Cheap Car Rent
The best way to secure cheap car rental is to use one or more of the comparison tools that are available online:
Expedia
Once you click the Cars tab at the top of the site, you will be able to search for a cheap car rental. As an example, let's say you are flying to Denver for a one week trip. You would enter DEN in the pick-up airport blank, followed by choosing the dates and time of your arrival and departure. Expedia allows you to pick from 11 different car types. If you simply want the lowest price or the widest selection, choose the No Preference option. If you want the widest selection of options, be sure to switch the rental car company drop-down menu from Preferred Vendors to All Vendors.
After you click the Search for Cars button, you will be taken to a results page. This page will show you the best rates for each type of car. You can also change the view to organize the results by vendor. A convenient feature is being able to see the best total price at the top of the page. For this one week trip to Denver example, the best price available is $128.
Travelocity
You can access Travelocity's cheap car rent search tool by clicking the Cars/Rail tab. In addition to entering your destination and travel dates, you can choose whether or not you want to search for a specific type of car. On the results page, you'll be able to see the best deals offered by Fox Rent a Car, Enterprise, Advantage Rent a Car, Payless, Dollar Rent a Car, Thrifty, E-Z Rent a Car and Alamo
Clicking the blue arrow button will also allow you to see the rates being offered by Budget, National, Avis and Hertz. In addition to this convenient price comparison matrix, you can also click the Car Deals tab to see specific specials such as Thrifty's "Wild Card, Smart Bet" or the Avis "Get 1 Day Free on Your Weekly Rental" special.
Vroom Vroom Vroom
The goal of this price comparison site is to make searching as simple as possible. The only details you have to enter on the homepage are where you will pick up your rental and when you will be traveling. In less than thirty seconds, Vroom Vroom Vroom will return a list of results. The results will be organized by low to high prices. If you want to change the way the results are organized, you can click the Supplier, Size or Vehicle Group headings.
One issue with some cheap car rent comparison sites is the initial price you're shown is misleading. But with Vroom Vroom Vroom, all the displayed prices include:
- Unlimited mileage (you will see a note if there is any type of mileage restriction)
- The tax that's added to rentals by airports
- Any fees that need to be paid for the vehicle's registration
