Your opinion sought.

gajinoz

gajinoz

Joined
Sep 2, 2003
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First, a little background.

My wife and I are thinking of travelling to America next year, mostly so she can visit her mother but we might as well cram a few extras in there as well. One of the things I plan to do while she is spending time with her crazy mother is travel over to New Jersey and drop in on the NJKC boys meeting and spoil their lunch. :)

Another is a little fantasy of mine that I've had for over ten years and never done during my previous visits so I figure I'll get it out of my system now if I can. I want to hire a large car, (or yank tank as we in Oz are wont to call them), at San Francisco and drive to Las Vegas, spend a couple of nights in one of those big flashy hotels, drive back to SF then I can jump on the flying kangaroo and head home.

Now, the question for you boys and girls is this. It seems I can get either a Lincoln Town Car or Cadillac. Yes, I know, I can save lots of money by getting a smaller more economical car but that's not part of the fantasy, OK? So, given the choice of these two, and regardless of whatever else you might think of them, which one would you choose to hire and why?

My wife tells me I'll probably look like some mafia don or a pimp!

(Just think of me as one of those crazy foriegners if it helps.)
 
I don't know if the car companies are going to rent out a big Cadillac. I'm guessing you're used to driving in the desert, but you are going to want a car that is going to get you from SF to Vegas. They'll probably try to get you to take a Taurus or a Celica or something like that. An SUV would probably be a gas hog, a big car would probably have more insurance on it. I wouldn't get my hopes up for the tank.
 
First, are you aware of the distance between San Francisco and New Jersey? Even the distance between Los Vegas and San Francisco is non-trivial. Please understand that I ask this simply because a common mistake that especially Europeans make when planning a visit to America is simply not realizing how big this @#$& place is. They think, "We'll fly into LA, on Monday, rent a car, drive to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, take in Yellowstone Park and Mt. Rushmore on Wednesday, see the Statue of Liberty on Thursday, all the D.C. Stuff on Friday, Dallas on Saturday, and then catch our plane home out of LAX on Monday morning. Unless you rent a Lear Jet instead of a car, it just don't work that way.

Anyway, as for your car question: that's easy. Cadillac. Lincoln Town Cars are fancy taxi cabs. In fact, the vernacular for up-scale cab is Town Car. Nobody will be impressed if you drive a Lincoln. Besides, the new Cadillacs are really, really nice cars.
 
Be also aware that when you rent a car in the US, there is an extra charge if you want to drive it out of the state where you rent it and you have to get permission for that ahead of time.
 
gajinoz said:
My wife tells me I'll probably look like some mafia don or a pimp!
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Assure the wife that she's wrong on this point. The Mafia Dons have Mercedes and BMWs and the Pimps are all in Lexus.
 
Will his insurance rates from the rental company be sky high because he does not live here?
 
It's about a thousand miles from San Francisco to LV. Be better to fly, and rent a limo at the airport in Las Vegas. Turn it in when you return for the flight back to SF.
They might have gambling junkets from San Francisco intl., that can save you a lot of money in air fare going to LV.:eek:
I know they have them from LA, and Burbank all the time.
 
Gollnick said:
First, are you aware of the distance between San Francisco and New Jersey? Even the distance between Los Vegas and San Francisco is non-trivial. Please understand that I ask this simply because a common mistake that especially Europeans make when planning a visit to America is simply not realizing how big this @#$& place is.
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Australia is not that much smaller than the US. ;)
 
Like Gollnick said, the logistics may not work.

But if you do get to rent a luxury car, I'd go for the Caddy. I've driven both on free upgrades w/ Hertz and the Lincoln is just a big boat. The Caddy is the performer and more of a class ride.
If you're renting from Hertz, I'd suggest trying one of their Jags. They have the X-type. That's what I'd rent if I was going for the "indulgence factor". Probably not much difference in price either. You're going to pay $100/day plus other expenses and mileage on top of it all.
 
Gollnick said:
First, are you aware of the distance between San Francisco and New Jersey? Even the distance between Los Vegas and San Francisco is non-trivial. Please understand that I ask this simply because a common mistake that especially Europeans make when planning a visit to America is simply not realizing how big this @#$& place is. They think, "We'll fly into LA, on Monday, rent a car, drive to the Grand Canyon on Tuesday, take in Yellowstone Park and Mt. Rushmore on Wednesday, see the Statue of Liberty on Thursday, all the D.C. Stuff on Friday, Dallas on Saturday, and then catch our plane home out of LAX on Monday morning. Unless you rent a Lear Jet instead of a car, it just don't work that way.
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Ummm.. yes. I'm not from Europe. If you have a look at a map of Oz and a map of north America, (excluding Alaska), you will see that the countries are not wildly different in size. America has somewhere close to 300 million population, Oz has about 20 million so we are vastly less crowded. I am used to not only driving very long distances through sparsely populated country including mountains, rainforests and deserts but flying planes over it as well. I am very well aware of time and distance. Thanks for the warning anyway. :)

I plan to spend about 5 or 6 days on the Las Vegas sortie. I'm flying to NJ, I'm not quite crazy enough to want to drive all the way there. Well, actually I would if I had a few weeks to spare, it would be an interesting trip.

Gollnick said:
Anyway, as for your car question: that's easy. Cadillac. Lincoln Town Cars are fancy taxi cabs. In fact, the vernacular for up-scale cab is Town Car. Nobody will be impressed if you drive a Lincoln. Besides, the new Cadillacs are really, really nice cars.
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That was sort of the impression I got too. As far as I can tell I can get one for a week for about $600 but probably less than that with advanced booking and, for some strange reason, it can be cheaper to book it here in Oz before I go.
 
If you rent a car, you want to make sure it doesn't leave you hanging, and if it does break down, that you will be taken care of promptly. I've never driven in the desert, but for some reason, it really bothers me to think that I could break down out there. No problem with the mountains.
 
silenthunterstudios said:
If you rent a car, you want to make sure it doesn't leave you hanging, and if it does break down, that you will be taken care of promptly. I've never driven in the desert, but for some reason, it really bothers me to think that I could break down out there. No problem with the mountains.
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I'll be renting it from either Hertz or Avis. Sure, there might be other companies that will do it cheaper but with the big two they generally offer 24/7 roadside assistance.

Desers are not a problem if you use your brain. There is generally some traffic going by. As Gollnick said, the Europeans tend to have a problem with the vast distances, especially here in Oz where you can go places and not see anyone for days. People break down out in the big deserts and try to walk somewhere. They usually end up dead.
 
Mike Hull said:
It's about a thousand miles from San Francisco to LV. Be better to fly, and rent a limo at the airport in Las Vegas. Turn it in when you return for the flight back to SF.
They might have gambling junkets from San Francisco intl., that can save you a lot of money in air fare going to LV.:eek:
I know they have them from LA, and Burbank all the time.
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Hmm.. I had a look at the driving direction on Mapquest and it says the distance is 568.86 miles. Are you sure it's 1000? I'd better do some more checking.

I know it would be faster, easier, cheaper to fly from SF to LV but the whole point of this little exercise is to drive. I want to see some of the country through there, even if much of it is desert.
 
gajinoz said:
As Gollnick said, the Europeans tend to have a problem with the vast distances, especially here in Oz where you can go places and not see anyone for days. People break down out in the big deserts and try to walk somewhere. They usually end up dead.
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Germans !!! :footinmou
 
Quiet Storm said:
Ahemmmm...
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LOL, OK so I exaggerated a little, but I watched an Episode of Ray Mears where a German couple got stuck in Oz and didn't stay put. :)


Gajinoz, $20 on #16 (if you're going to play roulette in Vegas) :D
 
Quiet Storm said:
Australia is not that much smaller than the US. ;)
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I know.

I only used the Europeans because they're the worst for this. But, in general, a lot of people in the world don't understand the distances involved in the US. It's just always good to double-check that with people planning to tour in the US.
 
Speaking of Germans ....

A couple of years ago a couple of German friends of mine came to Oz for a visit and to have a look around. (This guy BTW is literally a rocket scientist.).

Anyway, after I'd shown them around my backyard, (the Snowy Mountains), they decided to hop on a bus and travel to Uluru in the centre of Oz. I got a letter from them after they had got back home telling me about their adventures. It seems that while they were travelling on the bus through the desert they decided to have a nap. They woke up 4 hours later and couldn't figure out what the hell had happened. The bus was still going but the scenery looked exactly the same as it did when they went to sleep. They couldn't believe you could travel for four hours and nothing would change. :)

I guess if you travel for 4 hours in Europe you'd go through 6 different countries. :D
 
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