Route 66

Orlee

Hey, doing a bit brainstorming on what to do for the holidays and I'd love to do Route 66 but renting a car to drive across the states is turning out pretty expensive especially if you dont drop the car back to the same place you picked it up from - anywhere between €2000 and €3000

Anyway - anyboday got any ideas or experience of driving across the US?

Thanks in advance

half_dead

Hey, I actually got my full visa yesterday and so myself and my wife are going to head over in a few weeks and are planning a trip from Rhode Island to Denver, Colorado.

We're lucky enough that she has a car over there already, so we've to only pay for petrol. She's done it a few times from Texas to Boston, to Colorado, to New Orleans, and so on, it can be very pricy and it seems the best thing to do is make sure you're with triple-A for the duration of the trip and get yourself a second hand Car for the journey (obviously depending on how long you're planning on being in the US)

Alternativly, I think its actually cheaper to just change cars every few hundred miles, as once your go over a certain amount of mileage its considered long-term usage and therefore the car becomes worth less to the rental company (my mum works for a rental company in Ireland)... automatic services/overhauls need to be done, tyres need to be replaced, etc. and thats really what you're paying for, not the actual time you have the car.....

Best of luck.

irishguy

There are moving companys that will allow you to drive a car from one location to another for free some will even pay you somthing towards costs for doing it. As people move alot in the states and are unwilling to drive there car such a long distance. You should check it out cant remember any company names off the top of my head though

ToxicPaddy

irishguy wrote:

There are moving companys that will allow you to drive a car from one location to another for free some will even pay you somthing towards costs for doing it. As people move alot in the states and are unwilling to drive there car such a long distance. You should check it out cant remember any company names off the top of my head though

I know one or two people who've done this, one drawback is that you have a very strict time limit and it seriously restricts what you can or cant do.. its usually a cheap way to briefly see the US, but dont be expecting to potter along at a nice place, those who own the cars fly to their new destination and usually want their car there asap when they move.

Tox

Afuera

Those companies that allow you to relocate someones car for them are called "driveaways" in the States. Here's a couple of companies that came up with Google:
http://www.autodriveaway.com/
http://www.driveawayco.com/

You may not get to do all of Route 66 this way as you're dependant on going whereever the car needs to go. Also, you'd probably be expected to do this trip in a couple of days or so.