Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the SF
bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

look at sidestep or try a priceline bid

"void" a écrit dans le message de
...
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the SF
bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper
option?

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

On Sun, 05 Aug 2007 02:42:24 -0500, "void"
wrote:

Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the SF
bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

Have you tried Priceline or Hotwire?

A quick search on Hotwire for a week (I used 22Aug as a
guess for starting) comes up with lots of options starting
at $17.95 daily pre-insurance.


Cheers, Alan, Australia
--
http://loraltravel.blogspot.com/
latest: Slovenia
http://loraltraveloz.blogspot.com/
latest: Mossman Gorge in the Daintree Rainforest

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

In article ,
"void" wrote:

Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the SF
bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

Take a look at http://www.southwest.com

You do not need to book air travel there in order to book a rental car.
Southwest tends to have the lowest prices for rental cars.

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

void wrote:
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the
SF bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

That company sounds like a third-tier company, which should be avoided.

Use sidestep, and several of the second tier companies (Payless,
Dollar,, Thrifty) have lower rates. Sidestep is a good search engine as
it returns total cost, with taxes and airport fees added on, for all the
different companies.

I guess I'd still go with someone like Budget, for $208 or so, as I've
had bad experiences with Dollar and Thrifty.

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

On Aug 6, 12:48 am, SMS wrote:
void wrote:
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the
SF bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

That company sounds like a third-tier company, which should be avoided.

Use sidestep, and several of the second tier companies (Payless,
Dollar,, Thrifty) have lower rates. Sidestep is a good search engine as
it returns total cost, with taxes and airport fees added on, for all the
different companies.

I guess I'd still go with someone like Budget, for $208 or so, as I've
had bad experiences with Dollar and Thrifty.

Is a rental really needed in SF? When I have driven there I could
spend hours looking for a primo parking space, one that doesn't have a
meter or time constraints. Then I would leave the car there for my
entire stay. Drving in SF sucks. Parking is either not available or
expensive. The streets were not built for cars. SF has some of the
best public transportation in the world. Another place that a car can
be cumbersome is NYC. Both places a car is more problem than they are
worth.

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

"void" wrote in message
...
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the SF
bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper
option?


Be aware that they do NOT give unlimited mileage deals, you get 150m per day
and anything above that will cost, find out how much before renting

Keith

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

SMS wrote:

void wrote:
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around the
SF bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper option?

That company sounds like a third-tier company, which should be avoided.

Use sidestep, and several of the second tier companies (Payless,
Dollar,, Thrifty) have lower rates. Sidestep is a good search engine as
it returns total cost, with taxes and airport fees added on, for all the
different companies.

I guess I'd still go with someone like Budget, for $208 or so, as I've
had bad experiences with Dollar and Thrifty.

Ditto on Thrifty. Booked a car in S.F. as it was cheaper than others,
then they refused to rent without additional "mandatory" insurance.

Cheap car rental in SF bay area?
 

Also, check up front for FEES.
I've rented in SF quite a bit and didn't seem to matter the location:
airport fee , OR
downtown fee....
Do you math on their website to be sure no surprises.
I just went to HERTZ.com , took some defaults to show in renting from SFO:

Selected Vehicle: Hyundai Accent or similar
Additional Items (included in Approximate Total Charges)
Tax 8.25 %
Airport Concession Fee Recovery On Flight Arrivals11.10 %
TRANSPORTATION AND FACILITIES FEE 15.00 USD
Califonia Tourism Commission Assessment 2.50 %
so a $100 "cost" for the car REALLY means:
$100 + $8.25+ $11.10 +$15+ $2.50 = $136.85 or a 36 % SURCHARGE to "the
daily rate" so just note the fine print.



"north" wrote in message
...
SMS wrote:
void wrote:
Later this month I'm going to need a car for 6 days to drive around
the
SF bay area. The big name companies (e.g. Hertz, Budget, Dollar) are
charging between $300-$350 total for a small car for 6 days. I found
a
car rental comparison site and they said a company called Pacific Car
Rental charges around $200. This seems dubious as the web site for
Pacific Car Rental only lets you pick 2004 and 2005 for rate
checking.

So should I just go with one of the big names or is there a cheaper
option?

That company sounds like a third-tier company, which should be avoided.

Use sidestep, and several of the second tier companies (Payless,
Dollar,, Thrifty) have lower rates. Sidestep is a good search engine as
it returns total cost, with taxes and airport fees added on, for all
the
different companies.

I guess I'd still go with someone like Budget, for $208 or so, as I've
had bad experiences with Dollar and Thrifty.

Ditto on Thrifty. Booked a car in S.F. as it was cheaper than others,
then they refused to rent without additional "mandatory" insurance.