Advice - Car rental - Canberra.

[CLUBRED]

Hey guys, after a bit of advice. I'm dragging the kids (family of 4) down to Perisher for a week in September, and renting a car in Canberra and driving up to the ski-tube (and doing some touring along the way, car kept below snowline). I've never rented a car, usually its for work and they organise it and all I do is turn up and drive it.

- Do I need all that excess insurance they want to on sell?

- What size sedan to handle 3 large-ish suitcases (say 60cm x 45cm x 30cm) and a few carry ons? I was originally thinking xtrail, but prefer a boot/sedan for a bit of additional security. Not sure I want to book a Commodore as I'd want to lock in a VF, I don't want to turn up and get handed the keys to a ZB (not sedan). I guess that only leaves be with a Camry?

- Anyone over the child restraint regs in the ACT and NSW? My boys will be 9 and 5, both well exceed the height for age charts. Don't want to hire 2 boosters if I don't need to.

Any other advice? Cheers.

[offshore]

One thing their excess doesn't cover hitting a Kangaroo at night. Thats the same with all of them I think. I usually pay for the $0 excess less things to worry about. They still had a VF there last time I got one that was in early Feb. They had 4wds their and I think the one my work colleague had was a Pajero or Prado cant remember id get one of those for the Snow dont usually have to worry abput out chains etc.

[whitels1ss]

I was looking at hiring a car for an interstate trip recently, a good mate of mine is a manager at a local Hertz branch.
He talked me out of it because he told me that there was no out of town insurance cover between dusk & dawn on out of city roads.
He told me that it's a common clause that people are often unaware about in hire vehicle contracts & he told me there were plenty of other hidden clauses.

I was planning mostly night driving on country roads so I did the trip in one of my own cars instead.


I have linked an interesting article by "Choice", it's got a few hidden clauses worth thinking about.



https://www.choice.com.au/about-us/m...insurance-rort

[harrisor2]

I hadn't bothered with the excess insurance in the past as everyone says its a rip off and I was always careful however got caught out last time because an unknown person scratched a panel (a scratch that would be fixed for around $300 if it was your own car). Credit card is charged the full excess amount ($4k) then you get a refund of the difference a few weeks later. There is no shopping around for the cheapest quote for repairs; it is whoever the rental company wants to use and no guarantee that the work is even done. There was a story in The Age a couple of months ago about how rental companies make more money out of repairs than actual rentals and get kick backs from panel shops. Unless you can afford to pay out up to $4k, pay for the excess insurance or don't rent.

[csv rulz]

I wouldnt be worried about getting a ZB if you were originally thinking of hiring an xtrail. To drive a zb will crap all over an xtrail.
But yes, VF would be much nicer again

[white lie]

I hadn't bothered with the excess insurance in the past as everyone says its a rip off and I was always careful however got caught out last time because an unknown person scratched a panel (a scratch that would be fixed for around $300 if it was your own car). Credit card is charged the full excess amount ($4k) then you get a refund of the difference a few weeks later. There is no shopping around for the cheapest quote for repairs; it is whoever the rental company wants to use and no guarantee that the work is even done. There was a story in The Age a couple of months ago about how rental companies make more money out of repairs than actual rentals and get kick backs from panel shops. Unless you can afford to pay out up to $4k, pay for the excess insurance or don't rent.

Wow that's pretty shitty
I've rented loads whenever I go to Melbourne and never bothered with the excess insurance. Every rental I've been in has a heap of scratches and dings that aren't shown on the damage report when picking up the car. At first I used to always get it put on but got tired of that and haven't bothered since. Touch wood I've never been stung!

[BLACK 346]

Wow that's pretty shitty
I've rented loads whenever I go to Melbourne and never bothered with the excess insurance. Every rental I've been in has a heap of scratches and dings that aren't shown on the damage report when picking up the car. At first I used to always get it put on but got tired of that and haven't bothered since. Touch wood I've never been stung!

Same here. I aways take a crap load of photos with my phone just in case. Nissan that we got in Honolulu when I was there for work had the tailgate caved in lol, needless to say I got some good shots of that.

[rgmast]

If you pay by a gold or platinum credit card that has insurance included in the card so it covers the excess on rental cars

[amckiwi]

Often travel insurance covers the excess and is cheaper than what the rental car companies charge, you also get other cover benifits

[CLUBRED]

Cheers all. I can't see us doing much if any driving dusk to dawn, outside the city areas anyways. I had a look at my travel insurance and didn't see the rental car option properly, so have taken that for an additional $50 to cover the excess - the rental companies seem to want that per day....

Also looks like I only need 1 booster seat.

Now to decide on car...