Yes he is insured to drive both of our cars, but my understanding from talking to the rental car companies (I’ve called Hertz, Budget, & Enterprise) is that if he drives it, the contract is void, and if we violate the contract, our own insurance will not cover us.
This is correct. We also have a credit card that covers us for car insurance, but I’m guessing that would also be void in this case. Insurance companies are always looking for reasons not to pay.
We live in southern California & the plan was to rent a car, drive him to college in Boston & visit family along the way. Once we get to Boston & get him settled in, I would return the car at the Boston airport, then I would fly home. Such a perfect plan, except for this one snag.
So far in my research, only the large rental car agencies will allow me to rent in CA and return in Boston. Btw my kid is not the typical irresponsible teenager, but a straight A student & excellent driver.
And as Really Not All That Bright mentioned upthread, Uhaul will allow him to drive. But he’s moving into a dorm room & doesn’t have that much stuff, plus I haaate driving trucks.
We know lots of other people taking kids to college on the east coast & they are just renting the car & letting their kid share the driving, in spite of the contract that says all drivers have to be 21. But I’m pretty risk averse, and while he is a very responsible driver, if someone hits us while he’s at the wheel, we’d be screwed.
They have cargo vans or pickups. Still a big-ass vehicle, but a lot less annoying to drive than a box truck.
However, now that I think about it, unlike Enterprise or other passenger car rentals, they charge for mileage so that will be extremely expensive if you’re going across the country.
And UHaul charge out the yin-yang for mileage. Something like $0.50 a mile over 100 miles IIRC. And the rental companies charge huge fees to drive one way, as they normally have to hire a driver to return the vehicle back to the point of origin or put it on a car hauler. I know because I’ve been paid to do this, they are called drive aways. My uncle used to deliver new work box vans for a manufacture and he would deliver the new truck to a customer designation and then see if the one of the rental companies had a car that needed to be taken back close to his home (if not he hitched a ride to Greyhound). You may want to look into this. Maybe one of the rental companies in California have a car that needs to be taken back to the east coast. It’s been 20 years since I’ve done this and all of it was handled by a dispatcher over the phone, I imagine that it all can be done online now.
I don’t know exactly where you live, but you might want to try a neighboring state- I know in NY, car rental companies must rent to licensed drivers 18 and over, although they can impose a surcharge on those under 25. NY is probably not the only state with such a requirement.
