We found that (for 2 people) if we waited until getting to St John to pick up our car and then turned it in the day before we left, the savings on car rental more than paid for the ferry.
--bp
Bob - Interesting point (and as I said in my response to Polly - not necessarily a TUG consensus...).
Of course it depends on the length of time you want to rent the car - the car size and season will also make a difference - these will factor into the cost of the car rental (generally true no matter where you are).
Have you done the math? Mine does not work out cheaper (or equilvalent) for the WSJ ferry - even for 2 people.
If you rent on StT - you will be renting for 7 days. So if you only rent for 5 days picking up in StJ (assumes Sat arrival with pick-up on Sunday, and return Friday to leave on Sat) - that would be around a savings of ~$90/day. However, and importantly, generally when you rent for a week you are getting the 7th day for free - this is true for both StT and StJ (e.g. check-out O'Connor's rates). So... you are only saving the cost of 1 day. $90 in this example. (remembering that there is a $3.75 per day tax that is imposed by the USVI)
Right now, iirc, the ferry cost is $120pp RT - so $240 for 2 people. With the car barge costing an extra $70 for RT (incl extra gas and lot fee) - this is a negative savings of ~$80 for 2 people in taking the WSJ ferry.
{I believe my math is approx correct: $90+$70 more for renting for 7 days on StT (vs. 5-day rental on StJ) vs. $240 for the WSJ ferry}
So... of course costing $80 more for the WSJ ferry may be worth the convenience for 2 people - but when you increase to 4 people - renting on StT makes clearly more financial sense - as it will be an additional $240.
In addition, generally StT car rentals are a bit cheaper than StJ, and that is not factored in. This is not true for Amalie Car Rental (the are more expensive by StT standards but ~equal to StJ). btw, as a data point our June trip (14 day rental of a new 4WD, 4Dr Wrangler XL) from Amalie is $540/week (total, incl tax and STT pick-up/drop-off), and their cars are almost brand new as they only keep vehicles for a short time (plus, having a mini-RCA in the car is worth a lot to us). Having a new vehicle is important to us (actually, not having an unsafe vehicle is more important to us...) - so I am willing to pay this premium. I have had 2 experiences where the vehicles were unacceptable (1x on StT from Dependable, and 1x from Conrad Sutton on StJ), but was stuck with them. And the 2 times I rented from O'Connor was not pleasant either... (but that is another story).
So... that is my experience (and math...) - YMMV
enjoy.
