hi everybody,

i really need help with this one... i will be in the cleveland/akron/canton, ohio area for the next 3 months. i will need a rental car for the time i'm there, but when i tried to find out some of the monthly rates over the internet, i was getting quotes like around $700-800 per month!

does anyone know how to get low monthly rental rates for cars? perhaps specifically in the cle/cak area??

what about using miles? coupons/certificates?

any help is GREATLY appreciated!

keep on flying!!

I wish I could help more, cabrits, but for the major car rental agencies, this is pretty reasonable. On a per week basis, at about $250 per week, the nominal figure is around $1000 per month.

Having said that, I have gotten some terrific deals from Enterprise. They do have weekly and monthly rates at a lot of locations. Give them a call. One disadvantage is, they may not be at your airport, but at least in my area at least, they wsill deliver your car to you AT the airport. And drop you off. Not too bad a deal!

cabrits - i have to agree 700 - 800 a month is not a bad deal but is that inclusive of taxes and other fees? if not you should be able to negotiate a better deal direct with the rental location. so best advice would be to call direct to the local office and explain your situation. btw the best rate we get is $ 600 / month all inclusive for a premium size car w/ national but we have at least 4 - 5 cars rented any given month. so 700 - 800 all inclusive is a pretty good deal.

I have rented by the month many, many months. I rent from Avis. I have found that you can't rent from airport locations. Where you rent from determines the rates and airports are most expensive.

Find an off-airport location and they will make you a deal. They have a bottom line lowest price deal they will make, not usually less than about $700 per month, but they can upgrade you and get you a better, bigger car for the $700 per month. When I called around, Enterprise really wasn't any cheaper but of course your mileage may vary

With Avis, they make you take the car back every 30 days and create a new contract, but they give you a what they call a "mini lease" rate although you are not obligated for any length of time. I found them excellent and I still rent from them (although not by the month)

Cabrits

Avis used to have a program called a mini-lease. You rented the car for a 3 month period at a reasonable discount.

TW

This is correct. Avis does have a mini-lease department. I believe the rental period is 2-11 months. The rate declines in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th months and then remains the same until the 11th. You can use various discount numbers with the mini-lease, like the ones from your airline, AAA, etc. You earn 50 Starwood points per day too, even if it's not an airport location.

I believe most/all rental car companies have a 30 day limit on rentals, so you return the car every 30 days and get a new one. My first recommendation would be to check Enterprise as others have suggested ...

Enterprise is my first choice, but remember many local car dealers do have a very well maintained rental fleet. I used them quite a bit in Texas and for 1 summer in Iowa. Well worth a few calls.

I have no long-term experience with the Rent-A-Wreck types, but I have had some fairly good luck most times with short-term rentals. Most of their cars are no worse than the red, yellow or green high priced clowns. They have higher mileage but usually are well maintained.

What about multiple one-week rentals?

hi everybody, thanks for all of your suggestions!

this is what i did... i was planning on visiting the akron area. i looked up the internet for all the car rentals in their area, and called them up 1 by 1.

believe it or not, i found a non-airport enterprise location that was willing to give me a '99 hyundai for $450/month including 3,000 miles/month! wow!

thanks for all the help guys! happy trails!

cabrits--
here is another suggestion. I'm not sure what your insurance situation is, but I would suggest a Diners Club card to charge your rental. Not only do you get airline miles for the charge, but you get primary damage coverage on the rental car. If you have a car back home not being used you may be able to cancel/suspend part of your insurance saving you addl $. Even if not i would still suggest it since if you have any damage your insurer wont have to know and your rates on your own car will not rise.
And of course if you dont have any family or friends to refer you I will gladly--just e-mail me. btw Diners is offering 12,000 miles for signing up

Wow ... $450/month ... that is pretty good. You rent that baby with a DC card for insurance and you're all set. Of course it isn't a very expensive car, but it's interesting to think you could basically rent a car on an ongoing basis for that much and never have to worry about paying for insurance (assuming you use a DC card or similar) or maintenance and get a new one every month.

Diners is primary, but they limit coverage to rentals of 30 days or less, as do all the card companies I know of. For complete insurance information, Diners told me to call the insurance dept @ 1-800-613-5975. The insurance dept. informed me that for New York State residents who have auto insurance, Diners is not primary. They are mailing me the actual contract for review. If this is true, Diners has no advantage for NYS residents.

[This message has been edited by Schutzee (edited 03-08-2000).]

Schutzee ~ That's not really a problem, because as I mentioned above the car rental companies typically limit rentals to less than 30 days also ... after 30 days its time to turn in the old one and get a news one ... and a new rental contract.

Actually, if you have no primary collision coverage, as Beckles may well be suggesting, the "secondary" would in fact be the "de facto" primary even for NY residents wouldn't it?