dragonfattie

First time renting a car and driving from Vancouver down to Seattle.

I tried reserving from dollar rent a car and noticed the car rental was $82, but then was shock to find the one-way fee was $500.

I have no experience with renting cars and going cross boarder, any better ideas on how to rent a car to drive from Vancouver to Seattle one way?

We want to stop off mid way through our drive and don't want to be stuck on a train or bus.

Thanks!

Auto Enthusiast

Dollar Seattle is a licensee store, as evidenced by very limited one-way capability. Vancouver to Seattle seems allowed, but not the reverse. And remember, as always, Dollar unbundles the drop charge from the daily rate, unlike everyone else.

dragonfattie

Any other options to rent something within a reasonable $100 rate?

Auto Enthusiast

Try Hertz, specifically a neighborhood store. If it were a rental originating in the US, and if you have a Saturday night stay, sometimes RQ DRIVE will work. But I don't think that would work for rentals starting in Canada.

Tuneman1984

I took an Avis Ford Focus from YVR to SEA for $99+tax back in 2006. Not sure if they still have that rate but their one-ways seem to be fairly reasonable. Also try Alamo or National as they seem to have a pile of US-plated cars in the garage anytime I'm there.

azepine00

Not gonna find cheap options during summer as cruise folks often want to rent one way back to US.
Take Amtrak.

LeoKarlo

You should have checked the rules and restrictions of your car rental company first! And don't be lured by the cheap advertisement. There are some car rentals that have hidden charges. Try to go a transparent car rental company that gives you fixed figures. Alternately, you can check different car rentals company and compare prices and services.

jackal

Reading the OP's post, I don't get the impression there were any hidden charges. The one-way drop fee was noted to the OP at the time he attempted to make the reservation--it just wasn't displayed on the initial page (where you select the size of vehicle and see the base pre-tax rate), instead being noted on the last page (where you are shown the total price including taxes).

Actually, if anything, Dollar's method is MORE transparent than the other companies, who hide the one-way fee within the rental rate, making it harder to see the true cost of the one-way. With Dollar's method, you can easily see what the difference is between a normal and one-way rental without any extra clicking.

Dollar's method also often works out cheaper for longer rentals, since a flat fee doesn't increase with length of rental. This instance--a $500 fee for a couple hundred miles--is kind of extreme (and likely has some to do with hassles involving cross-border transactions, or simply that Dollar is currently trying to discourage rentals in that direction because of a fleet imbalance), but I've seen a 400-mile rental with a drop fee of only $150, which was great for a two-week-long rental (the drop fee was half of what other agencies were charging--$20/day extra times 14 days).

okazon69

If you're renting for a longer period, seriously consider splitting the rental into two or three parts: use only a single day to drive from YVR to SEA and have a separate rental on either end. Also, rent off airport if you can (e.g. rent at SeaTac HLE before bringing back the other car to SEA).

A single day won't kill you, but a week at the one-way rate will.

number_6

$500 for drop-off seems like a good price -- whenever I have looked at one-way between Canada-US it has been $800 drop-off charge with Hertz and Avis (haven't checked Dollar). Remeber that Canadian car cannot be rented in US without special insurance (which some cars might have), so the car company probably has to trailer the car back across the border. Drop-off charges within US will be cheaper generally, so a one-way after you cross the border is an option but probably too inconvenient.

jackal

It may be more inconvenient, but to save several hundred dollars, it looks like it would be possible to take the train or bus to Bellingham, rent from Hertz or Budget there (Hertz is downtown, a 3-mile cab ride, and Budget is at the airport, a 10-mile cab ride), and then do your one-way to SEA for a LOT less money than from YVR. A test booking for a 5-day rental in August returns $384 all-in with Budget and $508.50 all-in for Hertz.

Honestly, I'd say there's not a ton in the short distance between YVR and SEA that's worth $500 to have your own car from YVR, and even the cost from BLI is pushing it. For what there is to see north of Seattle, it would be much more cost-effective to just take the train all the way to SEA and rent a car there and drive back north. You're only going out of your way 100 or so miles to save hundreds of dollars. Besides, the train is actually more scenic than the drive, since it's right along the coast most of the time, whereas the freeway (and even side roads) are mostly inland a bit. Honestly, unless you want to turn inland and make North Cascades National Park part of your itinerary or want to go out on the San Juan Islands, I'm not really sure where you plan on "stopping off midway through [y]our drive"...