Ideas for saving on rental car expenses

WITH the cost of car rentals soaring, readers are developing strategies to avoid steep prices. Every week I receive recommendations ranging from the harebrained to the impressive.

Most advocate renting the smallest car. Because these are in limited supply, my tipsters said, chances are good that the compact category will be sold out when you arrive and you’ll be upgraded, without extra charge, to a larger car. Though you won’t save any money, you’ll at least get more value for money spent.

Readers also suggested that renters pick up cars as late in the day as possible. That way, chances are better that the compact cars will have been rented and you’ll get a larger car.

Several readers advise making reservations far in advance to guarantee the availability of a car, then calling the company as the rental date approaches to determine whether the rate has dropped on cars for the day of your rental.

If you’re planning a hotel stay in a city where you’ll also need a car, use a shuttle to reach the hotel and have the car delivered to your hotel the next morning, one reader said. That saves a day’s rental.

Don’t forget that large car rental companies often advertise in the travel sections of major newspapers and in AARP and AAA publications, offering discounted rates. Don’t overlook coupons to save on car rentals.

Some of my recent letters have been devoted to refuting car rental advice that might have appeared in earlier columns. It is absolutely wrong, one reader said, to claim that you get better gas mileage using air conditioning rather than driving with the windows open. “Baloney!” wrote this cynic; according to the Florida Solar Energy Center at the University of Florida, test cars have experienced 11% better fuel efficiency with the windows open than with using the air conditioner.

Finally, several readers have denied that you save money by renting a car in a city’s downtown rather than at the airport. At Baltimore/Washington International Airport, one reader said, the rates are considerably lower than in Baltimore proper.

Said another reader: “I’ll never rent off-airport again. I’ve been lost in scary neighborhoods, given incomplete directions and waited over an hour to be picked up before being told, ‘Oh, take a cab, and we’ll pay for it.’ ”