7 Mistakes to Avoid When Renting a Car in Florida
Most rental problems are cheap to prevent and expensive to fix. Nearly all of them are decided before anyone touches a key — in what you booked, wh...
Read more →What to Expect When Your Rental Car Is Delivered
The handover takes about ten minutes. By the time we pull up, your license, identity, insurance and payment have all cleared — so there's no paperwork left to do at the curb. What's left is the car itself.
This is what those ten minutes look like, and what's worth doing with them. If you want the whole process from booking through return, that's how delivery works.
What happens when we arrive
- We confirm we've got the right person — have your license out.
- We walk the car with you, outside and in.
- We confirm the starting fuel level and odometer reading together.
- We point out any existing marks, and note anything new you spot.
- We answer whatever you want to ask about the car.
- We confirm when and where you're bringing it back.
- You get the keys.
Nothing here is a formality. Steps 2 through 4 are the record that protects you if a question comes up later, so it's worth being present for them rather than waiting for us to finish.
What condition the car arrives in
Cleaned inside and out, fueled, inspected, and with its condition already documented on our side before it leaves.
It won't be showroom-perfect. These are rental cars that have carried other people around South Florida, and a wheel scuff or a small stone chip is normal. What matters isn't that the car is unmarked — it's that whatever marks exist are on the record before you drive it. That's the whole purpose of the walkaround.
Walk around it before you take the keys
Two minutes, in this order:
- Front and rear bumpers — the most common place to find something
- Both sides, at an angle to the light so shallow dents show
- Door edges and the sills below them
- Wheels and tires — curb rash on the rims is the single most-disputed item in car rental
- Windshield and glass, looking for chips
- Mirrors and lights
- Interior seats, trim and the trunk
See a scratch, dent, chip, stain or scuff? Say so before you drive. Nobody minds — we would much rather log it now than work out later when it happened. Pre-existing damage gets documented, not assumed.
Take your own photos too
Sixty seconds with your phone. A slow lap of the exterior, each wheel, the windshield, the interior, and one shot of the dashboard with the fuel gauge and odometer visible.
It doesn't need to be careful — your phone timestamps everything automatically, and that's the useful part. Do the same when you hand the car back and you have both ends of the rental on record. It protects you and it protects us, which is why we ask for it rather than hope for it.
Check the dashboard before you set off
Confirm three things: the odometer reading, the fuel level, and that no warning lights are lit.
Return the car at the same fuel level you got it. On mileage, every rental includes 200 miles a day, and anything beyond that is $0.35 a mile — so a run to Key West and back on a two-day rental is worth a moment's arithmetic before you go. The starting number on your dashboard photo is what that gets measured from.
Ask about anything you don't recognise
Our fleet is two Volkswagens — a 2024 Jetta and a 2023 Taos — so whatever you're used to driving, some of it will be laid out differently.
The things people most often ask about:
- Pairing a phone, and getting CarPlay or Android Auto up
- The Taos's IQ.DRIVE assistance — adaptive cruise and lane keeping, and how to switch them off if you'd rather drive without them
- Where the fuel-door release is, and which side the filler is on
- Headlights, wipers and the parking brake
- Folding the rear seats down
Ask while the car is parked and we're standing next to it. Working out the wiper stalk in the rain on I-95 is a worse experience than asking a slightly obvious question in a hotel parking lot.
Then set your seat, mirrors, steering wheel and climate before you move, and put the navigation in while parked.
Only approved drivers, no exceptions
Whoever was approved on the booking is who may drive. A partner, a parent, a friend taking a turn on the way to Miami — each has to be added and approved first.
Your permission isn't what authorises someone; ours is. Handing the keys to an unapproved driver breaches the agreement and can undo your coverage completely if anything happens. If plans change mid-trip and someone else needs to drive, message us — it's usually quick to sort out, and vastly cheaper than the alternative.
Confirm the return before we leave
Make sure you know the date, the time, the agreed location, and the fuel level to bring it back at.
Worth knowing: we're open seven days a week — Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday and Sunday 8am to 2pm. A return has to land inside those windows, so a Sunday departure is fine as long as we can collect between 8am and 2pm. Anything earlier means handing the car back on Saturday — settle it when you book rather than on the day.
Need longer? Contact us before the scheduled return, not after. Extensions depend on whether the car is already booked to someone else, and they aren't confirmed until we say so. With two cars in the fleet, the next renter is often real.
If something happens during the rental
Message or call us — a warning light, a flat, a scrape in a parking lot, a lost key, a change of plan. For anything involving injury or immediate danger, call emergency services first, then us.
Don't arrange repairs yourself unless safety demands it there and then. We'd rather sort it out with you than discover it at return.
When you bring it back
Belongings out, trash out, fuel restored, all keys with you, and a final set of photos. You don't need to detail it — reasonable condition is genuinely all we ask, though heavy soiling, smoke odor or pet hair can attract a cleaning charge.
The $300 deposit hold is an authorization, not a charge, and we capture against it only if there's damage. Once it's released, how fast the funds show up again is down to your bank. Tolls, mileage over the allowance and any parking or traffic violations are billed separately rather than taken from the hold, and tolls can land a little late because SunPass doesn't always post right away.
What it costs
The Jetta and the Taos are both $65 a day, sedan or SUV. A week or more takes 10% off, a month or more 20%, and canceling 24 hours or more ahead is a full refund. Delivery is free in Hollywood and Dania Beach, $20 in Fort Lauderdale and Hallandale Beach, $30 in Aventura and Davie.
