Has anyone been to the States and hired a fancy car like a Ford Mustang or simular ?
I’m thinking of driving the West coast from San Fransisco to Seattle in September and I’ve heard that you can hire these type of cars fairly cheap, but I can’t seem to find anything.
Anyone got any tips or suggestions. It needs to be a one way hire with unlimited mileage

Cheers

It’s pretty expensive. It’ll cost you a couple of thousand dollars. And it’s just as much fun in a normal car! If I had that much money to burn on a car I’d get a 4×4 to do some dirt roading, at least that gives you something different to do rather than just looking good.

Anyway for car hire you can save loads of money by buying third party CDW insurance from http://www.insurance4carhire.com

No experience to offer, but I shall be hiring a car later in the year too, so shall follow with interest.

Oh and remember that whilst petrol is cheap in the US, it’s quite a long way from SF to Seattle so the difference between 10mpg and 35mpg is a significant cost. Money that could be spend on other goodies.

Also – one way hire is expensive, and flights returning from different destinations are also expensive…

We did this in 2009 and drove from LA to SF.

We paid a lot less than molgrips mentioned above – it was well under £400 for a one way, 12 day rental, including LDW etc. This was from Hertz, but lots of rental companies use Mustangs as their standard convertible – they’re dirt cheap out there.

Try searching Expedia for convertible rental and check out what cars they offer. The caveat here is that most companies will rent you a Mustang or equivalent, so there’s no guarantee you’ll actually get the exact car of your choice.

there was a recent (2010?) ‘stang on a local car lot for a couple of weeks, asking £14990. I was tempted to have a look… but it’s gone now. probably just as well

I was in the states last year for my honeymoon. 10 day hire of a chevy camaro was 750dollars. This was in florida tho and off season as it was early hurricane season.

you would be looking at 600-700 dollars at week I think for something like a Mustang. I’m out in the UK about every 3 weeks and rent cars regularly.

I’ve hired a mustang from hertz for a week in September.

In Las Vegas, for £280 inc cdw

It’s not expensive if you look around.

Have a look at the Hertz “Adrenaline collection”.

11 days cost me about £650 for a Dodge Challenger R/T, 5.7, V8, 372bhp modern muscle car! Loved it!

There’s also a Mustang GT or Camaro SS in the same price bracket & a Corvette for a bit more…

That ‘adrenaline collection’ had hot me looking at flight prices to the West Coast…

Just be sure to book the ‘full fat’ versions, rather than the V6 if possible!

If you’re outside major holidays, shouldn’t be too expensive.

I guess it’s cheaper out West then.. we were always renting from Chicago.

Be aware that there’s some low spec Mustangs out there. And don’t rent a convertible in the height of summer – it’s too bloody hot and you’ll have the top up with the aircon on. But in a shoulder month it could be quite fun.

Great, cheers ror the advice guys.
I love the look of that Dodge

Just done 3000 mile road trip out west in us, rentalcars.co.uk seemed to find cheapest deals.

You know what, even the cheapo V6 models are quite something in comparison to your average UK car…

I would disagree about the v6 thing, we had rented a Toyota Corrolla but got upgraded to a Pontiac Grand Am. 3 litre v6 2 door sports coupe but with awful automatic gearbox. Was slower than my 1.8 Focus back home and gave quite a few dodgy overtaking choices as the gearbox was so bad.

We hired a mustang. Standard range, sounded awesome was a complete shit heap in every other respect

I was really impressed with the Dodge. Smooth ride, but not too soggy, very comfortable & all the toys, plus goes like stink…

With the Adrenaline Collection you get your exact choice of car, not just one from that group.

The Challenger is a bit bigger than the Camaro or Mustang.

Only really good for 2,btw,rear legroom is minimal, especially if you have the seat all the way back.

And, yes I do have photos of me & the other half getting in through the windows Duke boys style 😉

Any thoughts on a Dodge Charger? Can be had through rentalcars.com for £350 for just over a fortnight.

I fancy something in that style but is it going to be a heap to drive? Bearing in mind I currently drive a 13 yr old 306 estate.

When comparing US cars to UK cars, don’t underestimate the effects of altitude. On the plains in Colorado you’re still at 5,000ft. We hired a Saturn SUV with a beautifully smooth powerful V8 – at least at a few hundred feet of altitude. In the mountains it ended up like my Prius.

Also an interesting insight into the fit and finish of US cars. The engine was fantastic, the drive was good, but the driver’s seat wasn’t straight. Really started to annoy me after a few thousand miles. I mentioned it to my car enthusiast Father in Law and he said ‘yeah, that sounds about right’.

Been checking prices over last couple of days and wondering about the insurance thing mentioned by molgrips. If I book through rentalcars.com, which says it includes CDW, am I also going to get pressured into taking Excess insurance, or SLI or some other thing that’s going to boost the cost?
Am I better to just get an excess cover policy here costing about £70?