In Praise of the Humble Rental Car

[aknightinak]

The One Way fee is generally pretty cost prohibitive in my experience. I rented a Minivan to take out daughter to college this year (MD to TX), intending to drive one way, turn the car in and fly home, but the one way drop fee alone was MORE than the 8 day rental I ended up with driving it both ways. It was crazy, but the rental comapnies obviously are tryign to discourage this..

I actually find the opposite fairly often, and it tends to happen more often renting from the smaller destination and dropping at the larger. My guess is that it has to do with distance between the two points and availability of the style of car at the dropoff.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned what a good bottle opener the closed door of a rental car makes. It costs a little paint, but the nick it causes is well less than the threshold for the damage fees at any of the major rental companies.