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.

 

[Heds22]

This 4x4 looks like mine

 

[Heds22]

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.

Watch the check engine

 

[james_parkar99]

This is a great perspective self-drive travel with a rental car really does align well with the spirit of overlanding when the goal is exploration and efficient access. Your tips on city book-ending, smaller vehicles, and open-jaw routes are especially practical and can save both time and money while expanding what a trip can realistically include.

 

[DieselRanger]

Rented a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon on a recent trip to Sedona. I drive a 2017 Land Rover Discovery HSE Td6 at home (insert undeserved Lucas Electric joke here...my Disco has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned, and it gets very dirty).

We...drove the Jeep pretty hard. 4L, rear diffs locked, deep mud, rocks...we had fun. Nothing the Landy couldn't do, but fun to try out something different. The photo doesn't do it justice - you can't really tell how thick the mud was caked on.

I concluded that I didn't really like it - it's great if you never have to drive it long distances at highway speeds, and the infotainment was unbearably glitchy...there were other nits, but off road it was super confidence inspiring. Mechanical vs the Landy's electronic wizardry. If I lived where I needed to go off road a lot and never had to exceed ~50mph on the road, I might consider one.

 

[SVTRIT]

Rented a Jeep Wrangler Rubicon on a recent trip to Sedona. I drive a 2017 Land Rover Discovery HSE Td6 at home (insert undeserved Lucas Electric joke here...my Disco has been the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned, and it gets very dirty).

We...drove the Jeep pretty hard. 4L, rear diffs locked, deep mud, rocks...we had fun. Nothing the Landy couldn't do, but fun to try out something different. The photo doesn't do it justice - you can't really tell how thick the mud was caked on.

I concluded that I didn't really like it - it's great if you never have to drive it long distances at highway speeds, and the infotainment was unbearably glitchy...there were other nits, but off road it was super confidence inspiring. Mechanical vs the Landy's electronic wizardry. If I lived where I needed to go off road a lot and never had to exceed ~50mph on the road, I might consider one.

Pictures never do mud justice....sure looks like you had fun.

I think it took 3 or 4 washes over a month or two to get all the mud off of my YJ. I got a really dirty look from an old lady in a suburban as she passed me on the highway on my way back. For some reason, that made me smile a lot.

I had a Nissan Rogue AWD for a couple years in between cool vehicles. I was on business in Louisiana in sugar cane country, where I was instructed that I had to have 4WD. I was given a Rogue very similar to the one I owned and gave the AWD system a huge workout, and it preformed very, very well. I'm guessing I killed the CVT in the process, but it got me in and out of where I needed to be.

 

[DieselRanger]

Pictures never do mud justice....sure looks like you had fun.

I think it took 3 or 4 washes over a month or two to get all the mud off of my YJ. I got a really dirty look from an old lady in a suburban as she passed me on the highway on my way back. For some reason, that made me smile a lot.

I had a Nissan Rogue AWD for a couple years in between cool vehicles. I was on business in Louisiana in sugar cane country, where I was instructed that I had to have 4WD. I was given a Rogue very similar to the one I owned and gave the AWD system a huge workout, and it preformed very, very well. I'm guessing I killed the CVT in the process, but it got me in and out of where I needed to be.

It took an hour and about $50 of power washing at a wash rack to blast the mud off. That stuff dries like concrete...no wonder Pueblos made out of that stuff have lasted 1,000 years!