josmon10

This summer we'll be driving a car from NYC up to Montréal. I've made a booking for 4 days (ie, 95.5 hours) with Hertz; not so much because I'm a Gold member, but because only Hertz and National would let me return the car in Canada. In Europe I've never had a problem with one-way rentals between different countries. Maybe America is different??

Anyway, I have a few doubts:

- My booking is not cheap: USD 584.10 (with National it would be over $700). Considering we'll be crossing the border in the Niagara Falls area, is it feasible to drop off the car in the US and get a new one in Canada in near enough locations? No matter what company. Wishful thinking, I guess...

- According to the Spanish Hertz web site, the GPS would cost around USD 55, and up to some extra EUR 100 for returning it in some selected countries (Canada not specified). Really? In such a case I'd rather buy a GPS in New York!

- Finally, any tips on how to get a better price deal?

Thanks in advance!

CTNYC

For your GPS issue, use a smart phone GPS or buy one (only ~$100 or so for a decent one nowadays), or if you want to rent one, get a car with the infamous NeverLost built into the car. Anyways, check your quote to make sure of mileage limits. To get a better deal, try posting here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/hertz...hread-117.html but a one way from DC to Connecticut is ~$180 I believe, so your rate is not too bad as it is IMO

CalItalian

This is the only thread that I've found on this subject...not too much info but you might want to read through it. One post from a US based Hertz renter is included. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/avis-...ny-canada.html

Most car rental companies don't want the headache of reimporting cars across the border and the costs involved to them. That's why your daily rate is expensive.

Be sure you also look into any regulations in Canada as being a non U.S. resident driving into Canada with a US plated car. If you were a Canadian citizen, until recently, it was not legal. I don't know about residents of other countries.

i59bravo

You can take a taxi across the border at Niagara Falls, but if traffic is heavy that could be an expensive wait in a long line. Or, you could drop off the rental, take a taxi to the Rainbow Bridge, walk across the border and carry on from there. However, it sounds like a lot more hassle and I somehow doubt it will be cheaper in the end.

CalItalian

One update to my post.

It did become legal for Canadian citizens to import a US plated car to Canada last summer. I don't know about those from other countries, though. Something the OP needs to check out.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/...rder-1.1129658

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicati...d2-4-1-eng.pdf

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

If you're crossing the border near Niagara Falls, then I presume you are visiting Toronto before heading to Montreal. If so, consider dropping the car at BUF, and taking Greyhound or Megabus Canada from BUF Airport to either Niagara Falls or Toronto, and then picking up a car in Canada to drop in Montreal. But be sure to price both rentals: a one-way rental in Canada might not save you any money.

Jamtex

I had a similar issue as I had to take a car from Toronto (Scarborough) and return it to Chicago (Wrigleyville). I was quote about 550 dollars for basically a one day rental. In the end I used my reward points for a one way rental (all 1600 of them) and ended up paying just $40 for the CDW and taxes.

It probably helped that I was a regular renter, renting for a week every two to three weeks. The locataion was meant to have gotten a US car so it would had been easier for the car to return to it's Michigan location but it didn't show up, after some pleading (as the office closed in 2 hours and I had packing to do as I was going to be driving for 11 hours) they gave me my normal car (which was a Toyota Matrix) and off I went.

Had issues with returning the car as although the location was on the rental agreement they had no clue on how to process the non U.S. paperwork. In the end I had to get the manager to sign my agreement stating the car was returned to the location and take photos of the agreement and keys in the office and the car in the car park.

Took them 6 months before I got charged the $40 too.

I hired a car to go from Chicago to Toronto last year (I'm a UK Citizen) and it had misourri plates but as long as you have all the hire documentation, insurance certificate (should be in the glove box), passport and driving licence they shouldn't hold you up. 3 minutes and I was through.

As stated buy a Sat Nav, in the long run (ie a few rentals) it is going to be cheaper and easier to use. Although make sure the cigarette lighter jack works before you leave, I rented a car once and it didn't work. Ironically the car I was given had neverlost in it and it had a USB port and used that to power my MP3 player and Sat Nav...

The nearest Hertz on the US side is about 5 miles from Rainbow Bridge and the nearest Hertz on the Canada side is 13 miles from Rainbow Bridge. Taking random dates you could save maybe $20 to $80 then just doing the one way rental (assuming you get taxis to and from the bridge) basically it's not worth the hassle.

Auto Enthusiast

The locataion was meant to have gotten a US car so it would had been easier for the car to return to it's Michigan location but it didn't show up,

Between corporate stores, which is likely what you were doing, the cars do not have to go "home." Any car in your reserved category with any US plates would have been fine. As you saw, the Chicago area in particular has a lot of cars with license plates from all over the Midwest, most of which randomly circulate between different cities until they are eventually sold at the nearest regional auction.

noah

There are a few things you can do to get the rate down

Easiest is to break it into multiple rentals -- one for your time in the US and another (as short as possible) for the cross-border portion. For example

One rental picking up in NYC and dropping in downtown Buffalo, another picking up in downtown Buffalo and returning in Montreal. Depending on how long you'll be traveling in Canada, it might even be cheaper to make it *three* rentals -- one for US, one for crossing the border, and another in Canada. Essentially what you want to do is limit the amount of time you are paying the very high per day fee for crossing the border.

If you haven't arranged flights, consider flying out not of Montreal but Burlington, Vermont (less than 2 hours away), or Plattsburgh, NY (1 hour) -- you'll find that drops the rental rates considerably.

Don't rent from airports, which lets you skip their high facility use charges.

Good luck!

josmon10

Thanks a lot for all your feedback!

I'll post it there too. I'm new in this Hertz forum and I wasn't familiar with it.

Some time ago I rented a car in Belgium with a German plate, over here in Europe it's not such an issue. But of course, not having any borders may help enormously...

Thank you, I hadn't thought of that. However, since I booked the car on the Hertz site by logging in, they already have my personal data and now I'm not a US/Canadian citizen. I guess/hope that if I wasn't allowed, they wouldn't have let me go on with it.

Yes, I had thought of some of these options, and I might do something like that if I were travelling alone, but being 4 people (incl. 2 kids) and carrying luggage, that's too much hassle. The rate I've got is expensive, but not outrageous. And 4 flight tickets to any Toronto airport + a one-way rental within Canada was not cheap either.

That reminded me I have enough Flying Blue, Avios, Miles & More and IHG points/miles for a 4-day car, but none of them would allow one-way rentals, let alone in a different country.

Even though I travel to the Americas on business regularly, I don't usually go to the US/Canada except for stopovers, so I guess I would only buy a GPS if it was cheaper than renting it. I may, however, contact the pick-up office shortly before my rental to ask them to please get me a car with NeverLost or whatever.

I'll be picking up the car from some Hertz office in Midtown Manhattan and returning it in YUL. No chance for a minor airport, as we'll be flying back home from there.

All in all it looks like I'll have to stick to my non-prepaid booking, the devil I know...

Thanks again, guys!

guv1976

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.601 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"And 4 flight tickets to any Toronto airport + a one-way rental within Canada was not cheap either."

I can't speak to the cost of a one-way rental within Canada, but since you have Avios, if you can find the necessary award space, you can fly AA LGA/JFK-YYZ for only 4,500 BAEC Avios per person in Coach. (If your Avios are in an Iberia Plus account, you would have to transfer them to a BAEC account to redeem for one-way flights.)

Auto Enthusiast

Some time ago I rented a car in Belgium with a German plate, over here in Europe it's not such an issue. But of course, not having any borders may help enormously...

It's actually different than that. One-ways between European countries have some things in common with one-ways between US states, and other things in common with cross-border one-ways between the US and Canada.

In the US, you'll likely get license plates from faraway states, since one-ways are a big part of the rental business here. One-ways between states can vary widely in price, based on differences in demand, seasons, and the price of competing modes of travel. The cars don't go "home" as long as they wind up somewhere in the US at the end of their rental life. However, rentals with US plates in Canada, and Canadian cars that end up and in the US, can not be sold locally. So if they have a Canadian car they will give it to you, and vice versa for one-ways into the US.

In Europe, the consensus seems to be that rental cars also can't be sold into whatever country they wind up in. The cars must go back to the original country, either with another one-way or shipped. The pricing for one-ways between European countries can sometimes be very high, or similar to one-ways between US states.

josmon10

Well, I had looked for AA flights on August 18 and there was no availability. But after reading your post I searched again and there's an early LGA-YYZ flight on August 19 that could do the trick, so I bought the 4 tickets for just 18000 avios and EUR 7.28 (should've been EUR 64.28, I wonder why I paid much less, but I'm digressing...). Thanks for reminding me, guv1976!!

As for the car, the prices remain very high, even if it doesn't imply a second country. Alamo and National are charging USD 300 for the one-way, Thrifty USD 215... and in the end I've booked with Hertz again, the final price being only about USD 70 less that the pick-up in NYC. However, I had to do it using Kayak.com and booking it as a new customer. If I logged in as a Hertz #1 Gold member, the price was much higher. Weird...

I guess I'll keep looking between now and August to see if I can find a better deal, but I don't have much hope.

Auto Enthusiast

There are also some smaller Canadian companies that can do the popular one-way between Toronto and Montreal. For instance, EZ, Payless, etc. Some of these "discount" brands have questionable reputations for old cars and a hard sell on insurance. They also have a European-style separate drop fee, rather than varying the daily rate like the American-based companies, so you can keep the car for a week without worrying about changing contracts.

josmon10

Thanks for the info. I checked EZ and Payless; they're a bit cheaper, but they don't offer options online, such as the GPS, and besides they only have an office in YUL airport, whereas I'm considering a drop-off at the Hertz office near my hotel in Montréal 24 hours before our flight back home.

The more I search, the more I'm hooked on Hertz, I'm afraid!