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Car Rental in Florida

joestein

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We will be going to Fort Lauderdale in May (Fairways of Palm Aire). My wife and I have twin 3 yr old girls, I have been looking for a car rental and they all want $9/day per car seat.. This adds up to $126(at Alamo using a 20% coupon).

Tax seems to add up to about 50% of the rental cost, so I start out with a Uplander for $127 for the week and it ends up after car seats and taxes to about $320.

Does anybody have any suggestions? I would like a mini-van, but I will take a full size car if it saves me a decent amount of money.

Thanks
Joe
 

travelplanner70

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I, too, am amazed at the prices for rental cars in Ft. Lauderdale. The taxes are ridiculous. The car is more costly than the airline ticket! I have not found anything reasonably-priced recently either. Anyone can help us?
 

Egret1986

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I'm with you on this one, too!

I have a reservation for the cheapest thing I could find that would accommodate the four of us at Jacksonville airport, which is a mid-size at $243 total for the week. Really high price from what I've rented in the past in Florida.
 

JLB

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mikey0531

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We're bringing our car seat. We rented a mini van in Miami for March and with taxes, it'll be $328 with Avis using a code that someone posted here on TUG. I think car seat rental charges are ridiculous so we're bringing ours and checking it in with our luggage. I'm just going to put it one of those huge plastic bags that are for bikes etc.

Debi
 

joestein

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Car Rental

I have seen the Tote 'n Go travel carseat on sale for $29.95. It is a carseat that is soft and can fold into a bag. With these I can rent the minivan for under $200 including tax, hopefully.

I was a bit skeptical about how safe a soft car seat was, but a woman posted a review that said she was involved in an accident that resulted in her car rolling over and the seat worked great, keeping the child attached to the seat, even when upside down. Now, I just have to convince my wife.

I will let you know how it goes.
 

Egret1986

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Thanks, royerh!

royerh said:
go to tug posting in this section made by anne1125 on Jan. 16th for discount code info.
heather

Those discount postings helped. I didn't catch that thread the first time around. I checked one of the discounts through AVIS and it's $35 less for an upgrade to a standard size from the intermediate I had reserved through Dollar. Thanks again! :)
 

mikey0531

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Wow! That's great -- a minivan for under $200. Did you have to use any discount codes or anything? I'm still trying to reduce our mini-van rental out of Miami -- so far, it's $328 with all the taxes.

Thanks, Debi
 
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JLB

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Through National's Emerald Club a mid size SUV (Equinox) is $156.58, A minivan (Uplander--very nice) is $172.98, and an SUV (Trailblazer) is $209.06.
 

mikey0531

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That's a great rate. I think the Uplander is what I'm getting for $328. Unfortunately, I'm not an Emerald Club Member.
 

joestein

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Uplander

You can get the uplander at the rate I quoted using Walmart's 20% off Alamo coupon. The code is on Mousesavers.com
 

mikey0531

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I wonder if it has something to do with what airport you're picking up at. I went to Alamo and used the rate code you mentioned from Mousesavers and it ended up being about $275 for the week including taxes -- and that was for the Uplander (or similar). I think you said your rate of $200 included taxes. Please confirm. Thanks, Debi
 

CMF

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Grand Caravan has built in toddler seats.

Check if the rental company has Grand Caravans in their fleet. That's what I rented during my recent Orlando vacation and saved the cost of renting car seats and the hassle of lugging car seats for my twins all the way doen to Florida.

Charles
 

JLB

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mikey0531 said:
That's a great rate. I think the Uplander is what I'm getting for $328. Unfortunately, I'm not an Emerald Club Member.

Signing up is no big deal. Go their site or call. The reason I did in the first place was to get a great rate in Hawaii.

As to another comments, rates vary by airport, date, and car category. The car category is not always what you thin it might be, that nicer cars cost more. It has to do with availability at that location that date. In my above examples lesser vehicles were much higher.

And there's a lot more than taxes involved in the mandatory extra fees. In our recent $598 quote, the car itself was $456.81.
 
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JLB

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What am I missing on the child car seat issue? Do some vehicles have them built in? If so, which ones, I may want to start having kids. :cool:

PS--The Uplander didn't, I don't think.
 
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