Anybody hired a muscle car in the US?

[haggis]

Me and the GF are planning on heading to Florida this September.

Since weve not been on holiday for several years we fancy renting a proper american car!

I was thinking mustang or challenger (mmmmmmmmmm V8 )

the main companys seem to do them but prices are steep.

Has anybody done this before? any suggestions where we should look.

[Mystery Machine]

Sorry I can't be of any help, other than to post this little video clip.

Makes me smile every time I see it!

[haggis]

Jan 18, 2016 23:22:16 GMT Mystery Machine said:

Sorry I can't be of any help, other than to post this little video clip.

Makes me smile every time I see it!

EXACTLY!

[composimmonite]

If you go for modern muscle then you might get a 2.0 Toyota or Kia
A few years ago a mate hired a Mustang convertible for a couple of weeks and it was quite expensive compared to an ordinary hire car.

[dbizzle]

A friend of mine nearly did a few years ago. He was going on holiday to Las Vegas with his mates; they all booked flights straight to Vegas, but he flew to somewhere a hundred miles or so away so that he could hire a Mustang and arrive in Vegas by road, rumbling through the desert. He's not a car guy by any means, it's just a classic motif from films and TV that he wanted to live out.
Unfortunately, when he got to the car rental place to pick up his drop-top 'Stang he was greeted with "Ah, sorry, we've just rented out the last one..."

So he arrived in Vegas in a Korean minivan. Which didn't quite have the same gravitas.

[deanflowers]

I went a couple of years ago to work and had an 'average medium sized car' - a Toyota corolla. I was supposed to keep this for 3 weeks but with 4th july weekend shortly after my stay i thought i would treat myself. So called Hertz and asked them where the nearest Camaro or such like was to my hotel.

Apparently its doesn't work like that.

You must give the dealership you want to collect the car from then they check the stock. (I did explain i don't care but apparently it doesn't work like that)

After 5 'Computer says no' moments i gave up and drove the lovely but boring corolla to the nearest airport and told the lovely lady that i was too young to be driving an average medium sized car and that i wanted something fun for the weekend.

Pretty girl said 'go outside and see if there is anything you like' - there wasn't much except 4 brand new hard top mustangs (V6s though).

Anyways i thought that the mustang may be a superior machine and asked what the price was for the weekend.

Computer said yes!!! Apparently nobody wants a hard top mustang and because they had no sat nav (which my company had paid $70 for), pretty girl said i could have $70 refund and keep the mustang for the remaining 2.5 weeks of my stay.

What a result.

In my dreams i always imagined myself cruising down highway 66, arm round a beautiful girl, in a v8 convertible, sun shinning etc etc.

The reality was the car was a V6, had a roof, the girl was a slightly overweight work colleague, who had her arm round me whilst asleep and drooling on my shoulder. It was also raining and we were on route 64 (Richmond to Virigina Beach). A case of so close but so far

So my advise is blag it at the airport if you cannot find something before

[rmad]

This was my hire 'car' in the 'States*:



*Until the window got broken when someone nicked my stuff, then it was replaced with a Jeep - which I drove intro a Kia the day we got it, then it was switched for a Chrysler Voyager (which was knackered) which we drove to LA and switched for another Econoline - which has probably rusted away now, because I took it on the Salt flats at Bonneville! It was a V8 though!

[haggis]

Done a bit more digging and apparently hertz are the only company that you can properly reserve a v8 dodge challenger or v8 'stang.

i think ill sign up for the hertz membership and see if i can get a deal at some point. not going for 8 or 9 months so plenty of time to get organised!

[MiataMark]

My first trip to the US (for work) was back in the early 80's I went to Manchester in New Hampshire in January (snow lots of it). Got a limo from Boston airport, stretch 4x4 actually. On arriving at the car rental place I was offered huge estate car (sorry station-wagon) I asked if they had something more 'european' the guy pointed out the window and pointed at a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am



Maybe not the best car for sheet ice on the freeway (180 degree spin ensued, luckily not hitting anything), was great fun though.

I used to go to Northern California a lot and always made sure I was at the end of the queue for the rental desk so that hopefully they had run out of sub-compacts by the time I got to the desk... or paid a few dollars more for something bit more interesting. Drove a lot of Miata's, V6 Mustang* convertibles, Thunderbird...


(taken on Highway 1 near Monterey)

* was slightly embarrassing when I coincidentally pulled up alongside the manager who signed my expenses in a Mustang convertible with the hood down arm on the door stop radio on etc  in down town San Francisco and he, and his family, were crammed into a Ford Escort...

I also spend a summer in the bay area and was given an Oldsmobile rental car that was huge, swapped that for a Honda Accord (boring but my wife had to drive it).


I'd love to fly to San Francisco hire a Camaro/Mustang/Challenger (modern or old) and drive to Los Angeles down Highway 1, looked into it and it's not cheap.

[HoTWire]

For modern hire muscle last time I went (2014) we hired this



The time before (2013) we hired this



and this



The Toyota FJ was super fun to drive to the Grand Canyon and such, but of the two modern American muscle cars I'd say the Challenger was by far the best, the auto box (because all autos) in the Mustang was nonsense, and the Challenger was more comfortable, drove Vegas to LA in both of them. The Mustang wasn't bad, but the Challenger was better. Not sure what to hire this year, guess it depends what is in stock when we arrive

[steveo3002]

replied on cgti as well ...

hertz adrenaline are good

heres a few ive had








slipped off the clutch here








viper & vette from a specialist in vegas





prob spend too much on car rentals lol

[rustywagon]

We've had a few mustangs with hertz, and each time it was roughly the cost of a 'normal' family sized car. Once they didn't have it in stock, so we were given a 350z converrtible instead. Bleugh.

Challengers pop up as not being too pricey either.

HTH

[minininjarob]

How to make it cheaper IMHO - take out a credit card which doesn't charge for overseas use (Halifax Clarity/Post Office platinum etc) and use the USA website of the hire company to book the car.

One of the companies have a "sports and prestige" section where you actually book a specific vehicle - not "a ford mustang or similar". I got a quote for a V8 Challenger 400bhp for £500 for 10 days which I thought was great - didn't go for it but it was only about £140 more than the regular 4x4 Ford Edge we went for instead.

If you have a non-specific booking when you go and pick it up DON'T accept anything less than you booked. When we went to Cali we booked a Ford Edge (or similar). None left when we arrived and they offered us a lame 12 seat van (only 2 of us!) and a couple of other rubbish cars. I held my ground politely and we got upgraded for free to a Lincoln MKT SUV which was awesome!

My last tip is DON'T get the standard Mustang convertible - you'll feel special for about 5 minutes until you realise the standard ones are woefully underpowered (lame V6 I think) and ALL the other tourists are driving them (especially down Route 1 down the west coast).

[HoTWire]

When we got the Mustang we had actually booked a "family compact" of some sort. I went down to the hire place, went for the best insurance option (it wasn't that much money) and asked if they had anything more interesting. Got one of their "sports" cars for the price of the "family compact", I think it was mainly because they make their coin from the insurance.

Depending on where you get your car your mileage may vary in terms of what is available, ours always come from the Avis at The Bellagio so they tend to have some interesting stuff around.

[steveo3002]

id watch out booking via the .com /usa site , most americans have thier own insurance so its not included , but nearly always will be on the european sites

double check its all included before paying

[minininjarob]

Jan 19, 2016 12:42:55 GMT steveo3002 said:

id watch out booking via the .com /usa site , most americans have thier own insurance so its not included , but nearly always will be on the european sites

double check its all included before paying

You normally select that you are not a USA citizen and coming from abroad. Oddly when I selected it it reduced the price in every case.

Don't just travel there and hire something when you get there, it's mega expensive. We met a family of 4 adults who had got what appeared to be a USA Mondeo when they didn't order in advance and it cost them double what we paid for out mahoosive luxury SUV.

[jonw]

Renting in the US isn't cheap. The prices shown usually exclude taxes and insurance, plus they will take and EZ tolls afterwards.

Last rental was a Jeep Compass. So bad I'd actually consider buying one. 3ltr auto petrol. Acceleration was glacial and the handling non-existent.



And remember Green pump is diesel, black petrol.

[sal]

I hired this one when I was in Las Vegas last year



Can only describe it as awesome. I drove it down via Hoover dam to a place called Kingman where I met a really nice local chap with an 80's Mustang and we had a good chat. From there I drove approx 90 miles along Route 66 to Seligman. An amazing road through stunning scenery that was somehow made that bit better by the car that I was driving.

Later in the week I popped into Walmart and parked away from any other cars. When I returned this old banger was parked beside me





I flew 10 hours on a plane and I still can't get away from knackered mk2 Cavaliers. As much as I love mk2's I drove the Mustang back.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Only advice I would give is pre bookings don't seem to mean much to them. I booked via Hertz before I left UK and when I turned up on the arranged day they had no mustangs. Four hours later I got the car and compensation but I had to be very insistent. I was at one point offered a Nissan. No offence but we've got one of them at home.

I hope you enjoy whatever car you go for. I certainly enjoyed mine.

[Stu]

Jan 19, 2016 10:18:08 GMT MiataMark said:

I'd love to fly to San Francisco hire a Camaro/Mustang/Challenger (modern or old) and drive to Los Angeles down Highway 1, looked into it and it's not cheap.

We did this last May and I specifically wanted a hard top Mustang for the trip, not a convertible, and not an 'or similar' alternative like most places offer. I found you could guarantee one via Avis 'signature series', along with lots of other cool stuff, so did that. It was 'only' a V6 model but I loved it, plenty of power, way better steering feel and handling than you'd expect of a US car. Here's a couple of pics:

Pacific Coast Highway




Joshua Tree national park




Yosemite




If it has to be a V8, the only place I found that guaranteed one of those was Hertz but none were available for our trip.

[retroade]

Mate of mine went on a 4 week multi stop trip to the US last year and pre-booked cars with Hertz no problem. Hired cars out of Vegas and Honolulu. Said the experience was amazing.