Quote: (06-27-2014 12:37 PM)InternationPlayboy Wrote:
Does anyone know how much it is in Santo Domingo to rent a car?
I got tired of cab drivers, plus I was talking to some girls in Los Alcarrizos and a poorer part of SD Este near Duarte, so I rented one from Thrifty downtown and dropped it off at Las Americas. Cost over $40 a day, plus they up charged me $35 to drop off at the airport when I got there.
Take lots of pictures and make sure all the dings/dents are marked. Also, get tinted windows. I bought a new pair of shoes while I was in SD, and gave my old pair to the guy checking my car for new dings, so he just gave me a go.
Driving a rental is different than driving a local's car, because there's a big ass sticker on the windshield that says Rental Car. This got me pulled over when I had to take off my seatbelt to push back out my mirror. Cops tried to demand 2000 pesos, threatened two days in jail and wanted me to drive to an ATM to get money. Even wrote it down on his phone and shit. I kept saying 500, pretended I didn't know Spanish.
I figured even if it was a dos mil fine, they wanted the money rather than me paying at the station, plus the bad publicity of arresting a tourist for something that stupid. After a lot of arguing, they accepted my offer. Had they not taken my paperwork first thing, I would have had more leverage to negotiate down.
So yeah, it's not necessarily a good idea to rent a car, but I'll do it again next time I go.