so me and the old lady are heading to Florida AKA life's end zone for a vaca int he beginning of May. We are flying in to Ft Lauderdale and going straight to South Beach for a few nights then out to Key West for a few nights and then to some other key and back to Ft Lauderdale before we fly out.

I was looking at rental cars. what a damn ripoff. no matter what coupon code i can find or which of the ten companies at the airport search they all come back the same. $600+ for a 2dr hatch! Our trip is 10 days but still I think $600 is just insane... I'm thinking of searching Craigslist and buying something in Ft Lauderdale and giving it to a friend of mine who lives there to sell when we fly out... i mean anyoen have any ideas? besides renting a bike or taking mass transit...

 

Holy S_ _ _! $60/day?!?!?! That's outrageous!

It might make sense to take a taxi from the airport and around town while you're in South Beach and then pickup a car a more "rural" location. Airports usually price gouge a little, and I don't blame them.

 

yeah except the cab from the airport to the hotel is $80 one way.... LOL. what a mess. Another $600 and i can drive in luxury and OWN the damn thing!

http://miami.craigslist.org/mdc/cto/2206065107.html

 

LMAO! Check the trunk before you buy that thing, you might find something you didn't bargain for

 

i would rock that thing around Miami, even with a body in the trunk im sure there is enough room for 2 full size suitcases.

 

Renting from a airport is never the way to go, they know they have you by the *****.
Dont you have 2 cars?
Do this math, 2 round trip plane tickets + rental car = what?
How much to drive your own car?
Get a rough estimate of the total miles for the trip, guess low on your average mpg.
Take your total miles and divide that by the MPG figure.
That will give you the amount of fuel you can expect to buy.
Go to www.gasbuddy.com and look up gas prices along the route.
Take the highest gas price and multiply that by the number of gals of fuel.
That will give you your estimated cost in fuel.
How does that compare to the plane tickets and rental car? Not to mention you will be buying gas for the rental.
I never fly because it is always cheaper to drive.

Now to figure out your travel time, take the miles from point "A" to point "B" and divide that my your expected average speed.
Remember that your average speed will be lower by ~5-10mph than the speed you expect to drive.

So lets say one way the trip is 1500 miles, speed limit it 70, you expect to drive 75, your average speed will be roughly 65mph.
That includes fuel/potty/food stops.
That estimates to 23hrs. Combine your fuel/potty/food stops to one stop instead of three and you can save time.
You put gas in while she pees, she pays while you pee then you hit the drive thu and back on the expressway.
Its not as convenient as flying, but almost always cheaper.

Now lets say you drove a Hyundai Accent on the trip and it gets 30mpg and the average price of fuel is $3.50.
That's $175 one way.
If it gets 25mpg that same trip will cost you $210.
Lets say your total trip is 4,000 miles, at $3.50 per gal and 25mpg average your total fuel cost will be...$560...cheaper than the rental car, now subtracted the plane tickets...you just made money.

This is what I do for every one of our trips, estimate, calculate and estimate again.

As for all of the "discount" sites, they are all the same just different names.

 

Phil that extensive look into driving vs flying is great. however as you pointed out we will lose 2 days in driving. i have done that drive before and it took me about 27 hours mainly because i was stuck in traffic when they shut down 95 to find the "sniper". Luckily for us the airport is only 15 mins away from our house with no traffic and the flight was $350 round trip for both of us! So i consider that worth it. My wagon gets about 26mpg im sure could get more if i took the roof rack off. I going to continue into looking at rentals but will take your advice and look outside of the airport. I do agree with driving for most trips. Cape Cod, Boston, Rhode Island, Buffalo, Atlantic City, DC, Philly, all reasonable drives.

 

What? You're not wiling to spend 2 days in the car with your woman?
Whats wrong with you man?
I love to drive, thats why I do it for a living.
However I do understand your situation and if you want to wimp out and fork over the dough for a rental go for it man!
Keep in mind that a true Rover owner would drive his truck.

 

I used to live in Fort Lauderdale. You can get a decent rental for cheap outside of the airport.
http://www.rentawreck.com/cheap-car-...erdale-FL.html
You have to love this place!

 

I would love to drive my truck to Florida! If I had $350 for gas money each way!

Thanks for the link biking, i just emailed them my itinerary and asked for a quote. Much appreciated.