So you go in with visions of $15 a day rental spinning in your head only to come out paying $300 for a week, how does that happen? Well, here's how it happens..... Right up front you get charged airport fees, rental levi, sales tax and some mysterious miscellaneous fee to bring you up to about $180 for a $110 rental. (You can avoid some of this by renting away from the airport if you have some way to get from said airport to rental location, which we did not.)
So obviously I declined every other possible charge but here is where you get nailed:
#1 - Insurance - They will make it seem like the world will end if you don't get whatever super insurance they are peddling, save yourself the trouble and cost by getting a cheap rider on your own insurance if you are concerned about accidents, or just drive safely and save yourself all around. The insurance can be more expensive than the car if you get the premium package.
#2 - Upgrades - No matter what you are renting, they will have something much better for just a little bit more .... per day..... $5 a day doesn't sound like much but for a week that's $40. They wanted me to "upgrade" from an Elantra to a Corolla for $4 a day. I would rather pay not to upgrade to a Corolla for $4 a day, obviously I passed on the opportunity!
#3 - Gas fill up whatever fee.... You can pay up front not to have to bring your car back full of gas, you also pay extra for the gas but the fee saves you the trouble of filling up.... getting gas is not that difficult.
#4 - Pre pay toll booth fee - You can pay to use the pass through toll booths rather than stopping to pay, it takes all of 20 seconds to stop and pay so just keep some change in the car and stop and pay.
#5 - Extra drivers - If you have someone with you as a second driver and you are not married, tell them you are married, then you don't have to pay for second driver.
So that's enough about the dollars and cents.... The car itself was fine for the two of us, never had the get up and go of the Optima but it was good for driving on well paved, flat roads, unlike those of Newfoundland. Got about 30 MPG on average or 8 L per 100 KM. It was good gas mileage, over the span of a week with constant moving including a 200 mile round trip to the race track we spent a whopping $35 on gas. The seats were comfortable enough, the brakes and handling were fine for our tourist trips, AC worked well in the hot climate, overall no complaints. I wouldn`t run out and buy one myself but I sure as heck would buy one over a Corolla if I was looking for a compact sedan, and save myself $4 a day!
It seemed like a good solid compact sedan, currently going for $23,000 including taxes and fees on the Hyundai site.
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