Cheap Car Rental?

Question

I need to rent a car one way from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City. I've never rented a car before- so have no idea where to look for the cheapest rental- where's the best deal? Is it better to rent by the week? What are the best pickup/drop off times?

Answer 1

Most of the bigger named rental car agencies are about the same- Enterprise, Thrifty, Hertz, Avis, and Budget rent economy cars for about $20 a day. Depending on the demand and time of year I have seen cars rent for as low as $12 a day. The wise thing to do is to check the rates every few days to get an idea of how the trends fluctuate. Sometimes Thrifty may be higher while Enterprise is lower. If you reserve the car when the rates are at their lowest, you will have the car for that price when the rates go back up. When you reserve the car, be sure to ask if a deposit is required in order to reserve the car at that particular price.

Normally if you intend on renting the car for a few days but you end up keeping it for a week, your charges will be automatically adjusted for a weekly rental. Be sure to ask about that so that you do not get charged for 7 days. The last time I rented a car the cost was $30 a day but it was only $165 a week. I kept it for 6 days and it ended up costing me $180. Had I kept it one more day I would have been able to save $15.

Also consider that if you are driving the car one way, there might be an additional charge for that so be sure to ask in advanced. I rented from Enterprise once and because I drove the car from one airport to the other, they didn't charge me any additional costs.

Overall it pays to shop around on a regular basis. The prices even vary between locations of a particular agency. It very well might cost more to rent from Hertz in your neighborhood than it would cost to rent at the airport.