Greetings from OZ,
We are landing in Detroit and going to Ontario. Have heard of problems taking cars across the border.

Would we be best off getting a hire car from the airport or using public transport to Windsor and then hire a car there?

The problem in taking a car across the border is people do it without having it in their rental contract. You can rent a car in Detroit and take it into Ontario, just check with the rental company to see what their policies and charges are. Some companies don't allow it at all, others do but charge high fees.

If you decide that renting in Windsor is better, there are shuttles from DTW to Windsor. Check www.classicshuttle.ca or www.robertq.com/airbus on the Windsor side. Robert Q charges in the neighborhood of $34 each way.

On the Detroit side your options are www.metroairporttaxi.org at around $70 or www.checkersedan.com.

When you check on the car rental rules, don't just check the main website, go through enough of the rental process to get the agreement and rules for that rental location.

Sometimes the location will have a stricter policy than the company in general.

I found that out last year with the credit card hold. The main website said they held the rental amount plus a flat rate (about $200), but the location held the rental amount plus a daily rate that equaled an additional $1300.

Now I always check the agreement for the location.

Thanks for all that info.
As we will need the car any way I think that is the best thing to do.

i.e. Pick one up from the airport.

I've never rented at Detroit for a trip to Canada but I have rented both at Burlington, VT and at Anchorage with AVIS and in neither place did they charge me extra for taking the car into Canada. In both cases, their standard contract allowed travel into Canada as long as it was to be returned in the US. I've never tried to rent a car in the US for drop off in Canada. Also, I have rented with AVIS in Toronto for a trip into the US and back, also without a problem or extra charge.

Each time I've done this, the border control people wanted to take a quick look at my rental contract but otherwise, I had no trouble making the crossing.

Let me emphasize that you will save yourself potential hassle if your rental contract specifically permits trans border use.

I have had a problem a couple of times because there was not a rider attached that gave permission.

I wonder if OZ has anything to compare to "Detroit".

... and then you contemplate "public transport" in Detroit ???

Funny stuff.