Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

[Silverstoned]

I'm hoping someone can offer some advice on how to save some cash on car rental. I need a vehicle (mini-van or SUV) for 2 weeks at the end of July. I've found prices ranging from $1700 to get this... $14,900! Would it be cheaper to rent one in Abbotsford, Surrey, or somewhere just out of Vancouver? If I can't find cheaper rates I will probably just drive out over-night and send my wife and kids on the plane.

And I thought Calgary was expensive!

[luunta]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

for a two week trip, it may be better to drive out. july is also "idiot tourist" month around here, so prices are probably higher.

[Silverstoned]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

for a two week trip, it may be better to drive out. july is also "idiot tourist" month around here, so prices are probably higher.

I resemble that comment. I'll be spending most of my time on the north shore and in boundary bay though, maybe a day or two at whistler on my bike.

[luunta]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

I'll rephrase.

Idiot tourists from outside of Canada (Excluding Quebec) come to Vancouver in July.

Try abbotsford. Surrey won't change the price compared to Vancouver, but abbotsford might.

[RONDAL]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

drive out. its worth it and will save you a ton in charges. the price of gas to drive out ($100 each way) will be much cheaper than what you pay for two weeks of rentals.

regardless of the season, car rental for that long isn't cheap

[Tuna]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

Wow I can rent a large truck or SUV in Northern Canada with all the insurance I can get for a little over 1000 a week.

SUV's are probably more because they are "desirable" to rent.

Just so I'm clear though, you are flying in to Van, renting a car and keeping it for 2 weeks, returning it to the same location then flying back? I ask because they charge huge premiums now for taking a car out of their inventory.

100 bucks a day seems high honestly unless you are putting a lot of km's on and they don't have unlimited kms.

I used to rent SUV's from National and with all the insurance and everything it ended up being about 100 per day or so with unlimited kms. The insurance was probably about 35 of that though. Your insurer usually will cover rental cars up to a certain value which means you don't need the insurance.

Hope my rambling helps.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

SUV's are probably more because they are "desirable" to rent.


100 bucks a day seems high honestly unless you are putting a lot of km's on and they don't have unlimited kms.

I used to rent SUV's from National and with all the insurance and everything it ended up being about 100 per day or so with unlimited kms. The insurance was probably about 35 of that though. Your insurer usually will cover rental cars up to a certain value which means you don't need the insurance.

Hope my rambling helps.

SUV's they are a little bit more to rent yes, because they are 4 wheel drive = more service(rear diff). But also they can carry more people, hence more people chipping in for a car = close to the same price.

Enterprise has a maximum of 5000km's within the province of rental.

And as tuna said, call you insurance company and see if you are covered with a rental that will save you close to $35 per day on a rental.

[Silverstoned]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

Thanks for the tips. Yes, I was thinking fly out, pick it up and then turn it back in at the same location. We would only need it to get in and out of vancouver from boundary bay maybe 2-3 times and the drive to and from the airport. There is an off chance it might get used for a couple short trips but the KM will be low.

[J-hop]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

yea im not sure about enterprises policies in other provinces, but in alberta as long as you stay in province they don't limit your kms. As soon as you go out of province though or to the US you are limited to 200km/day with a charge of 13cents/extra km.

We have a couple people right now at our location that rent vehicles for over 3 months at a time (one person actually had a vehicle for 8 months straight!!!!). Don't ask me how they can afford it. If the mileage on the vehicle does get to high though they will switch you out into another vehicle (they usually sell them between 40,000 and 60,000kms so that the majority of repair work is still warranty work and they still have resale value)

In calgary most branches will give you insurance for around $20/day (the price varies depending on the condition of the market) with glass coverage for an extra $5 a day.

If you end up going on your own insurance I would buy enterprises glass coverage because they are very strict with it and any chips will cost you $30/chip. Whether or not you go with a rental car insurance is up to you but the up side is if you do get into an accident your insurance company is not notified. However if they determine the accident was a result of something like driving while intoxicated, joy riding a vehicle, off-roading the vehicle etc then you forfeit their coverage.

Also of note- National, Enterprise and Alamo are all the same company now so technically you should see similar rates but even in calgary it seems to vary depending on each branch

[Audi200tq]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

Just drive there. It's about 11 hours including stops for gas/food. With small kids it's two reasonable days, with a stop overnight in Revelstoke or Salmon Arm.

There's a Chevron right beside the highway about 10km west of Salmon Arm that consistently has the lowest gas prices of anywhere west of Canmore - a good place to fill up. It's on your right side and comes up quick.

[luunta]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

I just did the drive myself, couple weeks ago. The passes were clear and some of the construction has made the drive pretty nice. RCMP clocked me doing 140 in a 100, no ticket though. I definitely shat bricks though.

Fun drive, but two young kids would make that hard.. potentially easier on your sanity to drive out and meet them. If you were prepared for the cost anyways, flying them out is much easier than flying everyone and renting a car. Alternatively, come out when I go to Mexico and maybe i'll lend you my jetta. :P

[Silverstoned]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

I'm pretty much sold on the idea of driving out. I think I'll send my wife with the two youngest, and take my 3yr old with me. DVD will have him zombied for at least 3/4 of the drive. Thanks for the tips on where to fill up. I haven't driven out since they did the sky high overpass near Golden, it should be fun.

[BaggedGLI]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

Also just a tip for everyone

DONT RENT FROM AIRPORTS, they charge a premium on top of the rental because of the airport charging them to be there. If you have to rent from the airport for a day, then drop the car off at another location and do the remainder of your rental from there.

[J-hop]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

Also just a tip for everyone

DONT RENT FROM AIRPORTS, they charge a premium on top of the rental because of the airport charging them to be there. If you have to rent from the airport for a day, then drop the car off at another location and do the remainder of your rental from there.

yea definitely a good tip for renters, the airport branches generally pull a lot more money per car than branches farther into the city. Sometimes though they do charge a drop fee if you drop at a different location, but you can usually get around this by not mentioning you are dropping at a different location so they won't add it to your account and often times the branch you drop it off at won't give a darn if the original branch gets their $50 drop fee so they won't charge you.


Eurotuner I was actually looking into that kms cap you had said earlier, and although as I had said there is no cap on personal rentals (staying in province) a lot of companies will cap the max kms their employees can log on rental cars so they get discounts on the rentals, possibly your last rental from enterprise was through a corporate account?

OP sounds like you got things figured, enjoy the drive out and have a safe trip!

[canuck699]

Re: Car rental in Vancouver or surrounding area

you guys are mention in province or in canada kilometers, how can they tell?