Buy Direct

In my experience, ultimately you will most often get the best rate when booking directly from the car rental company Web site. Armed with price ranges and discount codes after checking the aggregators and coupon sites, a visit to the car rental's own reservations Web site is well worth your time, as very few of your alternatives will consistently produce a lower price.

And when you do receive a rate quote, make sure you are not missing some of the often hidden costs of car rentals, such as airport concession fees, sales tax, automatically applied insurance, and more; a 2005 study by Travelocity found that major US airports tacked on an average of 25.8 percent of your total bill in local and state taxes. For more information, see our report on Car Rental Hidden Costs.

So while a Hyundai may always be a Hyundai, no matter where you rent it, there is money to be saved by expanding your horizons when making car rental reservations -- if you know where to look.