A question about rental cars About This Page:

[Carly'sMommy]

Has anyone ever rented a car to drive down and back to Disney? We are driving from upstate NY and would really love to not put all those miles on our car again. The poor car is 10 years old and has done it twice already, I don't want to put it through that again. Do you have any idea what the cost is or any suggestions for rental agencies? I've done some looking online already but thought I'd see if anyone had any first hand experience. Thanks!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

We do that every time we drive to WDW. We drive from TN and it's a 12 hour trip, so we hate putting the miles on our own car. We rent a full-sized car and hit the road. Let it be someone elses car that gets the wear and tear!

We've used hotwire, and that has netted us great fares, except you have to be careful because they are completely inflexible. Once you book, you cannot cancel, change or adjust at ALL, because it's prepaid. It's fine if your days are completely set, but you can't add on days at the last minute, so if that's something you like to do, forget hotwire, lol. I use them a lot though because you can get great deals.

We have a 10 day rental that we're picking up on Friday for our beach trip, and we paid $205 for it, for a full-sized car.

[Carly'sMommy]

That's great to know about Hotwire. I will definitely check them out. Thanks!

[disney]

Originally Posted by Carly'sMommy

That's great to know about Hotwire. I will definitely check them out. Thanks!

one thing i found out about the car rental web site is if you have a local location it might not have it on there you might have to call them direct .
also you must ask the agency if you can take it out of state .
and this is the best on e if you need any car rental coupons i have extras out of the entertainment book if you would like PM me to see what i have .
good luck and have a magical trip.

[modisney]

I recently used priceline for the first time and was pleased especially since I was able to look at a chart comparing all rates. That might be a start. Calling a local office is a good idea also. Good luck!

[oldmom]

From Missouri the rental is much more. We looked at a mini van and it came to over $1000. We even tried looking at renting from here and turning it in the day we arrive at Disney then renting to get home. It didn't change the price much.

[KMB733]

I live in Upstate NY too, and I've rented a car before. I think it was National and I drove all the way to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada about 3,000 plus miles round trip. I think it was about $200, but I can't remember. Its a good idea and I love the drive to Florida. Its been years since I've done it, but we always had must stops along the way.

[minemoz1]

I've never done it but DH rented one this year to Penn. He needed a mini van and it was $300 for 5 days over the weekend but he had to pick it up at O'Hare. For a mid-to-full sized it was much cheaper - around $100 as one of the car companies was offering 1/2 price weekends. Hotwire is a great site for deals, but I'd also try and call the local car companies. They sometimes run specials that are not listed online and most will price match, so if there is any competition in the area they will most likely cut you a deal.

[Carly'sMommy]

Thank you all so much for the great advice. I'll keep you posted with what I find out. I have gotten so much great info here, maybe I can be the one helping someone for a change!

[Principessa_di_Fata]

One thing - read any contract carefully before booking a car / paying. As someone mentioned above - sometimes rental agencies will have a limit on where the car can go. I've never had this happen to me, but my friend rented a car that she was only allowed to use in Tennessee (where she rented it). She could not leave the state.

I've never had that happen to me, though, fortunately. I'm pretty careful about that. Also, make sure you get a car rental with unlimited mileage. The last thing you want is to be surprised later with a HUGE fee for tons of miles.

[simbarel]

A loooong time ago I used to work for Budget and the cars had to stay on this side of the Mississippi.

We've never rented a car to drive down in, but we did rent an Economy (cheapest) size car at Hertz (thru Priceline or Hotwire, I can't remember which) for a week and we ended up getting a Prius hybrid. It was small, but the gas mileage was fantastic. If we do drive down in the future, I think we'll rent another hybrid--IF they're still economical....we rented ours before this whole gas crunch.