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I'm in the minority too - I've moved alot in my 43 years - a few times cross country and always used U-Haul, always had a good experience, always had a nice clean truck and the best price. I'm getting ready to move again from Mass to Missouri and using Uhaul again - Penske and the others are a lot more expensive. My company also has an account with Uhaul and we use them regularly with no problems and great pricing.
What's really funny is as soon as you cross the Mississippi the pricing on all the moving companies skyrockets! I'm leaving Mass, driving to Missouri (SE of KC) and returning the truck to St Louis because the price more than doubles if I return it in Missouri. Go figure?? Sure I'll pay around $80 for the extra miles and gas but that's better than doubling my cost.
I'm in the minority too - I've moved alot in my 43 years - a few times cross country and always used U-Haul, always had a good experience, always had a nice clean truck and the best price. I'm getting ready to move again from Mass to Missouri and using Uhaul again - Penske and the others are a lot more expensive. My company also has an account with Uhaul and we use them regularly with no problems and great pricing.
What's really funny is as soon as you cross the Mississippi the pricing on all the moving companies skyrockets! I'm leaving Mass, driving to Missouri (SE of KC) and returning the truck to St Louis because the price more than doubles if I return it in Missouri. Go figure?? Sure I'll pay around $80 for the extra miles and gas but that's better than doubling my cost.
Glad your Uhaul experiences have been positive,WKTully! In all fairness, the people at the U Haul (company-owned) agency in Boise I dealt with were pretty decent. (It was the Manager I had issues with) And the folks that provided me with road service were also nice. But I stand by my observation that their equipment is usually older than other rental companies, very poorly maintained and service at independent dealers is a hit-or-miss (mostly miss...)affair.
We are going with Penske. Never used them before but they seem good. One thing I loved is I was able to make reservations now and lock in the rate. We don't have a moving date yet so I just gave them an estimate and have to call in and let them know the date when I find out. I was able to rent a 26' & 22' truck for $200 each!!! That is very cheap compared to other quotes I got. They told me the rates would go up the closer we get to summer. I'm not sure it wasn't just a marketing ploy but it makes sense to me. We are hoping to move in June, just waiting for our house to sell.
We are going with Penske too... primarily because of this thread. I just reserved a truck for one way from NY to NC this week... 26' plus a car dolly and furniture blankets, and it came out to $1600 with tax after all the discounts... web + AAA. We actually joined AAA right from the Penske order page in order to get the discount. We can pick it up on Wednesday morning at 8am, and have it until Sunday.
My wife and I have made four long-distance, cross-country moves (in the Eastern half of the country) and we've used Budget one time and U-Haul (or, as I like to call them, Jack-A** Haul) three times.
We used Budget to for our first move and I don't remember having had a problem. We used U-Haul for our second move and got a great rate and a nice truck and didn't have a problem.
On our next (third) move we used U-Haul again and although we had placed a reservation, they didn't have a truck for us on our pickup day. (Big surprise.) That's just wonderful--my apartment had been rented out to a new tenant and we needed to be cleared out the next day and we didn't have a truck! Finally we were able to get one from a different U-Haul facility and if I remember properly, it was a decent truck, but it sucked getting back to our apartment and then having to spend the entire night packing it up and just barely finishing up in time.
For our fourth move we also went with U-Haul (very low rate) and this time we ended up with a clunker. Just our luck, it was unusually cold and we were moving in the middle of winter, and this truck had glow plugs and didn't want to start. We ended up having to call for maintenance and a guy came out and helped fix the truck. We didn't really have any problems after that.
We also used U-Haul for an in-town move once and we were given an ancient truck that was so rusty, the side mirrors would pop off the frame anytime you turned the corner (they were held on by a support on the top), but it did get the job done.
In summary, U-Haul normally has the lowest rates by a good margin in my experience, but there may or may not be a truck available for you on the date of your "reservation" and it's possible that you could get a clunker. For our next long distance move I'll definitely consider Penske even if it's more expensive.
Regarding the Penske AAA discount, is it necessary to have AAA insurance or can you merely be a member of the AAA auto club? Can you become a member of the AAA auto club without having AAA insurance? Perhaps a membership would be worthwhile in order to save on a Penske truck.
You just need AAA membership, not the regular auto insurance by them. Yes you can get just a AAA club membership without having their insurance also. You can actually sign up for AAA club right on the Penske website when you are filling out the reservation.
We just rented our Penske truck last week and will be picking it up on Wednesday. We signed up for AAA right on their website, and no insurance... just the club. It was a no brainer since it costs less than you save. And another kudo for Penske. In the process of siging up for AAA, my reservation timed out and I had to re-enter everything. Second time around I went fast and inadvertantly put in the wrong day... a week early. Last Wednesday I get a call at about 5pm from Penske asking if we are picking up our truck. I was surprised and worried that I had bought a truck and didn't mean too. After I explained, the guy said "no problem, it will be here for you next week". I was very happy.
I just saw a teaser saying that tomorrow's (2/27/08) broadcast of "Inside Edition" will have a segment on the apparent dangers of UHaul trailers (not trucks).
I won't be home to watch it, but it might be worth a look-see if you're thinking of renting a trailer anytime soon .....
I've had nothing but nightmares with UHaul. Never again!!!!!
Penske was really good for my move from Georgia to Colorado
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