How to Save Money on a Rental Car

Now more than ever, people are looking for a way to save money, whether you are talking about groceries, the electric bill or renting a car. One of the most common ways to save on rental car is to use an online aggregator like RentACarNow. But another less common way is to think about the cost of gas prices while renting a car.

There are several different aspects of saving money on gas for rental cars. The first one comes right at the rental car counter when the agent will try to get you to take the pre-paid gas option. That’s almost always a bad deal because you are paying for every drop of gas in the tank. Unless you plan to roll into the rental car lot with an empty tank running on fumes, it’s always a better deal to fill it up yourself. It only takes a few extra minutes and the savings can be significant.

Depending on the airport or rental car location, you might have dozens of choices for where to buy gas or just one or two. It’s a good idea when you drive off with the rental car to make a note of the cheapest gas station in the area so you know where to fill up on the way back. And remember that you can easily drive 25 miles or more after filing the tank without the needle moving, so you don’t have to buy gas at the closest station to the airport, which not coincidentally is often the most expensive. Just be sure that you do fill up, because some rental car companies charge as much as $9 per gallon if you return the car without a full tank of gas.

We all know that gas prices are high and not likely to come down anytime soon, so of course the best way to save money on gas is to use less of it. When it comes to rental cars, that means getting the smallest car that will comfortably fit the number of people and luggage for your trip. As a general rule, smaller cars are not only cheaper to rent, but they also get better gas mileage, and that one-two punch of savings can really add up.

Let’s say you decide to rent a full-size vehicle rather than a compact. The larger car might get 20 miles per gallon, while the compact will likely get something around 30 mpg. If you drive 500 miles over the course of the rental period, you are going to need almost 10 more gallons of gas for the larger car, which adds up to an additional $35 to $40. And of course that doesn’t even take into account the fact that larger cars almost always have a higher rental rate.

You also want to watch out for the “free upgrade” that you’ll sometimes be offered at the counter. If you reserved a compact car and the rental car company is running low on that class of car, they will sometimes offer to move you up a class or two at no cost. While that can seem enticing, you need to consider that the cost of fuel is going to be more. So you can decline the upgrade offer and ask for the car class you reserved, or if they are totally out of that class of car, ask for a discount even if they are giving you a larger car.

There’s no way to get around having some gas expense with a rental car, but with some of the tips outlined above you can at least minimize the cost.