Car rental chutzpah? or way to wreck a vacay?

Let me avoid the question by passing along some advice from Cicerone Imposter. Always rent from an outlet away from the airport. There is an extra charge imposed on them for their convenient location. You might ask how you get there without a car. I leave that to you.

my experience ( a few years back) is that last minute rental prices at the airport are higher, not lower, than booking ahead

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wait, I sit not too far from our rental co-ordinator at work. The reason we use his service to pre-book is .... it's cheaper.

c.i.'s advice on this works for some cities, not all

since airports on the edges of cities are near cheap land, a number of rental agencies keep all of their fleets in lots by the airport. In those cases they charge more for in-town rentals as they bring the vehicles in from the airport lots for customers.

In some cities, it's cheaper to use cabs and public transit than to rent a car at all.

Lots of factors to balance.

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Is there anything like SmartCar in Boston?

I used to do it all the time if I didn't need an SUV for off road work. One time, in Atlanta , I even got a Porsche 911 at Budget. Nobody wanted to pay the prices and they were in a mood to let er go for a cheap price. I was all over the place with the top down.

Ehbeth, in the US they often want to move a car to another city nd will let it go for a song if you can change your plans to drive. I did that a few times , especially from like Albuquerque to Austin or Houston to Tulsa.

I often drove the return from Charleston WVa to Philly and , for maybe one and a half extra days, I actually made money on expenses. I don't do it so much anymore since my jobs arent critical time anymore.

I've only done Boston once a long time ago, did rent a car, not sure where or how, but it must have been the airport. This was all pre internet by decades. I have a faint memory of somehow renting it beforehand.

Now I'd do public transport, since I didn't like the driving either, even back then.

Actually, I've found Flightcars, which charges very little to rent people's personal cars that are in long term parking (not for me, but nice option for other people), and Zipcars (which I think might be what you're talking about, Beth.) I think I'll get my daughter a Zipcar account for her use - and she'll use it for our visit. She's blocks from Tufts - and on campus, there are three "stables" of Zipcars and a few more in walking distance.

Very happy about this for us now, and her future occasional use. It's a really nice option for students or others who are opting not to have the expense of a car, but want to use one from time to time.

It's like a library for cars...you can use it hourly or daily.

Thanks everybody for the ideas.

http://www.zipcar.com/ For those who aren't familiar with Zipcars.

Yeah! You're talking about some deals I noticed online - that were luring me to take the risk. Sounds like you have gotten the sweetest deals!

Booking from here (via my automobile club like AA) has been cheaper than booking in the USA.

When I booked the car in Boston, it was about 25% to the local price.

I will definitely be looking into this, Walter. Thank you.