Recently I needed to rent a car. I called Hertz and made a reservation. The price quoted seemed fair. I rented the car and returned it the next day, dropping my rental agreement in the appropriate slot.
But when I got my bill a few days later, it was roughly $11 more than I had been quoted. The reason? Sales tax and gasoline charges.
Under the circumstances, I felt that I got off easy.
Renting a car these days can be a lot more expensive than you think, despite all the advertised discounts. And if you don't shop and compare rental prices, restrictions and extra, not-often-mentioned charges, you could be in for a rough ride when the bill comes.
To be sure, there are dozens of great discounts offered by rental car companies. Most rental company rate books resemble the telephone directory in size. In fact, so many supposed discounts are available to so many people that the likelihood of qualifying for a rental car discount is great. If you belong to an auto club, credit union or airline frequent flyer program you probably already qualify for a discount.
But to receive truly substantial discounts, you have to do a little more advance work. Rental car companies do offer these large discounts, but more often than not they require a reservation.
Quite a Feat
In New York, for example, trying to rent a car for a weekend and qualify for the advertised weekend rate is quite a feat. Rental companies, like airlines, limit availability of discount cars. If you're not careful, you could easily spend the equivalent of a down payment for a new car by trying to rent one for the weekend at the last minute.
It's even worse in Europe.
If you suddenly get the urge to rent a car in France, try to re-evaluate your impulse.
Last fall a California couple rented a Ford Taurus from Hertz at 10 in the morning for a one-day excursion through the countryside around Strasbourg.
They drove the car 174 miles, returning it at 5 p.m. the same day. The cost: a staggering $244.96.
What the couple didn't realize was that they were paying a full rate for the car (no reservation), a hefty charge of more than 3 French francs per kilometer and, last but not least, there's the almost criminal tax of 33.33% imposed by the French government.
Were the charges correct? They were, Hertz confirmed. If the couple had only made a reservation under the company's "Affordable Europe" summer program, they could have rented a Ford Fiesta in France at a weekly rate of $159 to $186 and paid nothing for mileage.
In the United States there are similar problems, like the touchy subject of drop-off charges. These add-on charges for renting a car in one location and dropping it off in another not only can be, but usually are, excessive.
One-Way Surcharges
Often these one-way surcharges can run as high as $75 per rental, and higher. A few years ago National Car Rental began their aggressive advertising campaign which is still going on, announcing that it had eliminated the dreaded drop-off charge, and that customers driving rented cars from one location to another would probably only be charged a $10-a-day fee instead of a drop-off charge.
This semantic mumbo-jumbo amounts to the same thing. At $10 a day, a rental of six days would cost an additional $60. It sounds like a drop-off charge to me.
On even a one-day rental between locations, National can be expensive. For example, if you rent a mid-size car (a Buick Skylark or Chevrolet Citation) in Chicago and want to drive it to Milwaukee, National will charge you $60 a day ($50 a day for the car, $10 a day for the privilege of driving it to Milwaukee) and throw in 100 free miles a day.
If you rent a compact car from them (a Chevrolet Cavalier or Pontiac J-2000) for the same destination, don't expect any discounts. The rate: $59 a day.
Renting a mid-size car from National to drive a one-day trip between Los Angeles and San Francisco will cost you $67.
The rates quoted are non-discounted, regular rental rates. But what if you're eligible for a corporate or group discount?
With National, you may end up with no discount at all if you want to drop off the car. One corporation, which normally rents its cars from National at $33 a day with unlimited mileage, would lose the free mileage if the car is dropped off at another location. The new rate would be $33 a day and a staggering 33 cents a mile. You don't need to be a mathematical genius to discover that the same one-day trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco could easily run $113, not counting insurance charges or gasoline.
End of Free Ride
In fact, when it comes to mileage charges, the end of the free ride is at hand. Citing increased operating and insurance costs, most rental car companies are moving quickly to put caps on free mileage offers.
