Car rental for one day

[WinniWoman]

We are trying to get a car rental for our son for Thanksgiving weekend. (Wed.-Sun). It seems that the rentals- if we can even get them from NH to NY- are like $170 for one day pick up and drop off, as opposed to the same for 5 days! How can this be? We thought we could save money by having him pick up the car in NH and drive down- drop the car off at the car rental place here in NY, as he doesn't need it while he is staying with us. And then we figured he could pick a car up on Sunday and return it Sunday or Monday morning before he goes back to work.

His own car is not suitable for the 6 hour ride and we want to get him home at least once for this year. He always comes for Thanksgiving. We also will have to do this again at XMAS as we will be in Vermont at Smuggs and he needs to get there- a 3 hour ride.

Any suggestions?

 

[SMHarman]

Metro North to Stamford then rent from there.
Avis and hertz at the station. Enterprise will pick you up.

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[DeniseM]

It's because you are picking up/dropping off in different locations - always higher.

Also - is he 25 or under?

 

[WinniWoman]

It's because you are picking up/dropping off in different locations - always higher.

Also - is he 25 or under?

Yes. 27. Geesh- crazy!

 

[WinniWoman]

Metro North to Stamford then rent from there.
Avis and hertz at the station. Enterprise will pick you up.

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He lives in Plymouth, NH- rural -and we live in Hudson Valley, NY- not the city- so he would need to drop off the car in Middletown or Goshen so we could pick him up.


Thanks, though.

 

[WinniWoman]

And I might add that that price is for a compact car and my son is a BIG guy. not to mention the safety issue on driving during that time of year in such a small car in New England. The past 2 years we have had snow with electrical outages and everything.

My husband works for Allstate and knows a guy at Enterprise and he said it would cost the same for just the 2 days as for the 5- cost was about $189 for a compact car for Wed-Mon am drop off. Going to ask him if he can get a intermediate car and see how much more that will be. Ugh!

I went online on Enterprise and seems he is right. I also tried on CarRentals.com and can't even get a car for the 2 days! The 5 days were a lot more than the Enterprise guy quoted- like $250. But- like I said- he only really needs the car 2 days- one to come down and one to go back up.What the??!!

 

[SMHarman]

You have two one way rental fees of nearky $90 each in the up and back. Hence it costs the same for a round trip.

Economy to fullsize is not usually a big change in price. Though us Europeans will tell you that you can usually put a 6'3" in the driver seat if nobody is behind it.

He could drive to white river junction and take the Vermonter but then you need an empire to Hudson.

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[am1]

It is actually simple. Just like your son a lot of people want to rent cars at that time. If he is picking the car up in nh and dropping it off in new york the rental company knows he is at least driving the distance of NH - New York during the one day it is rented. Compared to someone renting a car in NH for 5 days just to drive around NH visiting family. If he rents for 5 days, just like you said it will really only be used two days. The rental car companies know this. Some companies do not offer unlimited miles to in state drivers as they know more than likely that the car will be driven out of state a good distance.

It is also possible two one way rentals incur more taxes or that renting in ny has more taxes then nh.

A few times a year I would like to be able to rent a car for 4-5 hours to get to the airport but it would still be $160. 24 hour minimum rental so in theory for less money I could drive to the airport 3-4 times in that 24 hours and put a lot more miles on but most people are not going to be doing that.

Car rental companies do a not of strange things but this is not one of them.

 

[WinniWoman]

You have two one way rental fees of nearky $90 each in the up and back. Hence it costs the same for a round trip.

Economy to fullsize is not usually a big change in price. Though us Europeans will tell you that you can usually put a 6'3" in the driver seat if nobody is behind it.

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Right. I guess I just don't know why it costs so much for each one way trip. He will only have the car for 8 hours tops each of the 2 days! As opposed to having the car for 5 days, 24 hours per day and it will cost the same!

 

[SMHarman]

Right. I guess I just don't know why it costs so much for each one way trip. He will only have the car for 8 hours tops each of the 2 days! As opposed to having the car for 5 days, 24 hours per day and it will cost the same!

Car rental companies anticipate demand in a location and put Cars there to meet demand.

The one way fee is to cover the cost of rebalancing the fleet back to where the demand is.

Similarly you can often get cheap one way Rentals from NYC to the main airports as it means you are doing the company's rebalancing for them.

Think of the $90 as the cost to the Hire company to get the car back to the home base.

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[Kel]

You might try looking at rental rates for one week, keep the car and return the car early. Weekly (7 day) rental rates are sometimes lower than a 5 day rental rate. Just another idea. Happy Holidays!

 

[b2bailey]

Is there any form of public transit -- bus (MegaBus)or train -- that would be available for a portion of the trip? He could use UBER to make the connections from home to point of departure.

I have been hit many times with the one way extra fee -- they call it a 'drop off' fee.

 

[WinniWoman]

For example, on CarRentals.com it says $51 for the day. But then it says taxes and fees are $110.00!! so it was $161.00 for ONE day! Meaning over $300 for 2 DAYS! It says unlimited mileage! Insane!

In terms of renting the car, the best deal is the one my husband got through the enterprise car place for the 5 days- cheaper than the 7 days.

I guess I was obviously naive in thinking it would be cheaper for 2 days. The logistics of doing public transportation in a rural area like he lives in and coming down to the rural area we live in- the car rental is the better route. Taking a train and trying to get Uber and/or a bus is just not going to work for this 6 hour trip

Sigh! My mom used to say- if you lose money or if you have to spend money on something you didn't plan for- "make believe" you went to a casino and had some fun and lost it. I guess she thought that would make it not seem so bad- but the problem is I don't enjoy gambling! LOL!

I think our son's XMAS and birthday gifts are going to be a bit smaller this year for sure.I hope he can get a car by next year because we can't be doing this every holiday. As it is, the past couple of Xmas's we have had to rent a timeshare unit for a few days near where he lives to be together since he lives in a very small place.

 

[glmyers]

You might try looking at rental rates for one week, keep the car and return the car early. Weekly (7 day) rental rates are sometimes lower than a 5 day rental rate. Just another idea. Happy Holidays!

You can very likely get a car for a week for less than any other option for car rental. You might want to look at Greyhound. While not the most glamorous way to travel, it will get him there.

 

[WinniWoman]

You can very likely get a car for a week for less than any other option for car rental. You might want to look at Greyhound. While not the most glamorous way to travel, it will get him there.

Thanks. I checked it out- nothing available.