Best rental car for a loooong trip?

[XS650]

If you get off the Interstates and onto US and state highways, eat in local small town restaurants. The food is almost always better than the big chains and it's never the same in any two restaurants.

Try ordering the same thing for breakfast each morning and notice the difference as you cross the country. We like to get an early start, drive 2 or 3 hours, have a good breakfast then later have an early dinner with no lunch. 2 Meals does it for us when we are mostly sitting in a car.

You can count on a small town restaurant with lots of farmer pickups parked out front having good food.

All a lot of trucks parked by an Interstate restaurant means is that they have big parking lot

 

[MrCritical]

I lived in Garden City about 40 miles up the road where the tornadoes were hitting.


My best cross country car? A big 4 door Caddy (not CTS).

 

[XS650]

Originally Posted By: MrCritical
I lived in Garden City about 40 miles up the road where the tornadoes were hitting.


My best cross country car? A big 4 door Caddy (not CTS).


We had planned to stop in Garden City but stopped in Dodge City because of tornado warnings. Weather radios and local small town radio stations are useful in tornado season.

One touched down and crossed highway 50 just to the west of Garden City that evening.

 

[Bill in Utah]

Originally Posted By: haulinace

I was more comfortable in the HHR! (really)

Not impressed with the Tahoe. (better than the Large Ford SUV we have at work) but still not something I'd want.

Gas here is right at $3 a gallon. So closer to 16 mpg. Loved watching the Cyl deactivation go from V8 to V4 and MPG go from 48 mpg to 13...

Take care, bill

 

[Quattro Pete]

Honestly, I don't know what the big deal is about cruise control. In 1996, I drove cross country (from NJ to Cali and back) in my '91 Stanza without cruise control and it didn't bother me in the least. If anything, playing around with the gas pedal may make the trip less boring.

 

[eljefino]

Used hotwire with great luck from an airport location. Got a new impala for $21/day all fees included. 3.9 V6, cyl deactivation, leather, free GPS. (They charge a couple $$ a day on the cheaper cars for this.) All other rental services with discounts were $37/day plus fees.

Hotwire is like priceline, you commit your cc info then they tell you where to pick the car up. Naturally I used a credit card with built-in collision damage waiver insurance.

Apparantly when one shops Hotwire, they vary the price up and down a dollar or two... so reload on different browsers and if possible from different IP addresses.

Cruise is good to just have something different and rest your foot on the floorboards occasionally.

 

[Warlord]

Another vote for the Impala. That car is perfectly suited for a cross-country cruise.

 

[alreadygone]

Will never go far from home again without GPS! It's GREAT!

Bob

 

[Propflux01]

Why dont you just have aftermarket cruise added to your Elantra since you seem to like the vehicle? I had one once, and loved it(but love my new Sonata even better!), and an aftermarked cruise would still be way cheaper than rental fees.

 

[Kestas]

A lot of people fly to Las Vegas and rent a car there to tour the West. This avoids the cross-country drive, and costs about the same when you figure the investment in driving across the plains.

I think cruise control is overrated. I've driven many times cross sountry, and I always seem to be stuck following other cars. Cruise control is more of a pain that a convenience for me.

 

[Bill in Utah]

I use cruse control every day driving to and from work.

When driving long distances, I would HATE to operate a car with out it.

Different strokes for different folks.

Also, There was a thread about a fellow BITOG member who rented a Impala and HATED it...

Take care, bill

 

[rjundi]

I will list the most awful rentals I got stuck with recently: Chevy HHR, PT Cruiser both were buzzy noisy cars, also Dodge Magnum wagon with poor MPG.

The best ones I have gotten stuck with (not my choice) are new Dodge Caravan(beyond surprised) and highly recommend for your trip. The other one was a Hyundai Sonata. I have gotten stuck with an Elantra and never minded those either but not the most comfy for the long haul.

The best car I have driven for that is MB C220 tdi(too bad only in Europe) which was beyond comfortable for 900 miles around Italy. My only qualm there was it was a little big for some streets we had to navigate in old parts of town.

 

[Mr Nice]

Maybe its a mental thing,

but for me, cruise control makes the drive seem like the road is in slow motion.......even if I set at at 80 MPH.

 

[97tbird]

Hmm...Flying to Las Vegas and driving from there on seems like a better idea..I think.
Thanks a LOT for all the advise/tips...keep them coming. They have already helped/informed us a lot.

 

[ThirdeYe]

My sister and her boyfriend got to rent a nice new Nissan Maxima when they were in Hawaii and they both really liked it, for what that's worth. My sister's usually really picky too, especially when it comes to imports. She's usually a domestic "Mustang" lover.

 

[oldmaninsc]

Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Honestly, I don't know what the big deal is about cruise control. In 1996, I drove cross country (from NJ to Cali and back) in my '91 Stanza without cruise control and it didn't bother me in the least. If anything, playing around with the gas pedal may make the trip less boring.



While I hear what you are saying and I have driven cars across the country without cruise control (when I was younger) I find cruise control to be helpful in avoiding speeing tickets!

I frequently drive from Southern California to the Phoenix, Arizona area and I always use the cruise control. I set it to the exact speed limit. I have seen MANY people (especially out of state ones) pulled over in Arizona. After all these years I know where most of the cops "hide out", but they frequently tend to hide in places you can't see until it is too late.

Back on topic, I'd vote for the Crown Vic also. Very nice cars and decent MPG for the size of car. As a matter of fact I am thinking of selling my Chevy SUV and buying one (or the sister car - Mercury Marquis.)

 

[CBDFrontier06]

Originally Posted By: Bill in Utah
Also, There was a thread about a fellow BITOG member who rented a Impala and HATED it...

Take care, bill


That was me. It was a competent-enough long-hauler and the seats were comfy, and the trunk was huge....and the ride rather spongy and vague, but for long drives it's a hard car to beat. Just don't take it into the mountains or make any big demands of the brakes. Every time I stopped (and I'm not talking panic stops here) from highway speeds or used them to slow on long hills, they smoked and faded badly. At one point I was using the lower gears in the tranny to keep from using the brakes while decending into the valley near Devils Tower...they had taken on a gravely feel and pedal effort increased greatly until they cooled. This behemoth of a car is severly under-braked. But on the positive side, it's geared so high that it gets pretty good MPG even at 80mph in the flats. The trip computer was averaging 25mpg.

My sister took up residence in the back seat for most of the trip and really wished for a cupholder. There isn't one in the base model.

 

[Drew99GT]

You're supposed to downshift on long steep downhill grades (yes, even with an automatic) to save the brakes. If you ride the brakes down mountain passes in CO, you'll end up pushing daisies! Try doing 80 mph down Interstate 70 from the Eisenhower Tunnel to Denver riding the brakes the entire way. It won't work. That's why you a) slow down when descending steep grades with the brakes, then b) downshift so you won't ride the brakes and turn them into molten metal.

 

[97tbird]

Now, in general, would a FWD car or a RWD vehicle be better for this trip, considering the area we intend to cover? (s. my new thread "trip to the west...attractions?" for exact details of cities/states we intend to cover)...
or shall we go with AWD?

 

[road_rascal]

When we (myself and two other guys) went to Boston for fire school we got a Kia Optima (2007) from Avis. We put over 400 miles on it (300 in one day) and it was comfortable, handled nice, and got alomost 30mpg doing 80mph. I was surprised on how well built this car was.