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Why Chancing a Rental Car 'Wild Card' Can Be an Awesome Deal

We have a little rental car tip to share, which could come very in handy this summer seeing as how we bet many of you are planning road trips to enjoy warm weather. If you price things out and if you notice Thrifty Cars is a viable option, check out their special "Wild Car(d)" rate, which is typically only a couple dollars more per day than a compact car.

What choosing the Wild Car does, is leave it up to the agent to assign your type of vehicle. Last weekend in San Diego, we went with the Wild Car. It guarantees a compact car or larger and although we spied full-size cars on the lot, we ended up tooling around Southern California in a foggy green, brand new SUV—a Kia Soul with satellite XM radio for a total of $67 for three days.

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As Rental Car Companies Go Green, They Turn on the 'No Smoking' Signs

We know smoking is bad for your health, and we hardly recommend it, but we do kind of feel for those looking to sneak one here and there—especially on vacation. Well it seems that your rental car is just one less place that you can light up, as a couple more rental car companies have shut the ashtray on its renters.

Thrifty and Dollar—they’re kind of the same company anyway—have just completed putting the final sheet of no smoking stickers in its rental car fleet. Other rental car companies like Avis and Budget have done the same thing over the past few months, and now Hertz is really the only car company that offers a smoke-filled rental car experience. The only issue with them is that all you can do is request a car where smoking is allowed, so it’s hardly a guarantee.

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Forget Florida; Rent a Car Out of Portland for $1 Per Day

Last week we were busy planning an out-of-Florida road trip, but if you’re allergic to the Sunshine State, there’s other options as well. Apparently people enjoy spending their winters in Arizona just as much, and the Grand Canyon State also has too many rental cars clogging their lots.

There’s a few rental car companies practically begging for a little assistance with relocating their fleet in time for the spring and summer seasons. Avis is offering one-way midsize vehicles rentals for as low as $18 per day with unlimited mileage and no drop off fees. The cars do have to be returned to another Arizona location or somewhere in California or Nevada. There isn’t as much flexibility when compared to the Florida deals, but we’d rather go on a coastal California road trip anyway. The deals are good through the end of the month, but after that they jump to around $80 per day.

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Prepare For A PT Cruiser Rental Car Shortage

Time is running out if you’re dreaming to get a Sebring convertible or other Chrysler rental car on your next trip. Dollar and Thrifty announced that they’ve canceled their orders for loads of cars from the American carmaker. In the past, the two rental car companies have ordered almost three quarters of their fleet from Chrysler, but in 2010, only about a third will be coming from the pentastar. The company had an agreement with Chrysler that required a certain amount of order per year, but after Chrysler hit the bankruptcy courts, Dollar and Thrifty were free to go elsewhere.

They will be looking to Ford, General Motors, Nissan, and Kia to fill the parking spaces at airports around the country. For 2010, Dollar and Thrifty will be purchasing about 90,000 vehicles, but only 27,000 of these cars will be coming from Chrysler. In the good old days there would have been a much larger check being written over to Chrysler.

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Payless and Expedia Make a Love Connection

Travel site Expedia has been stepping up its efforts in recent years to get travelers to think of it as an all-in-one stop, convincing users to book flights, hotels and car trips, or plain all-inclusives, via the site.

Usually, we're not convinced of the savings, since the package prices on these sites never seem like that much of a deal. But we're intrigued by the news that Expedia is teaming up with Payless Car Rental to offer more low-fare car rental deals. Payless has some pretty good last-minute deals through their website, with domestic rates as cheap as $23 a day. So along with Expedia's existing partnership with Thrifty, maybe this will make their three-in-one deals a little more enticing.

We've booked flight combined with hotel before, but have never gone for the car too to round out a vacation. What about you all? Do you ever look at Expedia's three-in-one options, and would cheaper car rental entice you to perhaps book one if you never considered it previously? Let us know in comments below.

Related Stories:
· Expedia [Official Site]
· Payless Car Rental [Official Site]
· Car rentals coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Expedia]