lagirl

We're planning to drive from LA to Vancouver this summer. We would like to fly back to LA from Seattle (and returning the car in Seattle) to take advantage of one-way flights on Southwest (one-way from Vancouver to LAX are really expensive!). Any suggestions on low cost rental cars? We would be renting the car for 16 days and the lowest quotes I've found are over $800. That seems pretty high - even for over two weeks.

Ariela

Make sure to dig deep and look into smaller local companies - they often have given me the best price.

Anne

I don't know if this'll help...

We rented from Avis in Feb. We picked up the car (mid size) at LAX and dropped it off a week later in Vegas. The TOTAL price for the week was $179.

I had a discount (10% maybe) through AAA.

I found the price using the website avis.com Almost forgot -- after I'd made the reservations, they emailed me a $25 coupon I used when we picked up the car, so the total was less than above.

Good luck!

Owen O'Neill

I wonder if there's a much higher volume of back and forth rental car traffic between LA and vegas and maybe that ccounts for the low price? I was planning to rent a car in San Francisco, drive up the coast for a week to Vancouver and then return car in Seattle. One week rental prices including taxes and drop off charges for a compact car ranged from just under $400 to well over $500! I've now decided to just start and finish in Seattle and leave the northern CA coast for another trip (easy decision for me as I've been up and down the CA coast a number of times. I had considered Hotwire or Priceline but they don't appear to do one ways with drop-off. One of my searches found a website that compares nearly all of the major and minor rental agencies and looks fdor deals. Check it out at

http://www.bnm.com/index.html

I haven't tried renting through them but it was very helpful for rate comparison.

John

I had a look at Avis for a 16 day rental mid summer, and found a rate of around $700 for a compact. The problem is that cars tend to load up at one end or another, thus needing return. I've seen cases (and used a couple) where as a walk-up (to the airport counter) you could do lots better on one-way deals, due to them having a "California car" etc. that needs returning, in which case they'll wave the drop fee, which is around $300 on the west coast. Trouble is, it's a catch-as-catch-can sort of deal. You might book a car then cancel if you can find a better walk-up (but be careful about cancellation fees).

lagirl

Thanks everybody!

Will

Alamo has some specials where they waive the drop charges, or you could rent under a corp code which waives the drop charges all together but charges you mileage.