Renting a vehicle for 1 month

[Anonymous]

I'm going to spend 3 weeks at my parents' home in the midwest, and want to have a car of my own to get around in. I was even thinking of getting a minivan here and driving out with them (and the cat) in it since my kids ADORE minivans for some reason, LOL! I searched the popular vacation planning sites for weekly rentals but keep coming up with about $1000 for 3 weeks for a minivan.

I thought about monthly rental, but it seems like that only works out to a $25/off the amount 4 weeks would total; not a substantial savings nor worth bothering with. Is there another option? Do car dealerships offer a monthly rental, or are there any other ways to get a deal? I've seen minivans rent for as low as $199/week in Florida and was hoping for that kind of price. Maybe it's the DC market that is only returning high prices when I search, and it might be less if I drove down to say, Chattanooga, TN on my way over and picked up a van there?

Any pointers? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

I've done car rentals for a month or two before, and unfortunately never found a great way to do it other than searching online and picking the best deal. It's not cheap.

[Anonymous]

Watch where you rent from for taxes. If your rent from National Airport, if you add up all the taxes it is about a 20% surcharge.

Car dealerships do rent cars (at least I know Toyota does) - but I am not sure if it is any great deal. But they may be willing to negotiate if you tell them something like you are interested in purchasing a XXX but would like to really see if it fits your needs.

[Anonymous]

I rented a mini van earlier this year for a trip. I was not able to find anything close to $199 a week - and believe me, I looked. We wound up closer to $350 through Hotwire.com