Renting a cheaper car just outside of NYC
 

Hi. I'm looking to rent a car for a month this summer and wondering if I can get it cheaper outside of Manhattan, say in NJ or Westchester. If you have experience with this, I'd be grateful. Please provide specific car rental agencies and locations that you've used. Thanks!

I don't know a specific location, but Enterprise tends to have good long term rates in many cities.

A good way to start is to go to sidestep.com and just start plugging in different cities or dates. I believe with cars you can ask it to check "nearby locations".

Are you sure you need the car for the entire month? Maybe you just need a car a few days/week? Zipcar.com ?

Here's info from NY Magazine
http://nymag.com/nymetro/travel/features/471/

Sorry, that was the wrong article. (quite old) This article is about renting outside Manhattan

http://nymag.com/bestofny/fun/2008/halfcar/

but if you're going to be driving in and out of the city, you'll also have to think about parking. I believe Hertz offers discount parking of their cars in certain garages in Manhattan.

I rent a car once a month in Manhattan. Go to the car rental agencies websites and play with the locations. Weekends in NYC are very expensuve especially during holidays and warmer weather.

The rules of zipacar are idiotic. Hertz now offers an hourly rate at least in the West 13th street location.

rentalcars.com lets you search city pickups instead of airport locations.

Plug in some city locations (Secaucus?) that would be easy for you to get to, and check the rates. You can then go directly to the car companies website and search for better rates, using discount codes from the airline frequent flier websites, AAA etc.

It's much, much cheaper to rent a car outside of NYC. I know when I visit my parents, renting a car in westport CT at the train station is about 50% of the price. A bunch of train stations will have rental car pick ups, so that might make it easy for you to pick up.

gab: I don't know if you have ever used Priceline, but their discounts on cars can sometimes be even better than thier discounts on hotels - more than 50%.

Yes, I definitely need the car for the whole month, not just a few days a week. The priceline suggestion is a good one--I'll look into that.
Does anyone have other suggestions?

Before I bought my car, I used to rent at the Enterprise in Hoboken. Very easy to get to and much, much cheaper.

I've had a lot of success with hotwire.com in New York City. You have to get the cars at the airport, but the rates are terrific. Last summer, during a prime weekend in June, we were able to rent a brand new Explorer for $35 per day.

So here is where I am so far. Enterprise in Manhattan is significantly cheaper than the locations in NJ (I tried Hoboken and Jersey City) and also White Plains, NY. The rentalcars.com website doesn't rent minivans, which is what I need. Ditto for priceline. Any other suggestions???

I find it hard to believe that Manhattan Enterprise is cheaper. Are you sure that includes all taxes, fees and insurance you'll need? Taxes alone are much more in NYC I think. Have you tried some of the smaller car rental places in NYC like http://www.aamcar.com/?

I assume you need this car to go somewhere outside Manhattan. Have you checked rentals near there? Sometimes car dealerships rent cars.