Mexico Travel Forum

Does anyone know which is the cheapeast rental car agency in Merida? What does the insurance run per day?

Thanks,

Marc

When I was renting a car in December the local rental companies had better rates than International companies.
YOu just have to do the research.
Local company we rented from was very reliable (tips on my Puerto Morelos page). They spoke perfect english, picked us up at the airport. WE used American Express card. They were very nice and professional.
The car return was very smooth and fast. They drove us back to the airport.
During renting adn returning the car, they made sure that we understand everything adn that everything is clear. THey also were very professional when dealing with our credit cards doing everyhing at fron ot us and letting us look at all the documents as long as we wanted.
WE highly recomen that company and use them next time we go to MExico.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/df069/e46b1/9/

Hi Marc, These were notes from my tip on car renting in Merida (in 2005):

- you can only insure yourself down to 10% of the value of the car, and if you are involved in an accident, you are presumed guilty until proven innocent. We were also told that Mexican drivers would be as likely to zoom off after an altercation as stop (luckily we steered clear of any accident).

- Mexican road signs are not as clear as Canadian signs. In rural areas, other than on main highways, we never knew which road we were on,

- If you plan on driving off the main highways, roads can be quite miserable with pot holes the size of Alaska. We drove one such road from Uxmal to Celestun.

- you are advised not to drive after dusk,

- one of the reasons it is not wise to drive after dark -- there are speed bumps (called topes) in every town - many of them. If you ever hit one at even 30 km/hr you would propel your head through the roof of your car. Most of them are marked -- but not all.

- they have strange rules on the road (blinking left on the highway doesn't mean you are turning left, it means you are telling the car behind that it is OK to pass you -- a misunderstanding that almost got us involved in a crash),

- Gas stations are few and far between. We never saw a gas station between Mérida, Uxmal and Celestun until we got back to Mérida,

- Traffic-wise, rural driving is fine, but driving during rush hour in Mérida was scary to say the least.

OK, after reading all that, it doesn't say what the cheapest was. In 2005, we basically walked around Merida, and walked into a few of the rent-a-car shops. When we looked, the we had similar prices from three or four agencies -- 300 pesos per day for non-air conditioned, or 400 pesos per day for air conditioned. This included an insurance plan which covered 90% of the value of the car if we ever had an accident. The car we rented was an old VW Pointer, so I figured it could not have been worth more than $10,000, so I figured my risk was $1000. As I said, this amount was a pretty common rental quote - 300/400 pesos per day (one day free if we rented a week). We rented for three days and got to see some ruins.