Decent Car rental from Chicago

[dirty_dog]

Hi all,

I'm planning a trip to Minnesota in June and driving up from Chicago. Would like to get something interesting to hire for a couple of weeks. Was thinking of something big and lazy but does anyone have recommendations of car or hire company? Will fly into Chicago O'Hare.

Cheers

[belleair302]

Most of the major onsite car hire companies have an exciting range of vehicles at the airport. You will however pay a hefty premium for something unusual. remember if you have an Amex Gold card you can ignore the massive insurance premiums they all offer you.

For distance and it is over 400 miles from Chicago to Minneapolis I would pick a Dodge Charger or a Cadillac CTS but remember the roads are mostly freeways and just dead flat heading out west. It will also be pretty warm as summer approaches, way over 26c. Forget Mustangs, Camaro's and Corvettes for any distance driving in hot weather on wide open freeways. However for the cross country route with no luggage I would choose a BMW 650i convertible or a Maserati Gran Turismo.....both available from Global Exotic Car Rentals and their Chicago operation.

[dvs_dave]

How much are you looking to spend, and what do you class as decent? For anything tasty it'll run into many thousands of dollars/pounds if you're hiring it for a few weeks.

From experience, the big rental companies have good value pricing for their full size/luxury cars which are usually big and comfy, albeit fairly ordinary (perhaps not so ordinary for you coming from the UK) cruisers, but they usually have circa 300 bhp engines so can be quite quite nippy. Out of the many many cars I rent for work, the best ones so far in no particular order have been the Ford Explorer, Ford Taurus, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Charger/Chysler 300, and Jeep Grand Cherokee.

[Captain Cadillac]

Whatever you rent, make sure you get something with either Sirius or XM Satellite radio. Once you get out in the middle of nowhere your radio choices are often limited to religious or country music.

[dirty_dog]

cheers guys, think Ill have to get a more ordinary car as anything remotely flash and the prices get silly. Will need the car for a couple of weeks so looking at getting an SUV (preferably one we don't get over here) or the likes of a Chrysler 300. Dont need tonnes of room with only my wife an 1 baby but I do fancy something large/V8ish (or V6). Cant dream of that over here they'd all be 2 litre TDI engines!

Any recommendations from the big companies as its tricky to work out what their exact fleet is or can you be a bit choosy when you collect?

[dirty_dog]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

See who your airline buddies up with and use them I suggest.
All the big operators have interesting stuff and you wuill get a discount if you book through your airlines website / recommendation.

Good call thanks - seen some better rates through Virgin's rental minisite's.

[dvs_dave]

Anything "Full Size" and above will be a V6. Aside from their Specialty ranges (Mustangs, Camaro's etc) there are very very few V8's available these days from rental companies. If a V8 is that important your best bet in the normal ranges is to go for a Large SUV which will either be a Chevy Tahoe/Suburban, or Ford Expedition which are only available as V8's. However they're pretty crude things, what with being based on pick-ups.

[belleair302]

I had a BMW 528i recently from Hertz in Tampa and a Caddy CTS V8 not long ago....both were pretty good when compared to a Chevy Malibu or Volvo S80. Dodge Challenger would be fun or an Infiniti G37 !

[dirty_dog]

well I was thinking of getting a Chevvy Tahoe or Dodge Durango (Ford Expeditions are quirky looking things!) but I would like it to be comfy so wonder if I should maybe just get a Grand Cherokee or a big saloon. Part of me wants to grab a big V8 barge for the sake of it but TBH I only need one baby seat in the back for the majority of the trip.

[Captain Cadillac]

The Durango is a much nicer drive than a Tahoe. Problem is rental spec Durangos aren't exactly going to be R/Ts with a Hemi and nav.

You might see if you can get a Grand Cherokee Limited, Enterprise has them in their fleet and they're very nice to drive for what they are.

[Riknos]

Hey guys, wasn't sure whether to start a new thread or attach onto this one:

I'm going out to Massachusetts (Boston area) for a few weeks in August. My fiancé will be working a few days so will be on my own so renting a car would be needed. I'm also going to be getting married! So having something nice like a Mustang or a Corvette to drive around would be a nice wedding gift to myself. I've tried a google search, and have looked on some of the big car websites (Enterprise, Avis etc) and some smaller local ones (Stoneham Ford) but nowhere seems to do anything better than a Focus!

I'd settle for anything remotely interesting, any sports car, coupe or convertible really, just don't want to drive around in an SUV all week...

Any links much appreciated

[Captain Cadillac]

It's also worth bearing in mind that a lot of the RWD Muscle cars are moved out of snow belt markets in the winter. I know our local Enterprise guys pretty well and they usually pull the convertibles and muscle cars around October and don't have them back until April or so.

[dvs_dave]

Captain Cadillac said:

The Durango is a much nicer drive than a Tahoe. Problem is rental spec Durangos aren't exactly going to be R/Ts with a Hemi and nav.

You might see if you can get a Grand Cherokee Limited, Enterprise has them in their fleet and they're very nice to drive for what they are.

+1

Tahoe is an old nail of a thing. They epitomise everything that was wrong with GM products (and American cars on the whole) before the financial crash came along and gave them a massive wake up call. Can't believe it's still being sold in such numbers tbh.

Anyway Durango is decent (same platform as Merc GL) but rental ones will be low spec V6's, as will Grand Cherokee's. The new Ford Explorer is a good vehicle and most of the rental ones I've had have had all the bells and whistles. Touch screen controls for everything, TFT instruments etc etc. Best of the bunch from my experience.