Good grief! What's w/the high price of car rentals???

[SodoffBush]

When I rented three years ago, I could get a car for a week at the rate of $130. Now the rental agencies are quoting, after a looooong string of taxes, prices like $323.80 for the same friggin' economy car! I finally got Alamo down to $247.42.

Is this how the states are regrouping to recover lost federal funds?

[Braden]

1. usually how

cities and states pay for Stadia and convention centers. Its a total rip-off.

Where are you renting?

[SodoffBush]

5. Minneapolis. It took 30 seconds for the list of taxes to be read

pumping up the initial quote nearly 100% in most cases.

I once sold a car for $600. At these rates, I may as well buy another scrap-heap and keep it at the folks' house on an as-needed basis.

[Braden]

6. ouch

lets see there is the New Xcel Energy Center Ice Hockey Arena. you probably made a principle and interest payment on that.....


sometimes if you know someone in the area have them pick you up and rent a car in a suburb where they dont have the taxes, its a pain but it will save some bucks.

[DemoTex]

2. It's how municipalities are paying for stadiums, arenas, and Olympics.

The team owners benefit big time. The locals think that the out-of-towners who rent cars and stay in hotels won't really notice the taxes. It is out of control. Atlanta is a good case-in-point.

[Braden]

3. Phoenix is among the worst

since I think they now have three voter approved taxes on rental cars for :

Cactus league Baseball
Bank One Ballpark
and a new Football Stadium for the Cardinals and the Fiesta Bowl that is not yet underway,

I might be wrong on the last one but its ri-goddamn-diculous to quote faux hero John Wayne.

[yolatengo]

4. try priceline or whatever

Going to all the insert rental companies' websites, I got a quote
(after taxes n' fees) of around $900 for a minivan for 10 days. I
then went to Priceline, just to see, and ended up getting one with
unlimited mileage (the rental co's all only give you 100-150 miles
per day on minivans...dunno why) for about $425 for the same 10
days.

Ended up that 'Budget' accepted our 'bid' of $32/day, but you
could get anyone. Just don't listen to Priceline when they tell
you "our studies have shown if you bid $43-45 a day it will
'increase your chances that your bid will be accepted'". Duh,
and I'm suuuure Budget would've been 100% likely to accept
my bid if it was $100/day.

Btw, this was just last week. I'm pretty satisfied with the result,
and I've grown weary of priceline wrt airline tix, but for cars
and hotels, they've gotten me good deals. Orbitz or whomever
will also do the trick...

Bigby

[SodoffBush]

9. I'm checking that now

Interesting. Never done it this way before.

[radwriter0555]

7. Go with a local co, instead of the national cos.

Better deals every time for me...

[SodoffBush]

8. Do they rent from the airport?

I guess I could do a search of the Minneapolis Airport and see what they have that might be considered "local."