Help Me Out Here
So one of my friends from high school is getting married end of August in Chicago. I’m using his wedding as an excuse to have an end of summer northern holiday. I’m flying into JFK, my initial plans were to rent a car, spend a few days seeing the sights and hopefully catch up with some people from my beis medrash days, then drive to Chicago for shabbos, the weddings on Sunday, so leave Tuesday after seeing a bit of Chicago, then I had a vague idea to drive east to see some people in Virginia and Maryland. Plans sort of hit a bump when I paid a visit to Enterprise and saw that three weeks of car rental even at the economy class would cost around $900 and I assume that doesn’t even include insurance.
So are there better car rental places where I could get something for around $100 a week at most? Is there maybe even some sort of hemishe car rental where I can get a yeshivish banger for next to nothing? It’s New York, I assume you have everything. My brother suggested I take trains from city to city. How feasible is this and how much am I looking at? And I haven’t even started wondering where exactly I’ll stay yet.
Help me out New York Jews.
June 4, 2008 at 2:56 am
Yeah. renting a car can cost big bucks, esp since you are going to put some heavy miles on it.
You can get around by train but its rough here in BK. Lemme put the word out for ya a bit, we’ll see what will shake loose.
June 4, 2008 at 3:01 am
When I needed a car a few years ago, Enterprise was pretty good.
June 4, 2008 at 3:03 am
Thanks Jacob. Appreciate anything you can do.
For some reason I thought enterprise did economy cars for around $15 a day. At the price they want I could probably just buy a piece of crap.
June 4, 2008 at 3:06 am
I just went to Enterprise.com to double check. Renting for 30 days gives me this price for the cheapest car:
3 Weeks @
$ 389.95 USD $ 1,169.85 USD
Subtotal $ 1,169.85 USD
AIRPORT ACCESS FEE $ 108.61 USD
SALES TAX $ 171.00 USD
* Total Estimated
Charges $ 1,449.46 USD
Even if I get it from a regular location to waive the airport fee it’s still $390 a week.
June 4, 2008 at 3:57 am
You should go to Travelocity and do a search for cars, if i remember, they give you a price comparison.
You might also CALL a place in like New Jersey, see if it’s cheaper to rent there if you agree not to drive into Manhattan. It’s easy to park in Jersey and take the Path train into the city…
But what do I know…I live in L.A. 🙂
June 4, 2008 at 3:58 am
Oh, if all your friends are in the city, take the train no doubt! Gas is SO expensive. Parking in NYC can be 50 bucks or more even! The subway is safe and easy.
June 4, 2008 at 4:03 am
My friends are in Brooklyn, Flatbush and Forest Hills. I’m not so concerned about driving in New York, it’s more about I wanted to road trip between NY and Chicago and then to Virginia/Maryland.
I checked travelocity. Cheapest was this, and this is for a Kia Rio! The car only costs around $9000 new anyways. I could probably buy a 2002 model for the price of the rental.
Weekly rate (applies to each 7 day period)
3 week(s) @ $268.85 $806.55
3 extra day(s) @ $53.99 $161.97
Subtotal $968.52
Taxes and Fees What are Taxes and Fees? $266.79
Total: $1,235.31
But thanks anyway. This is from Dollar Rent a Car by the way.
June 4, 2008 at 3:32 pm
Greyhound can be pretty cheap. There’s also megabus.com which is insanely cheap (depending how early you book the ticket you can get it as low as $1), but there are no megabuses to or from NY. There is a megabus that goes to and from Chicago though.
June 4, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Megabus is a no-go. From NY doesnt go to Chicago and from Chicago doesnt go to Virgina or Maryland.
June 5, 2008 at 1:37 am
Feel free to contact me when you’re in Chicago via email or facebook. do you drink coffee?
June 5, 2008 at 3:37 pm
I’m not a great coffee drinker, but I’ll have one with you.
June 6, 2008 at 8:27 pm
You can find a cheap car here in Jersey but it would likely have to be one of those mom and pop places. They seem pretty sketchy.
Your best bet would be to buy a clunker and commute from NJ Hoboken/Jersey City/ via the Path.
June 8, 2008 at 3:43 am
use the ch crop #41M0174 [enterprise] should give u a better rate
June 8, 2008 at 6:45 am
Depsite you lack of affection towards coffee, I’m sure we’ll touch base. If not coffee, then a late Mincha. 🙂 hahaha
June 8, 2008 at 7:53 pm
at newark airport
preferably alamo it is much cheaper than ny
June 11, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Enjoy chicago! It’s amazing there! (can you tell I’m a native chicagoan? 🙂
e-mail me at ipaytoomuchformyhair@gmail.com if you need any ideas of what to do there.
Also, I don’t know how old you are, but when i went to LA and rented a car there, i looked for relatively cheap rates and then my bill was almost double what I anticipated because I am under 25. totally sucked. so just watch out for that.