Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Renting a car in Buenos Aires

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I posted on the topic of renting a car previously (HERE) and if you are interested in doing so, it’s still relevant and is worth referring to. This post is meant to be an update.

We rented a car from Localiza for 4 days to visit friends in Carillo last week. The cost for a teeny 2-door Chevy was $2,187.50 (pesos), which included unlimited miles. The car was okay, however, it did not have optional features of any kind. i.e. no power windows, manual locks, etc. Not even cups holders. All this was okay, but it didn’t have airbags, which we didn’t realize until we were returning from our trip. We will never rent a car again without airbags. It’s not worth the risk.

The previous weekend we rented a car, but they didn’t have it available and upgraded us to a 4-door VW. It had airbags, power locks, power windows and cup holders. The cost was $1,641 for three days with unlimited miles. I recommend this as a minimum, if you can afford it.

When you return the car, you are supposed to return it with a full tank. There is a filling station at the corner of Gorriti and Scalabrini Ortiz, however, when we went to fill up, they were out of gas. Out of gas! How does that happen? The other station that we know of is on Cordoba, not far from Scalabrini Ortiz, but it was closed for remodeling. So we returned the car about 3/4 full. No problem. They simply charged us about the same as it would have cost anyway.