US immigration

[Republik]

I'm off to America on Saturday on a fly drive. We don't have a hotel booked and I know that on the immigration forms I need to put an address for at least my first night of residence.

Question is, should I just pluck a random address of a hotel near the airport and write that on my immigration form, or should I actually book somewhere in case they check? I know US immigration are strict, but wanted to know what others have done in this situation.

[spitfire-ian]

I seem to remember that there is a Fly Drive option on the form.

[Poledriver]

I normally just put the name of an hotel nearby, not had any problems so far!

Hello, who's that knocking on the door? Oops he's wearing some kind of unif............

[Puggit]

Never had it checked in around 20 visits...

[Republik]

Thats a bit of a relief. I had a bit of bother when I came from Canada to America a few years back because I'd just finished uni, had no job and I had to justify that I was only coming back to America to catch a plane home to England, lucky I had a hot Swedish lady route through my baggage afterwards which cheered me up a bit.

[MrVelox]

Give them any garbage hotel you find on google, they won't bother you over it. Out of curiosity, where ya going?

[Republik]

Florida, for the weather and theme parks, taking the new gf which will be interesting!

[MrVelox]

If you're in Orlando, hit up Old town in Kissimmee on Saturday night for the cruise... also hit up Warbird Restoration in Kissimmee.

New girlfriend? You poor bd.

[Republik]

Just found out which car comes with the package:



Its a Chevy....Aveo! Anyone driven one? Is it as bad as it looks? I'm thinking an upgrade might be on the cards!

Edited by Republik on Thursday 9th October 11:08

[MrVelox]

Aveos are complete and utter stboxes.

Do not drive an Aveo, especially if you plan on driving all over Florida. 80mph on a freeway in that thing is absolute torture.

What's the rental car company you're going with?

[Republik]

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

[crofty1984]

Republik said:

Just found out which car comes with the package:



Its a Chevy....Aveo! Anyone driven one? Is it as bad as it looks? I'm thinking an upgrade might be on the cards!

Edited by Republik on Thursday 9th October 11:08

I had a chevy aveo in the states. It's almost amusingly st. But it's just actually st. As standard it had only a radio (not even a tape deck) the accelerator we renamed the loud pedal, as the car didn't seem to go any faster, just get louder. To get it to shift, you had to mnually use the low ratio gears in the autobox then step up to D. It did do an indicated 105 leptons though.

As far as address, get hold of one. My brother came to see me in the states a few years ago, he nearly got sent back home from JFK because he didn't have an address he was staying at. Luckily I was waiting for him and he convinced an immigration lady to come looking for me, so I gave her our uncle's address and let them know what hotel we would be staying in before we headed on there.

[tinman0]

Republik said:

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

Out of that list, I'd be going with the Sebring. We had a Sebring Cab about 2 years and the body flex was impressive to say the least, but then we did take it over Deals Gap at pace

On the motorway its a nice car to be in. Weather in Florida may allow for a few top down days as well.

[MrVelox]

Republik said:

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

Some of them are OK, Alamo does GM as a general rule. See if you can get a CTS

Cobalt is what replaced the Cavalier, decent car for what it is, a 9,000 pound car the size of a Vectra.

Grand Prix is halfway decent, 2008 is the last year for it. G6 is about the size of a Vectra and not a horrible car.

Lucerne is an American Luxury car, that means you'll not want to throw it into corners, but if you are doing a lot of driving on motorways it's a really nice road car.

The rest are stboxes, the Sebring in particular is a very nasty vehicle. If I had those choices I would do a Grand Prix or a G6. Should do about 30US MPG on the motorway, have acceptable power and not be too terrible to drive. Usual GM tacky plastic interior, but the Grand Prix that you will rent is a 14,000 pound car thats the size of a 5-series BMW.

But do rent something with Satellite radio.

[Rollin]

tinman0 said:

Republik said:

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

Out of that list, I'd be going with the Sebring. We had a Sebring Cab about 2 years and the body flex was impressive to say the least, but then we did take it over Deals Gap at pace

On the motorway its a nice car to be in. Weather in Florida may allow for a few top down days as well.

...and then you'll be putting your luggage on the back seats. They have almost no usable boot space with the top down.

[crofty1984]

Republik said:

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

When I was in the states I had:

Chevy Impala: Useful remote start that puts on the heater/aircon for you. Not a bad car, but plasticky. Fairly well specced though.

Chevy Malibu: Took this back and refused to drive it (I'd taken the Impala back and that's what they replaced it with) Had no redeeming features apart from windscreen washer jets that came from the middle of the wipers, not shooting up from the bonnet.

Ford Taurus: Basically a mondeo. Easily felt the better made of all the cars. Not fancy, but not bad.

Chevy Aveo: Does not have amusing windscreen washer jets. Therefore is worse than the Malibu. Also has only radio as standard.

Chrysler Sebring: Not a bad place to be, though a little style over substance. Big. Not a drivers car, but nice to munch the miles in.



Mostly from Avis. (Aveo was from budget and had no number plates.)

I'd try to avoid ANYthing from General motors. (The zafira I had with work and my bosses new Saab are included in this) Though if you have to The Impala is OK.

[BigBen]

crofty1984 said:

Ford Taurus: Basically a mondeo. Easily felt the better made of all the cars. Not fancy, but not bad.

Quite a bit bigger than a Mondeo I think although I have not been in a Mondeo for ages I am a regular Taurus renter. I agree that they seem to be much better built than the GM / Toyota competition although Pontiacs seem to have more go

Ben

[Deva Link]

Don't speed in Florida - the State Troopers really don't like it and a car doing 80 on the Interstate stands out like a sore thumb

Apparently they're also now aggresively enforcing the "move over" law - you must move over and leave a clear lane between you and any emergency vehicle stopped at the roadside. If you can't move over then you have to slow to 20 below the limit. I think it's a $150 fine and they've been pulling Brits soon after leaving the airports.

[theboyfold]

Back to the original point, on a trip to LA a few years back (post 9/11 though) I couldn't remember the address of my friend I was staying at. So left the door number out of the card, which meant I got pulled out of the queue and held back until I could confirm the address. On letting me go after making contact with my friend, the immigration officer said to me "I don't know why you just didn't make something up"

So my advice would be to use a hotel nearby if you don't have a place to stay sorted.

[Jimbeaux]

MrVelox said:

Republik said:

Alamo, none of the options take my fancy. They are all American anyway, my options consist of:

Chevy Cobalt
Pontiac G6
Pontiac Grand Prix

Then its about $200 more for something better:

Buick Lucerne
Chevy Equinox
Chrysler Sebring Cab
Chevy Trail Blazer
Chevy Uplander
Dodge Journey.

Should I be worried that the only one I've head of is the Sebring?!

Some of them are OK, Alamo does GM as a general rule. See if you can get a CTS

Cobalt is what replaced the Cavalier, decent car for what it is, a 9,000 pound car the size of a Vectra.

Grand Prix is halfway decent, 2008 is the last year for it. G6 is about the size of a Vectra and not a horrible car.

Lucerne is an American Luxury car, that means you'll not want to throw it into corners, but if you are doing a lot of driving on motorways it's a really nice road car.

The rest are stboxes, the Sebring in particular is a very nasty vehicle. If I had those choices I would do a Grand Prix or a G6. Should do about 30US MPG on the motorway, have acceptable power and not be too terrible to drive. Usual GM tacky plastic interior, but the Grand Prix that you will rent is a 14,000 pound car thats the size of a 5-series BMW.

But do rent something with Satellite radio.

9,000....14,000 pounds? I agree with the G6, good car. A Buick Lucern can also do corners. Bear in mind that rental fleet spec of any car is not representative of the whole product line.