Navigating the cheap car rental market, to your advantage

You won’t find a cheap car rental at the national car rental agencies. These agencies have fleets of fairly recent automobiles, the cost of which must be covered in their rental price. Recent automobiles also have higher insurance costs, which must also be recovered from rental prices. For cheap car rentals, you have to seek out local, city car rental agencies.

Local car rental agencies are more apt to purchase working cars that may be as much as ten years old or even greater. They may have purchased broken down cars that they fixed, or acquired abandoned cars and taken ownership. These cars are lower end, but usually highly gas efficient, small and without the frills. Many garages may have a small fleet of cars collected over the years from customers who abandoned the cars there or sold them for scrap. Enterprising garage owners have fixed these cars, perhaps spent a little to correct the interior, and have set them out in the back, ready to replace a car they’re fixing, with their back lot cars for rent.

Cheap car rentals are available in most cities, including country towns where you would expect not to find one. You can find them in the yellow pages of the phone book. Most do not provide a pick up service, as the big car rental companies do, and your selection will be extremely limited. These cars are not without their faults. Cheap car rental agencies keep the cars cheap by applying limited fixes and restorations. They are poorly maintained and may not be dependable. You won’t have much confidence that they will start when you need them, so if you need a highly dependable car, a cheap rental car is not the way to go.

With their short comings, cheap rental cars may still be a viable alternative to your transportation needs when you’re trying to save up enough money for a down payment for a new car of your own. Most cheap car rental agencies allow you to rent the car for as long as you want. Some might even be willing to sell these to you on a rent to buy basis, but most will want to keep the car you come to trust because they know it will continue to make them money in the future. Beware of an agent that offers to enter into a rent to buy agreement right away. They may be trying to unload a lemon on you, or one they expect to break down soon.

If you’re going to rent from a cheap car rental agency, rent the small, more gas efficient one. Older cars can use up the advantage of renting a cheap car through inefficient gas consumption. Know with as much precision just how long you’ll need the car, since you can generally get discounts if you rent the car by the week or month. Compare the prices and mileage allowance to the national agencies before you rent. A cheap rental car may seem cheap for the rental price, but the mileage costs may be greater than the national agencies and the cheap rental car may not be so cheap after all. However, if you do a little research, you just may find a good, reliable deal.