Hotwire Car Rental - fully flexible EWR Options

[XT600]

I'd have soem questions on hotwire car rentals.

- Cheapest supplier in EWR seems to be "Enterprise rent-a-car" - can I trust these folks? is this just a placeholder for the later named car rental dealer or a real company?
- they won't charge anything to my CC so the booking is fully flexible (no cancelation penalties?)
- will there be any mandatory charges I can't avoid even insurance is included in my creditcard if I use them to pay for rental?

Priceline versus Hotwire: could I really get a car at priceline for $19 instead of $30 at hotwire with the only disadvantage to loose flexibiliy?

Is Priceline same deal as hotels? non-canceable, 100% prepayment?

Thanks

[thereuare]

Enterprise is a legitimate rental company and i wouldn't have any concerns renting thru them. Other than the mandatory charges shown on your reservation (airport fees, taxes, concession, etc, etc) there shouldn't be anything else that is mandatory once you arrive at the counter.

When doing a car rental search, HOTWIRE shows both 'retail' and 'opaque' rental offers. When the listing is grey in color, the name of the rental company isn't shown, and your told that the credit card won't be charged until picked up.. that is a 'retail' listing and these are generally cancellable at any time. The offerings in red are labeled as "hot rate" offers and these are opaque... the rental company's name is not shown until after purchase, your credit card is billed upon purchase, and there are no refunds/cancellations.

PRICELINE also deals with 'retail' and 'opaque' offerings, but doesn't mix them together... if you 'name your own price' then you're on the opaque side of their rental site and if your offer is accepted it is non-refundable/non-cancellable. At PRICELINE if you click car rentals near the top of their home page you have the option of searching the 'retail' offerings... for these the price is shown (there is no bidding) as is the name of the rental company, and these are generally fully refundable.

Hope the above clarifies the similarities of each service as well as the difference within them.

Please use these PRICELINE and HOTWIRE links to begin your travel purchases.

[XT600]

Thanks!! Very good inputs!!

[XT600]

hello again,
is it true that the cars haven't even any liablity insurance included? "motor vehicle third party liability insurance"?´
my creditcard only covers liablity for my rental car not for others?

Is this insurance not included by default in the US? How much would this be per day?

Thanks

[thereuare]

Insurance is not typically included with US rental cars, but i'm not up to date on all the terms and conditions as my personal car insurance extends to my rentals, as well as credit card providing secondary coverage.

You could go to the Enterprise website for this location to see how much the insurance would cost (go thru the process for a 'dummy' reservation)

[XT600]

Insurance is not typically included with US rental cars, but i'm not up to date on all the terms and conditions as my personal car insurance extends to my rentals, as well as credit card providing secondary coverage.

You could go to the Enterprise website for this location to see how much the insurance would cost (go thru the process for a 'dummy' reservation)

I think that even it's included the amount is only 50.000 USD which isnot enough.... but there are insurances available which increase this amount to 2,5 Mio uSD

[thereuare]

I don't understand your post above... what are the dates and car class that you're looking at?

[XT600]

I don't understand your post above... what are the dates and car class that you're looking at?

sorr for my bad English.

I mean even if insurance was included in the rate the minimum amount insured is 500k USD, correct? However this might not be enough in case of an accident?

I understand more and more why car rental bidding isn't as popular as Hotel bidding with priceline

I'm looking for 03/26 to 03/30 4 nights EWR-EWR - we stay in Westin Jersey City and I'm not sure if I'll find a free parking around (supermarket parking is behind the hotel but maybe you Thereyouare know better as from Hoboken?)

[thereuare]

I don't know the required insurnace limits, but it's porbably less than 500K, although as you point out, even that may not be enough should you have a serious accident.

Are you doing anything around the NJ area or is this simply a 'NYC substitute'? If using this in place of a hotel in Manhattan, why even rent a car at all?

[XT600]

Are you doing anything around the NJ area or is this simply a 'NYC substitute'? If using this in place of a hotel in Manhattan, why even rent a car at all?

fully agree! That's why I don't want to spend too much for a car if at all!!

As you know many Europeans (esp. these ones who only stay 4 nights but fly 10hs to EWR like us ) visit US to do shopping. Also our plane back to MUC leaves around 8 pm so we have still a lot of time on the last day before departure.

We stay 1 night at Marriott EWR (free parking), then we move to Westin Jersey City for 3 nights till Tuesday.

A car just gives you much more flexiblity in visiting malls and stores which are not accessible by public transport.

One more question:
- do you have any idea if it's a problem to leave a car for a while at the supermarket parking behind the Westin Jersey? is there any other free parking area around?

[thereuare]

I wouldn't leave the car at the supermarket parking lot as it could get towed (there was a crackdown there not too long ago, as many people would park there while shopping at the nearby mall (the mall charges for parking).

There is an Enterprise car rental at another nearby supermarket lot, and perhaps you could call ahead to see if they'll let you park there overnite (given its the same company, assuming you end up renting from Enterprise). This rental location may be an option as well as you could rent just for the day or two you need the vehicle.... but you'll have the insurance issue.

Lastly, you may want to look into zipcar.com. Don't know if you can join without a US license (or if you need to be a US resident), but they rent cars by the hour or day, and while a bit more than renting thru one of the major rental companies, i believe insurance is included, so that would be a savings right there (check insurance limits and confirm available to non-US residents.