 Poster: A snowHead
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We require car hire for 3 and a half weeks for our trip to BC next year and have been looking at prices. We need a 4 by 4 as driving to and in the mountains and also have all our kit and a little one. My initial search of travelsupermarket has thrown up options from £850 to £3500!
Anyone recommend other sites to consider. I had sort of thought around the £900 figure but most options were way above this. Thanks
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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I used Auto Europe in the US in the summer. Also Kayak is good because of the way it displays the results.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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DaddyLouLou, Thanks. Auto Europe have one option at £3700 and Kayak appear to have no 4 by 4's!
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Just get a ride on the back of a Moose or some other Canadian beast.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Mouth, try here.
£715 for intermediate SUV, £915 for standard SUV for 24 days out of Vancouver airport starting 1st Feb 2010, do it soon because of the Olympics.
The excess amounts aren't huge, but if you want to cover yourself, try here.
Hope this helps. 
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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oooof 
I'm pricing up car hire for December in AB, try carrentals.co.uk
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I assume you have already tried the Holiday Autos discounted link .
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| Helen Beaumont wrote: |
| I assume you have already tried the Holiday Autos discounted link . |
That's the one I was recommending in my post above, cheaper than the OP had found.
Great minds think alike! 
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Question whether you really need 4x4 - I've driven all over BC in winter and never had a true 4x4. Had a fake SUV lookalike once thta we only discovered wasn't 4x4 in the hotel car park one heavy snoe morning but soon dug ourselves out of it. Although SUV space may be what you need.
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| Mouth wrote: |
| ...3 and a half weeks for our trip to BC next year... |
Am I allowed to be just a tiny bit jealous?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Hi Mouth,
I've just been doing a serious amount of research on this subject as me and a mate are about to head over that way. We're flying to Canada and renting a 4x4 to spend the winter following the snow in Canada and the USA. You can imagine the hassle/expense of trying to rent one for so long, so we've done a lot of searching around on the subject to get the right deal for us - I feel like I have spent the last month with my head in car rental websites, while my mate did all the phoning to check on the fine print!!! Anyway. Here's what we found...
You can get a 4x4 pick up truck a bit cheaper than an SUV at some rental places, but watch out as they are considered a bit more specialised so the cheap price may mask expensive mileage restrictions, making it not quite the bargain it seems. Unfortunately 4x4 cars, which I'd imagine would be the ideal vehicle and cheaper to rent (e.g. Subarus etc.), are difficult to find as rentals.
All the normal places (Alamo, Hertz, Enterprise etc.) seemed to me to generally be more expensive and restrictive than the agents/broker type places (see links below), who we found to be far more flexible. For instance, we wanted to be able to cross the border (Canada to USA) and have unlimited mileage which was difficult to get out of the big companies. We've ended up going through erentals, and while we actually pick the car up from Alamo (that's who they deal with) we couldn't get any of those things by going to them direct, plus it's a fraction of the price.
Some of the quotes for a 4 month rental were eye-watering, predictably. But have managed to get it for around £3k in the end, which I don't think is too bad for a 4x4 SUV for such a long time. Anyway, have a look at a few of these...
Car Rentals - decent comparison site.
Erentals
Auto Europe
Kayak
Car Hire 3000
Don't forget to check what mileage is included and if you have to pay extra for additional drivers etc. Keep an eye on what insurance they each offer (your travel insurance may already include the Personal Accident Insurance that they'll try and sell you!).
That's just the basics of what we found, but if you want any more info just ask - I've got a depressing amount of car rental rubbish floating around in my head unfortunately, I could bore you (and myself) with it all too easily! It is unbelievably dull. I'm just looking forward to getting out there in the snow and forgetting about all the organising of it, and actually enjoying the trip - it'll be worth all the effort then...
Good luck finding a car.
Cheers
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Have a look at RentAWreck - http://www.rentawreck.ca/
I know the names a bit dubious (personally I think it works well) but we've used them in the past and they've been good.
Prices are relatively cheap - economy car is CAD$119 per week, mini-van CAD$299 per week and they do 4x4s I think.
Good luck, hope you have a good trip.
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Thanks Everyone this looks really useful. I will check out all the recommendations and let you know how I get on!
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You know it makes sense.
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Mouth I was in Canada (Calgary) a few weeks ago and hired a car through a company called Thrifty. We didn’t get a SUV but the guy gave us a great deal with unlimited mileage. There was two of us and the plan was to split the driving but that would have cost lots extra so the guy basically said to put one named driver down and then put the other driver down for one day only. For the second named driver their day of driving was not specified so if there was an accident then he just said to tell the police that she was covered for one day of driving and unfortunately the accident occurred on that day.
All sounds a bit dodgy I know and thankfully we didn’t have to test it but what can I say... we were on a budget.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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there is a recession on.. buy one for 200 bucks then throw it away at the end .
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Quote: |
Some of the quotes for a 4 month rental were eye-watering, predictably. But have managed to get it for around £3k in the end,
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| Quote: |
there is a recession on.. buy one for 200 bucks then throw it away at the end .
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Exactly what I was thinking - or flog it before you come home? I know that people do this on trips to Australia eg:
http://www.carpages.ca/used/1996/Nissan/Pathfinder/Surrey/British_Columbia/414415
Alternatively, could you not just hire a 'normal' car and buy snow chains locally if you need them? We drove to Kicking Horse & back from Calgary a couple of seasons ago in a nomal car with winter tyres. Got snowed in in Golden just after arrival - everyone was stuck for about 24 hrs as the Trans Canada Highway was closed due to avalanche danger - so a 4x4 would've made no difference.
When it re-opened we drove for hours on snow covered roads no problem - so I would also question whether a 4x4 is an un-necessary expense??
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Just wanted to add, that actually second hand cars out here are pricey and they are rateable for VAT- so throw either 5% alberta or 12% (I think ) BC.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Thanks for all your comments and pointers. The best deal was with holiday autos and for 24 days hire we have an SUV for £870. The only extra we need is the child seat which we pay locally which will be $160.
For those that asked we needed the big car as we have all our boards and kit with us so just want to throw it in the back.
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