Affordable rental car?

jonoyakker wrote:

jwalker,

I have more bad news for you-I would bet anything that the insurance charges weren't included in that $600. There are 2 mandatory ones, even with insurance coverage on your credit card, that total about $18 a day! It's a racket!

Hi, my GF is from Panama and I just visited there. I definitely needed a rental car and opted for a Toyota Rav 4. I paid close to $500.00 for ten days when it was all said and done. Eventhough my Credit card company has auto rental insurance that covers Panama (I checked with them) I was strongly encouraged to get the local supplement.  I used payless and they quoted a price of $350.00 and change for the 10 days. They did make it abundantly clear that this rate did not cover the additional insurance cost.  They did not say it was mandatory, but it sounded almost like it.  I decided to go for it. 

I was in Costa Rica last year where my uncle lives, and the rentals there were ever more insane expensive. Their base rate not including the insurance was higher than the Panama rates WITH the insurance.  Gas prices in CR are also insane. They're at least 40% higher than Panama. It was so expensive there that I decided to take my chances and went with my credit card coverage alone.  Again, I drove from San Jose to the Pacific coast in Guanacaste where my uncle lives, then from there to the Nicaragua border, and finally to Tortuguero on the Atlantic side and back to San Jose. The roads in Costa Rica are usually unpaved and have very few signs indicating where you might be.   I found it necessary to have a compass and a map to navigate around San Jose, let alone the countryside.   The driving in CR was more difficuly than in Panama due to the lack of signage outside of the very largest roads.

I only broke out the compass once in Panama, the roads are 100 times better than in CR.   

jonoyakker wrote:

Are you sure you need a rental car? Between taxis and buses (which work well in Panama)you can get around fairly well.

I can confirm that as long as you are going from town to town. A rental is needed if you want the freedom to go where you want when you want to.  I like to go to remote areas and non-touristy places, so a 4X4 vehicle is almost always required for me. 

jonoyakker wrote:

Maybe you could rent a car for short term in certain areas?

The only problem I see with that, is vehicle availability. If you have a requirement such as 4X4, auto trans, or something like that, they may not have what you need on hand.  Payless at Tocumen Airport did not have the vehicle I reserved, so they got one from Thrifty for me.  You may not have option in a smaller town.

jonoyakker wrote:

Another issue is driving in Panama city-it is INSANE CRAZY!!!

I think that it's all relative and a matter of perspective, I spend about 5-6 hours behind the wheel per day at work in the Washington DC area, and driving in Panama City wasn't that bad. Driver's are about as crazy in the DC area as they are anywhere south of the border.  Maybe the fact that I lived and drove in Mexico for a year have something to do with my perspective too.

The main issues I noted were badly engineered roads, where sometimes you have to put your life in God's hands before you make a left turn on a road.  There is a lack of signage indicating whether some streets are "one way" streets in Panama City, you have to pay close attention to how the cars are parked or where the rest of the traffic is going.  You have to be extra careful, but you know, here in the DC area, we have streets that are one way at one time of the day, two ways at others and one way in the opposite direction at yet other times, I'm sure that drives outtatowners crazy. Well, lots of people from the DC Metro area refuse to even drive in DC. I don't know if its because of my EVOC training, living in Mexico for a year... but I didn't think it was that bad at all in Panama City and the rest of the country seemed totally fine to me.

On a side note, my GF kept telling me how horrible traffic was in Panama City, (she is from Aguadulce), I said, you ain't seen nothin' yet, wait till you move to DC...this will look like non-rush hour to you...