Car Hire

[Dommiekazommie]

Lol! You think driving in Melbourne is hard? I lived in Sydney for 6 months last year and man was that complicated! Lanes that suddenly turned into left turn only lanes. Strips in the middle of roads so you can't turn. Lights with white stop signs, one way streets. Confused the heck out of me! Give me roads with trams and hook turns anyday! That being said I'm way to scared to hire a car stateside! I'm scared in a cab going on the "wrong" side of the road!

 

[kylieh]

Well I've booked flying both ways now - Burbank to LV, then LV to Orange County Airport. We decided against driving as we just weren't too sure and we thought about whoelse would be in the car and how it may stress them
DH and I thought that if we wanted a car then in Anaheim we'll pop down to Avis/Hertz/whoever and book a car for a day or two then.

 

[PrincessInOz]

We tend to use Hertz in US, as my husband has a corporate deal with them. However, I just priced out a 1 week car hire in Florida and Alamo turned out to be the cheapest. We're picking up a standard size car with 2 registered drivers, complete with all CDW for US$400. We're driving from Miami down to Orlando (and will try to get to Melbourne Florida). The sweetener was that we can drop off the Alamo (or National) on-site at the Swan and Dolphin hotel in the WDW resort. We don't have to worry about having to catch a taxi back to our resort.

 

[Mellby]

I've used Alamo and couple of times, no problem at all. Also used National while in LA last year. I'm pretty sure they are owned by the same company, however I was much happier with Alamo's service and cars than National. Beware of hidden costs of returning the car to LAX if that is your drop off point.

 

[queenie82]

We tend to use Hertz in US, as my husband has a corporate deal with them. However, I just priced out a 1 week car hire in Florida and Alamo turned out to be the cheapest. We're picking up a standard size car with 2 registered drivers, complete with all CDW for US$400. We're driving from Miami down to Orlando (and will try to get to Melbourne Florida). The sweetener was that we can drop off the Alamo (or National) on-site at the Swan and Dolphin hotel in the WDW resort. We don't have to worry about having to catch a taxi back to our resort.

We hired National for a few weeks in December from MCO and got a great car.
It is always BEST to pick up at the airport depot as they have the BIGGEST range of cars to pick from in the row. We got a like new car with only a few thousand miles on it.

The link with Alamo is great though as we could stop in to the Alamo at the Disney car care centre (just past the gate for MK) and drop the car off there before getting a shuttle back to where we were getting Magical Express from.

I did the drive from Orlando DOWN to Miami and back and it isn't too bad. It is rather boring...it is SOOOO flat...but there are outlets to pull into along the way. And the roads are actually pretty smooth surfaces! Something not found in Sydney.

 

[PrincessInOz]

It is rather boring...it is SOOOO flat...but there are outlets to pull into along the way. And the roads are actually pretty smooth surfaces! Something not found in Sydney.

The last time, we actually drove from Mile Marker 0 down in Key West all the way up to Orlando. You're right - it's flat and I finally understand why the Everglades are called a "swamp". We love driving in the US but not looking forward to the tolls in Florida.

 

[queenie82]

The last time, we actually drove from Mile Marker 0 down in Key West all the way up to Orlando. You're right - it's flat and I finally understand why the Everglades are called a "swamp". We love driving in the US but not looking forward to the tolls in Florida.

We also drove down to Key West on the same trip...never again...so disappointing. And yes it is literally swamp the whole way.......non stop swamp....
I was nearly falling asleep as you went through these tiny towns...and Key West takes tacky to a whole new level. Got a nice shot glass from Hard Rock though...

I actually don't mind driving in the US either. Once you get the hang of it (and stop driving in the gutter) the roads are sOOOOO much better than ours it was just fine to drive in. I even did the drive from Disneyland to LAX at night in the freeway traffic in good time
The roads in Florida are really good and I don't begrudge the tolls one bit because you are paying for GOOD roads.

 

[Oz-kateer]

We tend to use Hertz in US, as my husband has a corporate deal with them. However, I just priced out a 1 week car hire in Florida and Alamo turned out to be the cheapest. We're picking up a standard size car with 2 registered drivers, complete with all CDW for US$400. We're driving from Miami down to Orlando (and will try to get to Melbourne Florida). The sweetener was that we can drop off the Alamo (or National) on-site at the Swan and Dolphin hotel in the WDW resort. We don't have to worry about having to catch a taxi back to our resort.

Princess - I know you're at the Dolphin but just as an aside if you ever pickup/return National or Alamo cars at WDW, don't get suckered into paying for cabs, they will shuttle you between any Disney resort hotel and the two car rental hotspots - Disney Car Care and the Dolphin Resort. If you're picking up a car your hotel concierge can arrange, if you're dropping off the rental clerk can assist.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks Ozkateer. Didn't mean to imply that we would catch a cab to our hotel. We would either walk to Epcot for more park time or use the ME to get back to resorts.

 

[Mellby]

Please delete. Sorry

 

[Mellby]

Whereabouts it the car depot for National in Anaheim?

I'm picking a car up in Burbank and dropping it off as I'll be meeting up with my brothers and they will already have a car....

 

[PrincessInOz]

I think this is on Katella, near the Desert Palms Suites...anyone know for sure?

 

[SnowWhite09]

PrincessinOz, I'm pretty sure you're right and that National Car is on West Katella.

 

[Mellby]

I think this is on Katella, near the Desert Palms Suites...anyone know for sure?

Thankyou. If I was smart, I'd just go to their site and look it up.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thankyou. If I was smart, I'd just go to their site and look it up.

Well, I think you were pretty smart to post the question instead of having to go on site and look it up

 

[Mellby]

Thanks everyone.

 

[johnnashdown]

If you want to save some money, do not rent a car at the airport site. The airport will increase your costs. This is due to taxes and fees, airport charges, car rental companies. These costs be passed on to you. Car rental prices will likely than other places.Rent a car. But, you must be careful where you actually rent the car from. The location that you do rent from could make a substantial difference in the cost.

 

[platypus67]

We have used National since 2007 and as yet haven't had a problem. First rental was in Florida in 2007 free upgrade to a slightly larger car. Still had the new car smell with only 100 miles on the odometre. Total cost with all insurance around $1900.00 for six weeks including one way and we dropped it off in Syracuse NY.
Second rental was one week in Florida last year. Not a great car, but hey we only wanted to get from Point A to point B. It was an older model but was clean and comfortable.
Third rental was last year as well. They were fantastic. We made several last minute changes due to getting stuck at airports due to bad weather and they were very helpful each time. We got a nice car with reasonably low mileage and in the end we paid about $150.00 less than the original quote on booking. When we eventually arrived at the airport didn't have a car waiting as we had played it safe and booked for the next day and they once again changed our booking without hassel.
I like national because they have the best rate for a one way rental which we use quite often.
I always know the full charges up front as insurances are included in the quote.
They have always been much cheaper than any of the other companies including Alamo which as far as I know is owned by the same company.
Maybe we've just been lucky, but I will continue to use them as long as I get the service I've had in the past.

 

[jacckpeter]

Car rental companies had to adjust to the challenging times, and come up with new marketing strategies, stay in the game, all in the need to protect their brands .. Avis, Budget, Eurocar firms.

 

[Lulu83]

We rented a car from Dollar LAX in December (actually we rented two - one at the start of our trip, then we flew to the east coast, and then a second one at the end of our trip specifically to drive to and from Anaheim) and didn't have any problems at all. Was easy to catch the shuttle from the airport to the depot, weren't pressured too much to upgrade anything, cars were all in good condition and had no wait dropping off or picking up either time.

We booked through our travel agent and she got us a good deal. We also dropped the first car off at San Francisco and didn't have to pay too much extra for that.