to meet and I couldn’t guarantee that, but I figured if they’re willing to drop off and pick up on demand, that served the same purpose. Sorry you had a less than ideal situation.
 
Well this is cool; planning our grand canyon trip, I picked the GA airport in Amarillo (TDW) as an overnight spot on the way out. I called to ask about hotels, and through the conversation, she mentioned that when rental cars got to be a pain, they bought three cars and put them on Turo. What an awesome solution; I wish more airports did this! @RyanB I'm looking at you :idea::biggrin:

In other rental car news, I've got some unconventional options planned for this trip:

#1 is a Tesla through Hertz, which isn't unconventional, but was surprisingly the cheapest option. They have a location at the Boulder City airport.
#2, which I'm still working on, is through a collision repair shop in Kanab, UT. They spun up a car rental business and were smart enough to get themselves listed on Airnav
#3 was the most interesting. Near as I can tell, the Chevy dealer in Flagstaff set up a business in conjunction with a few other area dealers (or maybe it's one dealer group, I didn't look that deep into it) to rent cars at the local airports. I found out about it through the Amtrak forum of all places. I was searching for a rental in Winslow, AZ, which is apparently a popular enough stop on the train that there's demand there. When I searched the business, they list the airport as well. Roughly the same price as the big 3, plus a $50 drop charge.

So for a ten day trip, we'll be renting from from H,E,or A for one day. Interesting that those three have gotten so bad that other options are springing up.
 
I was searching for a rental in Winslow, AZ, ...

I think there's a song about that. Are you a fine sight to see? If you stand on a corner, maybe you can rent a flatbed Ford. Maybe Glenn Frey needed a rental there too.
 

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I think there's a song about that. Are you a fine sight to see? If you stand on a corner, maybe you can rent a flatbed Ford.
I've been to Winslow. The song is false advertising. If a woman in a flatbed Ford slows down to take a look at you, hide immediately. You are not safe. You can trust the Eagles on California, but they clearly spent as much time in Arizona as Toto did in Africa.
 
I heard a song about road kill or something that had a bridge that went something like "If you're standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, you're in the wrong damn song."
 
I think there's a song about that. Are you a fine sight to see? If you stand on a corner, maybe you can rent a flatbed Ford. Maybe Glenn Frey needed a rental there too.
I'm decidedly not. I do think the rental is coming from the local Ford dealer, though :biggrin:

Also, pictures at the street corner on the itinerary. Along with staying at the Wigwam Motel just up Rte. 66 in Holbrook.
 
I’m gonna have to add this to the “to-do list” and check on that…
 
I've been to Winslow. The song is false advertising. If a woman in a flatbed Ford slows down to take a look at you, hide immediately. You are not safe. You can trust the Eagles on California, but they clearly spent as much time in Arizona as Toto did in Africa.
The van shuttle driver told me when I spent the night there this past June that the Eagles had never been to Winslow, and the Ford had to slow down where the statue is because the speed limit changes. Don't know if that's true, but it's on the internet now so it must be.
 
#1 is a Tesla through Hertz, which isn't unconventional, but was surprisingly the cheapest option.

I noticed this to be the case more and more often. In the past six months, I would say half of the Hertz locations I rented from, their electric car option was the cheapest. Probably because they're the least in demand because electric cars suck. I hate having to sit around for 45 minutes waiting for it to "fuel up" when a conventional car takes 5 minutes. I usually end up dropping off the electric car with a depleted battery and eat the fee for bringing it back that way. Usually still comes out cheaper than the cheapest gas car option even with the fee. So, for short drives, it's fine but if I plan on driving more than one battery load, I usually go for the more expensive gas powered option.
 
I noticed this to be the case more and more often. In the past six months, I would say half of the Hertz locations I rented from, their electric car option was the cheapest. Probably because they're the least in demand because electric cars suck. I hate having to sit around for 45 minutes waiting for it to "fuel up" when a conventional car takes 5 minutes. I usually end up dropping off the electric car with a depleted battery and eat the fee for bringing it back that way. Usually still comes out cheaper than the cheapest gas car option even with the fee. So, for short drives, it's fine but if I plan on driving more than one battery load, I usually go for the more expensive gas powered option.

So our total mileage on this car will be like 30, but it's still cheaper than Uber. I'm hoping I can find a working charger at one of our stops. We rented a dual motor model Y through Turo in SD, and I have to admit, I really liked it. Stupid fast, comfortable and drove really nicely. The charging was a fairly minor hassle. I was able to use superchargers while we were eating, but having to go out and move the car when it was done was annoying. If we had it more than a couple days, it would've gotten real old eating at the same restaurant every night though. Kind of looking forward to driving one again; I'm sure Hertz gets the bottom basement model so it won't be as much fun.
 
I've been to Winslow. The song is false advertising. If a woman in a flatbed Ford slows down to take a look at you, hide immediately. You are not safe. You can trust the Eagles on California, but they clearly spent as much time in Arizona as Toto did in Africa.
Jackson Browne wrote most of Take it Easy. His friend Glenn Frey, then living in the same apartment building, helped him finish the second verse, after which Jackson suggested the Eagles go ahead and record the song.

Jackson did break down while driving in Arizona, and a young woman did drive by (in a Toyota pickup) and slow to look at him. At various times, Jackson said this took place in front of Der Wienerschnitzel on East Rt 66 in Flagstaff, or in Winslow. Both cities cling to their claim that they're the place where it happened.
 
I think there's a song about that. Are you a fine sight to see? If you stand on a corner, maybe you can rent a flatbed Ford. Maybe Glenn Frey needed a rental there too.

I have a photo of SWMBO posing with that truck.
 
Jackson Browne wrote most of Take it Easy. His friend Glenn Frey, then living in the same apartment building, helped him finish the second verse, after which Jackson suggested the Eagles go ahead and record the song.

Jackson did break down while driving in Arizona, and a young woman did drive by (in a Toyota pickup) and slow to look at him. At various times, Jackson said this took place in front of Der Wienerschnitzel on East Rt 66 in Flagstaff, or in Winslow. Both cities cling to their claim that they're the place where it happened.
Mr. Harvey, I presume? Thanks, I actually didn’t know the rest of that particular story.
 
Mr. Harvey, I presume? Thanks, I actually didn’t know the rest of that particular story.
There is a wikipedia article with the details; I only knew of them because on a vacation to Flagstaff some years ago, we took the hotel shuttle to the Lowell Observatory, outside of town. The driver recounted it as we passed the spot where Browne said the encounter happened.

By random chance, we visited the Lowell Observatory (from which Pluto was discovered) on the day of the New Horizons flyby of Pluto. The clearest photos ever taken of it were streaming in. It was like friggin' Woodstock for astronomers that day--the place was packed.
 
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