We love fancy cars, we hate paying for them. I call the act of over-paying ‘the fancy tax.’ The fancy tax is all around us…expensive clothes, expensive gear, expensive dinners, expensive trips, expensive cars, expensive expensive!! We either choose to pay it, or we don’t. On occasion when we’ve traveled, we’ve rented a luxury car at an extremely crazy price. I hate over paying for anything and this usually makes me want to throw up when I sign the bill. And, on top of that, I generally don’t love the car rental experience…waiting in line, not getting the car you thought you were getting, possibly paying $10 a gallon for gas if you forget to top it off before you return it (which happens to all of us). And now, because of the ripple effect caused by a paralyzing pandemic, we are all faced with rental car shortages and paying way too much. We heard stories about how people were traveling to Hawaii and there were no car rentals available, which is a necessity when you travel to Hawaii. So, people were renting U-Hauls and driving those around for cheap. This was enough to convince me to NOT go there, not exactly my idea of awesome.
Introducing Turo. Turo has quickly become my preferred method of renting cars when we travel. If it’s a personal trip, I really don’t foresee using an airport car rental place again. Turo is a wonderful concept…. car owners rent out their cars, just like VRBO or AirBNB. Brilliant! No car shortage there! We use Turo to get our fancy car fix when we go somewhere…and the prices are either very affordable OR they are simply the same price as you would pay for a basic car! There’s plenty of regular cars for prices lower than any car rental company offering. But, if you want to rent a Mercedes convertible for a few days, or a Porsche 911, or a fiercely red Mustang, Turo’s got it 🙂 Actually, they’ve literally got everything…if renting a vintage car is your thing, you can find it on Turo.
For me, price matters…. but, the BEST part is that the car owner brings the car to you!!! No waiting in line for an hour, no 10-15 minutes at the car rental counter filling out paperwork, everything is online before your trip. They simply meet you at the airport, or a meet-up spot, and hand you the keys. Travel bliss. I will throw some caution here: not every car owner delivers to an airport, so make sure that you look for that once you’ve picked your car.
“Travel shouldn’t break the bank, we all deserve to see the world at an affordable price…”
I have a perfect scenario of why Turo is car rental magic. We recently went to Willamette Valley for 5 amazing days in wine country. You absolutely need a rental car to get around. I looked into various car rental offerings and we were looking at around $900 total for a basic 4-door sedan, no frills, and a very average interior. And if we downgraded a bit it wasn’t much less. If we wanted to rent a luxury car, it was going to be $1500. Ridiculous. I then searched on Turo and found a 2019 2-door Mustang for $60/a day. YES!!! Also, no crazy taxes either which can sometimes be just as much as the car rental price. Again, out of control and I just simply refuse. For us, part of the fun when we travel is to drive around in an awesomely luxurious and fun car. Turo makes this possible.
We are traveling to Hawaii soon and my biggest concern was the rental car situation. Turo has come to our rescue 🙂 Our experiences have always been wonderful. I recently told my parents to try this out as they travel monthly. From Honda Accords to SUVs, to fast, sporty luxury cars….Turo has it. I can’t say enough good things about having OPTIONS, and I can’t wait to see who else comes along in the car-rental-by-owner space. Competition means better selections, better prices, and happy customers!
I can only offer my own personal experiences and nothing is risk-free. You are dealing with individual car owners and I suppose there’s always risk involved with that. We’ve never had an issue and if anything, the car owners were super accommodating. We had a flight come in an hour late and the car owner and I were in constant communication that day, he was right there waiting for us when we walked out of the airport. If you try Turo on your next getaway, we hope you have a wonderful experience 🙂
Travel far and wide…And maybe get there in some style!!
P.S. the best way to see wine country is in a Mustang 🙂 Especially when it matches your dress…
#GoAdventure!
Heather and Nate
Welcome to our Book of Adventures 