Car rental advice for foreign visitors

[judik]

Like Mike i use carrentals.com and been very happy with them
For Kruger I rent a mid sized SUV-more for clearance than anything else as its hard to see over the bush in a smaller car
Always rent manual transmission as it is cheaper
I am now a semi pro at drivimg on the left side of the road using my left hand to shift!
Always get zero excess as US credit card companies will not cover you if you take out any additional insurance
For Kgalagadi and Namibia I used local companies and rented a real 4X4-Toyota Hilux or similar
Driving in sand can be challenging and having a fridge/freezer in the truck meant my beer would never get warm
However that level of car is not cheap so you have to factor that in

[Richprins]

Thanks, judik!

[MikeGoss]

Update.

I mentioned that I opted for the "zero excess" option when hiring cars in South Africa. I would now state that I do not go for "zero excess" as I can now source a seperate insurance policy here in the UK at a fraction of the price that the rental companies are charging. As an illustration, on our upcoming trip in November 2016 we have an Toyota Fortuner booked which is costing us the equivalent of rsa 10980 for 16 days rental. The same vehicle with "zero excess" is about rsa 16200. We can source a better no excess policy here in the UK for rsa 900. These prices assume an exchange rate of rsa18 to the £1. Hope that this helps

Mike

[Alf]

That's a huge difference in price

[Lisbeth]

Of course a 4x4 has a completely different price compared to a normal small car, but I am paying all included (no excess) R 1980 for 59 days = R340 Per day.

As we are not going to KTP and are only the two of us I have decided to rent a small car, but I do not want to risk.....so no excess!

[RobertT]

Can you not do a buy back on the excess? My vehicle excess is through one company, then I have my excess covered through another and it is minimal?

[Lisbeth]

I tried that last time, but by e-mail it is too difficult .i.e can I trust you? A lot of people think that foreigners are stupid and a kind of a cow to milk and not only, also that we are all rich

[RobertT]

Can you not do the buy back for excess in your own country?

[Lisbeth]

Robert, I am not sure what you mean by "buy back for excess in your own country"

[RobertT]

It is an insurance for the excess. My car is insured with a company, the excess is insured with another. So if I prang my car, the insurance pays and where I would pay the excess the other insurance company picks up that bill.