Renting a car could be tricky especially in the U.S. Always remember everything is the business in America and everyone looks and behaves like your best friend in order to sell you some additional services. When it comes to renting a car they will most likely force you to the most expensive additional insurance. Honestly, I still don’t clearly understand how the insurance works here so I always use some basics insurance. Personally, I think it is always better to book a car before your arrival. This time a booked some middle class like Toyota Camry because the price was slightly higher than some small cars. It was around $25/per day. When I finally got to the car rental Budget, I saw many people waiting for their rental cars. After 30 minutes of waiting in line, I was talking with a nice guy and he offered me Ford Mustang for $29/per day. I couldn’t refuse this offer because for a long time I had wanted to try the latest Mustang. I tried to get a GT version with an 8 cylinder engine but the price would be more than doubled. Even basic 2.3 EcoBoost with 310hp is not bad but honestly, after few days I felt more horsepower is needed. In the end, the car is funny and good for daily use. What I most liked was Apple CarPlay and definitely want this feature for the next new car I’m gonna buy.
I had the car for three weeks before I bought a used Mercedes C-Classe (the post coming soon) and in total paid around $1000. In summary, it was rent $29/per day + insurance $16/per day + some sales tax and you will get approximately $50/per day in total. I think it’s a good price for a funny car with insurance but it is not definitely the solution for a long time.
Interesting notes:
- I was able to pay the car rental with my debit card issued in the Czech Republic (I forgot to apply for a credit card in time) For some reason I have heard many times it is not possible but thankfully this time my debit card worked.
- I slightly scratched the passenger door and you can trust that if you would do this in Europe with a rental car you would pay for this damage hundreds of dollars. However, in the U.S., cars are like daily goods, and returning the rental car is something like: Car Rental Employee: “Did you have any problem with your car?” I: “No everything was perfect” Car Rental Employee: ” Cool, you can go!”
- They only checked total miles and if you returned the car with a full tank of gas.
- Don’t try drifts and slides with RWD without previous experience. Of course, I had been trying it every intersection and soon I had feeling it is easy peasy, a few days before returning the car I almost hit the curb when the car turned more than I wanted 🙂 I was lucky I stopped few inches before the curb. Who knows me is not surprised 😀 Always Drive Safe!
