I talked to someone recently that mentioned getting great deals on RV rentals during tourist off-season if you're willing to move them from a specific location to a specific location for the rental company...one-way trips, of course. We're wanting to try out RVing before we buy...seems like a good way to do it. Anyone ever do it? Or know where the info is online? Any experience w/it good or bad? Thanks!

I prefer Hertz over Interprise, although the last few years at work, we were encouraged to use Enterprise. However, that was an economic decision and not quality. None of the company officials used Enterprise. Enterprise autos were ok, but I had difficulty dealing with their office hours. Enterprise, in my area, closes at 5 pm and are closed on weekends. Often. I 'd fly out on the job and would get back to town after 5 pm. My project would be stuck with an extra day of car rental if I returned the car the next morning. I'd have the problem of refilling the gas tank, making arrangements for Enterprise to pick up their car and getting to my own vehicle which by that time would be locked up in the company lot. It was just too much hassle to save a couple of dollars.

A ticket should be public record, but contact the officer who was at the scene. I imagine it could be that it's not public data until they either admit guilt and pay the fine or go to court. Did you get a copy of the police report yet? If so, it should have the insurance company and policy number of all drivers, including other info. Often it will say whether a ticket was issued but it's usually not a big deal to call the officer. It might take a few days to get back to you. Oh, wait, I see you did get the report. Whether a ticket was issued really won't make a lot of difference though as far as repairing the vehicle. Being on the road automatically makes the driver partly to blame. Just depends on how much. Around here, 20%-30% is pretty common. I don't keep an attorney on hand. I know of some I would use for certain things but they also charge $200-$600 or more per hour. I've represented myself in court 3 times and won every time. If you have a serious injury, yes, I'd say consult a lawyer, but if you're going to have one represent you on negotiating for a car repair... SHEESH! You *really* want to pay $400+ per hour to have him/her talk on the phone and write some letters, then relay to you? I sure wouldn't! LOL I highly doubt you'll stand a chance of being reimbursed for legal fees for negotiating a car repair! The insurance company is under no obligation to buy you a new car unless you have special coverage. They go by the insurance rate books for book value on a vehicle. And no, things like new tires, a new battery, etc will not increase the value as some people think it should. Low mileage will raise value and good condition but often an old car in excellent shape isn't going to be worth what the owners usually think it should be. And in fairness to the insurance company, it shouldn't unless everyone is ready to pay more for their insurance. So if book value is $10k and the damage approaches it, they'll probably total it and ink you a check. If it's under that, they'll pay for the repair. And if you choose to not repair the vehicle they can deduct a portion, something like 25%-30% as I recall. Now keep in mind laws vary from state to state so asking legal advice online is a precarious thing to do. You will need to do your homework. Also keep in mind that most of the adjusters have more than one person they're dealing with so they might not be available to you at every moment you want them. Questions and the like can be routed through your agent. That's what they get paid for. They certainly should be able to tell you a time frame for things and whether the delays are normal or not. Sometimes it can be a good thing to have it totaled, buy it back and fix it. However it depends on what they can get for salvage value too. And occasionally they have people lined up to get insurance recoveries so it can up the price of it. I negotiated my one settlement as $___ plus I keep the vehicle. Although that was an old car and they really didn't want it anyway. It's a stressful time. Keep your head. Keep calm. Things will work out. BTW, Great Northern Insurance Agency in Chicago is an insurance broker so they handle several companies. This is neither good nor bad. I used to be with a broker. I liked the idea of several options since my agent would regularly check which company had better rates for me and would switch me around. Now with a single company, I have to do the checking. Anyway, it should be easy enough to do a little homework from the info you have to determine if it's this agency or if there's an insurance company called Great Northern. If you want to do more legwork, then deal directly with the other insurance company. If you want to let your company do the work, let them. You might get a better settlement if you represent yourself but you'll trade off time and frustration, plus you'll be going up against a "professional" most likely so do you feel confident? As long as you understand the assignments of blame and the like and understand and research values, etc, you could do OK. There's truth to the statement that insurance companies want to settle for as little as they can, but there's another factor few people understand. The quicker they can settle it, the less it costs them in some ways too so if they spend a few more dollars to get a quick settlement, it's to their benefit. This is why insurance companies settle rather quickly with each other even taking a bit less. Close the file and move on. Have you had a chance to get an estimate on it yet? That should give you more info on deciding how you want to approach it. Naturally all caveats and disclaimers apply since my experiences are with Minnesota laws, not Illinois. Around here, replacement coverage only applies on Homeowners policies. With a new car, certainly it's going to be different and they'd be more amenable to totaling a 3 week old vehicle since the reclaim value on that car would be quite high. Fix it and sell it. I had an uncle in the auto parts business for a lot of years and he bought totals, fixed and sold them, among other things. Good luck. Try not to let it bug you too much. As long as nobody was seriously hurt, the car is a small thing in the grand scheme of life.

I use Enterprise exclusively. With a recent rental, I bumped into a pole and left a huge dent in the bumper. When I went to return it, because my flight was leaving before they were open, I had to drop it off and I was very nervous about that. I took pictures and waited to hear from them-it was an obvious ding-and not a single word. I had purchased their optional insurance because I only used it for 2 days and I didn't have my auto insurance info with me , it was a last minute rental as the co I had reserved with ended up not having any vehicles available when I arrived. Anyway-PDX is a great airport-far, far better than LAX! You should have no trouble picking up your reserved vehicle there. You'll just take the shuttle to the rental area and zip in and out.