Originally Posted by TMOliver
Over the years, it's been my experience in Mexico that I could hire a car w/driver to be on call during my stay, ready to pick me and mine up and haul us about smartly if not in luxury during my stays. If you're not going to be in the car every day, a little planning can get the price well below what a rental car (with an over-priced insurance/ripoff policy) gathering dust and dents in the parking lot most of the time will run you. Besides, you can learn Spanish, absorb directions and locations, bone up on local folklore, find shopping easier (although often patronizing near and distant relatives of your driver). The downside comes if your driver is disliked by one or more members of the local policia, rurales, federales, parquedores, or the guardia de la noche.
Besides, do you really want to drive with all those crazy, often borracho turistas at the wheel of other vehicles?
BTW-This would be the best option. What I generally do is befriend the cab drivers that are contracted at the hotel. Hire them first through the hotel, then work out a direct arrangement with them on future trips in cash. I have made many long lasting friendships this way. I have even been invited to their homes for dinner.