Hertz rate cheaper than Driveaway?

[dinogirl]

Hi All,

I've been reading some of the great threads here about US car rental, and I think they have already saved me money on a week's rental in California. Now I am looking for an inclusive eight-day rental in May 2010 from ABQ, New Mexico (return to the same place). Driveway was cheaper than Netflights in this instance, but I also checked the Hertz site and it seems to be cheaper again. I am sure I'm missing something, can anyone explain the difference between these two rates?

Driveaway quotes $467.06 AUD and says it includes:
* Unlimited Mileage.
* Full Vehicle Insurance cover including Third Party, Fire and Theft with NIL excess.
* Loss Damage Waiver.
* Liability Insurance Supplement (LIS).
* Sales and State Taxes.
* Vehicle Licensing Fee.
* Airport fee where applicable.
* 24 Hour Roadside Assistance.

Hertz offers two rates, both including unlimited free miles.
Rate 1 (Rate Code AU2WAU) converts to around $393 AUD and includes:
* airport concession fee recovery
* loss damage waiver
* taxes
* liability insurance supplement
* customer facility charge:
* rental surcharge
* hertz operational maintenance recovery and energy surcharge

Rate 2 (Rate Code AQIL) converts to around $441 AUD and includes:
* Taxes
* airport concession fee recovery
* customer facility charge
* rental surcharge
* hertz operational maintenance recovery and energy surcharge
* loss damage waiver

I can see the two Driveaway items not mentioned elsewhere are "Full Vehicle Insurance cover including Third Party, Fire and Theft with NIL excess" and "24 Hour Roadside Assistance", but I gather that Hertz offers roadside assistance in the US anyway. Is the "Full Vehicle Insurance Cover" something additional, like excess reduction? I can't seem to see anywhere on the Hertz website to tell me how much the excess is. I am already planning to take out travel insurance for this trip to cover a couple of in-Australia rentals to/from the airport, so there may be some excess reduction included in that. I will also look for a travel policy to cover all the personal medical and effects insurance I'll need in the US anyway (whether in a car or not).

I guess I'm asking whether I should cough up the extra for Driveaway up front!


Thanks very much for any help,
Michelle

 

[serfty]

dinogirl, welcome to AFF.

"Excess Reduction" IME is peculiar to Oz and NZ, certainly not in the USA.

In the USA it seems you are either fully insured or not.

"Roadside" assistance is generally available an additional payment for USA rentals direct from the major car hire companies.

Most Australian insurance policies provide little or no cover(/relevance) for Car hire outside Oz or NZ.

 

[Travel Guru]

"Excess Reduction" IME is peculiar to Oz and NZ, certainly not in the USA.

In the USA it seems you are either fully insured or not.

"Roadside" assistance is generally available an additional payment for USA rentals direct from the major car hire companies.

Most Australian insurance policies provide little or no cover(/relevance) for Car hire outside Oz or NZ.

You are correct, in the US, you're either fully insured or you're not and by not I mean that if you crash the vehicle you're up for the full repair costs up to the value of the car...i'm not familiar with what Hertz direct covers, but I know that Driveaway includes full coverage.

Most Travel Insurance policies have a rental car excess built into their policy, but of little use in the US given this all or nothing scenario they seem to work on.

TG

 

[drron]

And if you belong to NRMA,RACQ etc you can get reciprocal benefits with AAA in the USA-but take your card.Also good for a lot of discounts as well.See here-
http://www.aaa.com/PPInternational/International.html
As I have said before it always pays to check the rental sites directly because I have found before Hertz cheaper than Driveaway though it is usually the other way around.

 

[parsonstrish]

Most Australian insurance policies provide little or no cover(/relevance) for Car hire outside Oz or NZ.

I always purchase qbe int'l policy for o/s (used in US or UK) and pay extra for insurance for vehicle. I've always thought this went toward covering the vehicle in case of accident. I also take out Hertz rental insurance.

Am I not covered by the policy for car hire?

cheers again

 

[serfty]

... Am I not covered by the policy for car hire? ...

Check your insurance PDS, if your additional cover simply relates to "Excess" or "Excess Reduction" then you are unlikely to covered at all outside of Oz and NZ.

 

[dinogirl]

Thanks very much to all for the replies--I'm still a little unclear whether the Hertz deal would be adequate cover, but will ponder it further. Maybe I could email Driveaway and ask them why the difference. I did find a couple of relevant links on Hertz roadside assistance--like a blog entry that is the first Google result if you search on "Roadside Assistance With a Rental Car" (sorry, I am too new to be able to post links, apparently) and the "for more detailed information" document linked from the bottom of the AAA page posted above. These seem to indicate that the rental car company is the first port of call in the event of a breakdown but that they may have extra charges unless you take out their premium cover.

Drron, I really appreciate the tip about NRMA discounts, I hadn't realised we had reciprocal rights with AAA. That could be handy for maps etc.


Thanks again,
Michelle