They say…
'Cairns to Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne one way for a total price of just $16 per day
Valid for Pick up from 11/10/2010 - 17/12/2010
Rent a Compact vehicle from Cairns Airport, Cairns City or Port Douglas to any of our Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne Metropolitan locations for a total price of just $16 per day.
A maximum rental period of 5 days applies, with unlimited kms and no one way fee.
Book Now as this offer is limited!'
$16 per day sounds pretty cheap to me! Hit the road baby.
Unfortunately, if you hire from Melbourne there's a 50/50 chance you'll end up in Canberra. ;)
Wait a minute, once you start to add the different types of insurance available, I'm sure it becomes significantly more than $16. Hiring a rental car without any type of insurance package is insane.
I for one, never pay for insurance when renting a car. I can never justify increasing the car rental cost by 30-40% for the added peace-of-mind. Savings to date has far surpassed the extra excess gap potentially saved if I had taken the insurance option.
when a relative from oversea rent a car without insurance…had an accident(luckily no one hurts) and she have to repay $4000~$5000
then you'll know insurance is necessary when driving others car!
$4000-$5000?? Standard excess is usually $2000 or less. All cars rented have to be insured. What you're really paying for optionally is excess reduction to something in the region of $400. Quite ridiculous that your family member had to pay so much for the damage.
@Livert: Europcar, thrifty are both around $3,000.
The way I get around paying car hire companies ridiculous prices is getting travel insurance for the times I get a hire car (or annually) which is considerably cheaper than their auto insurance - can be even just a few $ - and covers the excess in the case of an accident.
Only catch is you still have to pay upfront to the car company if you have an accident, so relying on the travel insurance company to pay you back quick.
@Livert: Have a look at campervans sometime - I was shocked last year when I found out the standard excess was $7500. We ended up using a travel insurance policy but read the fine print - most of them do not cover beyond $3000 as standard excess. Only one company allowed us to pay an additional X per $500 coverage, so we paid 7X, getting us to the $7500 required.
It worked out well when we smashed a $650 windscreen and paid $100 excess only.
If you have a credit card that offer complimentary travel insurance, then use it to pay the rental and you will be covered. Same applies for air travel and holiday trips.
As always, read the policy. Some Australian credit card travel insurance covers you for overseas car rentals only, not rentals within Australia.
If, like me, you prefer having insurance and you have a very good history :)
Ring up your current insurer, explain that you want to hire a rental car for whatever reason, if it's good, they usually will play ball.
Some will cover you since your not driving your regular car, some will add it to your existing policy, some will issue a policy just to cover you, alot cheaper, alot less dicking around with excesses and the 'might' of your insurance company vs a rental car company. TEEHEE!
The same is on for Melbourne -> Others, etc.. check the website for more info