Car Hire in America?

Going to USA myself in August.
Want to hire a car from JFK - any recommendations on the 'easiest' company to use? Want one that's easy to find at JFK and easy to return.

Also, planning on staying 1, maybe 2, nights in NYC - know of a good, clean hotel in good location?

Thanks :thumb
 
Just dropped a Mustang off after eight days' rental, picked it up at Washington DC with drop off at Newark Airport, New Jersey. The relocation (or 'One Way' fee) was $50 (£35-ish), seems reasonable. :)

We got it through Auto Europe (from Avis) as well and really liked it, but can't comment on the handling as I simply didn't have much opportunity to try it out, the roads are so regulated with speed limits, even the exit ramps to and from the motorways (or whatever they call them here) are limited to absurdly low speeds. 25mph was the usual IIRC. :confused: It felt fine before I did notice the limits, mind.

One annoying thing was that Avis had moved its Washington Downtown depot a couple of months before without any warning to us, and, worse, without a notice on the vacated premises, even a simple handwritten note in the widow or door would have helped, FFS. Another thing was that the GPS was faulty, it wasn't charging so we had to take the thing back to the depot. That became rather more of an issue when a few days later the GPS unit wouldn't get going when we got in the car in the morning and demanded the PIN code, of course the PIN code we had refered to the original GPS unit we were given, we phoned Auto Europe who told us to phone the Washington DC depot, who at the fourth attempt found us the correct PIN. For fuck's sake...

Anyway- back to the Mustang: once I got over the size we really did like it. Actually it did take me a little while to get used to not being able to see the far front corner, the driver's seat wouldn't adjust high enough to allow me to see over that vast bonnet (I'm six foot one, so it wasn't because I'm too short). It was a convertible so we had the roof down most days which was great unless we were on the freeways when the noise of the traffic was horrendous and completely drowned out the directions from the GPS which was turned up to full volume, a situation further exascerbated by the fact that it was difficult to see the screen because of the reflections on it due to the roof being down. The aircon worked fine both with the roof up and down, by which I mean it kept us cool when the sun was roasting and it also kept us warm when it got cooler in the evenings, and when it absolutely pissed down when we had the roof down in the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the roof down it was just like a hard top, quiet and deceptively fast, I found the speed creeping up to over eighty once, and that on a road with a sixty five limit. Fingers crossed that I don't get a wee message about that in the post... To be honest though, the traffic was generally at least ten mph over the posted limit. Luggage space: we had difficulty in getting our large suitcase in the boot, but it was manageable if we didn't have it bulging, which was just a matter of putting just a bit more of the luggage in our smaller airline carry-on luggage size suitcase which we could then get into the boot by its side. We avoided the temptation of just putting it on the back seat (the Mustang is a four-seater, but with very little legroom in the back) because it would have been so easy for an opportunistic thief to just run off with it given half a chance. Performance: it was an automatic and a bit ponderous when you put your foot down, but hardly sparkling acceleration when it did change down. It did have a nice exhaust note though. One surprising thing was its fuel consumption- a stubborn +/- 30 mpg ie 29 on the Blue Ridge Parkway with a speed limit of 45mph, the same on the Shenandoah Parkway with a limit of 35mph and a surprising 30 and-a-bit at a steady-ish 70mph on the freeways. Using cruise control seemed to reduce the mpg by a mile or so.

Sorry if the above gives an overall negative impression, but we (my wife and myself) both really liked it even tough she recoiled in horror at its size when she first saw it, and were sorry to drop it off after about 1,300 miles in eight days, I think we'll be getting another one when we do the National Parks next year. :beerjug:
 
I'm currently in Oregon and have hired a 2016 Mustang convertible. It's a big car, but it handles much better than the 2014 model I rented a couple of years ago and is much more modern (as you'd expect) in all respects. It's still a bit of a barge compared to my BMW 320d, but it looks feckin' cool

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As you said- cool!

I think they said on last Sunday's Top Gear that they would be having the new Mustang on next time (Sunday 3rd Jul) but it isn't mentioned in the schedules, they do mention the 911 and the 'new'(?) MGB. I'll watch it just in case.

What did you think of Oregon? It does look great, we may pay a visit some day. :)
 
Going to USA myself in August.
Want to hire a car from JFK - any recommendations on the 'easiest' company to use? Want one that's easy to find at JFK and easy to return.

Also, planning on staying 1, maybe 2, nights in NYC - know of a good, clean hotel in good location?

Thanks :thumb

Sorry, I've just seen this. Did you get sorted?
 
What did you think of Oregon? It does look great, we may pay a visit some day. :)

There are some very pretty stretches of coast, but long frustrating stretches too with loads of traffic and little to see.

It's much nicer inland and yesterdays drive from McMinnville to Mt Hood was really good, starting in very pretty farmlands and then following the Clackamus river gorge before driving through the forests to Governement Camp for the night.
 
What did you think of Oregon? It does look great, we may pay a visit some day. :)

As Sven says, stay away from the Oregon Coast apart from teh very top bit just west of Seattle. The road is heaving, not that pretty to be honest and can get very cold and murky thanks to teh infamous fog.. The best part of the PCH is from Garberville to San Francisco and is endless miles of curves and views.

Anyway, the rest of Oregon is a stunning state with some fantastic scenery. You have everything from Crater Lake to Mt St Helens to the fossil beds of John Day. It's not very touristy and some of the smaller roads and towns are well worth a look.

If I had to choose a perfect state with just about everything in it, Oregon would be top of the list.
 
There are some very pretty stretches of coast, but long frustrating stretches too with loads of traffic and little to see...

As Sven says, stay away from the Oregon Coast apart from the very top bit just west of Seattle. The road is heaving, not that pretty to be honest and can get very cold and murky thanks to the infamous fog. The best part of the PCH is from Garberville to San Francisco and is endless miles of curves and views.

Anyway, the rest of Oregon is a stunning state with some fantastic scenery....If I had to choose a perfect state with just about everything in it, Oregon would be top of the list.
The above quotes have answered my question before I asked really, my main interest was in the Pacific Coast Highway, I do know about the fogs, we had some on our last visit and I was wondering if the section north of San Francisco tended to be any clearer.

Our daughter may be moving to SF in a few weeks and now Oregon is becoming yet another attraction, dammit. That's the thing with the area, too many attractions. Another case of So little time, so much to do. Life's such a bitch.
 
..... really liked it, but can't comment on the handling as I simply didn't have much opportunity to try it out, the roads are so regulated with speed limits, even the exit ramps to and from the motorways (or whatever they call them here) are limited to absurdly low speeds. 25mph was the usual IIRC. :confused: It felt fine before I did notice the limits, mind.

John the yellow speed signs posted on curves and exit ramps are not "speed limit" signs they're actually there just to caution you to the severity of the curve, simply ignore them or use them as a guide. You can comfortably drive or ride at double the speed on those yellow signs.

 
As Sven says, stay away from the Oregon Coast apart from teh very top bit just west of Seattle. The road is heaving, not that pretty to be honest and can get very cold and murky thanks to teh infamous fog.. The best part of the PCH is from Garberville to San Francisco and is endless miles of curves and views.

Anyway, the rest of Oregon is a stunning state with some fantastic scenery. You have everything from Crater Lake to Mt St Helens to the fossil beds of John Day. It's not very touristy and some of the smaller roads and towns are well worth a look.

If I had to choose a perfect state with just about everything in it, Oregon would be top of the list.

I agree... :thumb2

(Posted from Oregon :D)
 
We're back in California now, but Oregon, once away from the coast, has been brilliant. The empty roads have been great fun and the scenery is lovely :cool:

Crater Lake was the high point of the holiday and the most expensive part at $280 for a room overlooking the lake and around $170 for dinner - the missus kept up her end of the deal though :p

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Great pics sven and Crater Lake is beautiful, but just thinking about $450 for dinner and a room makes me ill. But we only live once and you're doing it in style!
 
I’ve booked a flydrive with BA, the hire car is through Avis. The car rental voucher says that Additional Liability Insurance & Collision Damage Waiver are included. Will I need to take out any further insurance at the desk?
 
Breakdown and punctures. Pretend you're not interested and they'll reduce their price :thumb2
 
Just spent a frustrating couple of hours looking at car rentals.......................agggggggh
In the end used the old reliable Booking.com
 
Try and use the American version of the websites (if your IP address doesn't stop you from doing so)

It's a few years since I was regularly hiring cars in the States but I always got better prices that way. Particularly with Hertz.

Sent from a OnePlusX.
 
Try and use the American version of the websites (if your IP address doesn't stop you from doing so)

It's a few years since I was regularly hiring cars in the States but I always got better prices that way. Particularly with Hertz.

Sent from a OnePlusX.


Yes that approach worked out best for me too last month
 
One of the advantages of working for a multi-national corporation is the corporate discount on Hertz car rental. It worked out 20% cheaper than anywhere else including zero excess CDW :thumby:
 


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