Cigar Lighters in hire cars
 

Do all hire cars in California have cigar lighters - as I need one to charge my camcorder. Hope this question is not too daft....

If the car doesn't have a cigarette lighter then it will almost certainly have its functional reincarnation, the Power Point! People may not be smoking anymore but they still need to charge their cell phones.

I haven't been in a rental car in 5 years that hasn't had one, the other or both. I will freely admit I haven't hired a car in CA.

Since it's a critical feature for you, perhaps you should contact the rental agency directly.

E-mailed dollar - and they told me that they have been disabled to discourage smoking. Will have to think of plan b.

Do they actually disable them or simply remove the plug-in piece of the lighter, leaving the socket part still wired? If the latter that's pretty inexcusable, with cell phones and all the other accessories that everyone needs to plug into power points these days.

Sorry, I obviously meant that it's the FORMER practice that would be inexcusable.

The rental cars I have seen have a plastic plug in the (former) cigarette lighter instead of the old lighter device. I was able to plug my cell phone charger in with no problem.