Car rental with EFT or rental company

[AAY]

Hi folks,

I start my commercial training with EFT in March and was wondering if anyone knows or has experience of car rental companies in the Fort Pierce area. I believe EFT have cars for rent but i have been told they are quite old. In fairness, they give an excellent rental rate but as the cars are so big, they are quite heavy on fuel. So with EFT's rental rate and the cars high fuel consumption, would this total cost equal to what i would pay for a car from a regular rental company ie. approx $600-$700 per month.

Am i best renting from EFT????

Any advice woud be greatly appreciated.

Thanks guys
:ok:

[prunster]

Why not buy an old banger on arrival for $500 say, and sell it on departure for $600. Easy......

[AAY]

Hi Prunster,

Banger sounds tempting, but it would be just my luck it would completely breakdown on a motorway and then i would be $500 dollars out of pocket.

Are you giving me this advice based on experience? Are you familiar with EFT's cars?

I'll be living there for about two months.

Cheers:ok:

[Tallbloke]

I spent 10 months at an American university 2 years ago. I was told that whilst it would be relatively easy to buy a car (couple of hundred dollars) I would need to get a New York State drivers licence as I would be using the vehicle for an extended period. Furthermore, I was told that it would be very difficult for me to get insurance and that it would cost a fortune. In the end I ended up renting a car whenever I needed one (which was not that often because I was working like a dog). What I discovered was that if you are polite and courteous and build up a relationship with a local branch, you can get some really good deals from the rental companies. This will then give you 1) insurance, 2) a new low mileage vehicle and 3) backup (if the ashtray is full etc)

[AAY]

Tallbloke,

Thanks for your reply and advice. I think a rental company may be my safest bet.

Regards,

a "Short Arse Paddy" !!!
:ok:


If anyone still has experience with car rental from EFT, i would love to hear.

[My names Turkish]

AAY, First of all your going to America. Fuel cost/consumption is not an issue. I know its very difficult to understand that coming from Europe, it is just so cheap. I had a 5.0 litre V8 when I was there as it was old and cheap to purchase. It cost approx $25 to fill. Thats about 20 Euro! I have a 1.3 litre car in Ireland and its about $40 to fill. Do you see what I am getting at?

Now you say your going for your "commercial training". I take it this means the CPL in which case this will take Max 4 weeks. In this case its worth renting a car over buying. If your staying a few months then without a doubt buy a car. Its easy peasy. A day will see you get your Driving test ( A blind monkey could pass), Insurance (nothing like as expensive as at home regardless of engine size, and Tag (licence Plate). Its not uncommon to be able to get a cheap and cheerfull car on the road insured and all for $1200-1500 all in. The distances involved and complete and total lack of public transport mean having a vehicle of some description is not optional.

The EFT cars are cheap. You get what you pay for, simple as. They are older and most don't have Air Con, being a milky white Irish boy as we tend to be! You might find this a bit challenging.

If your under 25, renting cars from the rental companies can be expensive. You will have to pay $25 extra a DAY, with Dollar for example. Most of the big Companies like Hertz and Budget don't allow under 25s to rent at all. So you will be paying a fortune to rent this way if under 25.

Hope everything goes well, good luck!

[AAY]

Turkish,

Thanks for your reply.

Yes my commercial training entails the CPL Multi IR. I intend to stay there for approximately two months. So is two months boarder line between rent and buy????

Cheers

[Gazeem]

The owner of the flying school that EFT is attached to has some big Cadillacs you can hire very cheaply,

they are quite old big cars but they are the real American McCoy!

I can remember driving one along one day when the theme from Shaft played on the radio and I can tell you I felt like a bad m... f..!

:cool:

they had aircon as well but this was 3 years ago!

[My names Turkish]

AAY, Yes I would say that might be border line. The problem being selling the car at the end, unless you buy somehting cheap and nasty that you can just dump when you leave. You can pay insurance monthly, reckon on about $80-100, the tag is about $200 first time around, you could buy a junker for $500. It depends on you. I would look at EFTs cars if they have on available, the are perfect for what your doing.

Gazeem, I know exactly what you mean! When I bought my car, ,yself and all the other Europeans looked at sensible cars like Toyotas and Volkswagens etc. When I saw my yank tank I knew I had to have it! Love at first site. I miss the absurdity of it, journeys just aren't the same back in Europe. When in Rome.......

http://thumbs.automart.com/imgs/ag/automart/cst/278/884/609/306/1/feed/thumb/10520039555001030.jpg

[AAY]

Thank you all,

Your advice has been much apreciated.
:ok:

[Justine]

Hi, My husband is just finishing his IR with EFT. We have been living in Vero Beach for 16 months while he trained from the very beginning.
Ok, about a car - find out where you will be living first. Some of the students are put into accommodation near the airport, so you wont really need a car if you are there. If you are in the main student housing, there are many other students around and some instructors, so car sharing is commonpace. You can go in with a couple of others to part rent a car.
Petrol is cheap, as is the "tag" if you decided to purchase but insurance costs alot here in Fl. The insurance companies wont take any UK driving experience into consideration so you are treated as a new driver. We are paying more for simple liability cover than we paid for comprehensive cover in the uk.
Also, getting your Fl licence isnt quite as simple anymore. Both the Vero Beach and Fort Pierce drivers licence offices were destroyed by those mild winds we had last year, so you will need to get to either port st lucie or melbourne.
All in all I'd talk to trevor at eft and check where you are staying and then take it from there.
there are so many peope going back and forth, while you may need to wait a little, you will never be stranded.
Hope that all helps.

[AAY]

Hi Justine,

Thank you for your post.
I believe i am staying in one of the student apartments at Vero beach.... well thats what i requested anyway. Trevor confirmed this through email. I 'll give him a ring to be on the safe side.

Cheers:cool:

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi all
I was there from end 00 to end jan01. The deal with the cars is a bit of a mixed blessing, to say the least. We had the use of two big tanks, a Cadillac DeVille and a Lincoln Town Car, as well as a 300-series Mercedes and occasionally, a Japanese "compact",which was usually an instructor's cast-off. If the American cars were tatty and smelly, with no functioning aircon (an act which should require the death penalty in Florida), one or two defunct electric windows and one or two breakdowns per month, then the instructor's cast-offs were absolute death-traps and unfit to drive more than the distance from the accomodation to the school. The CEO of the AVIATOR, on which school EFT piggybacks, hires the cars to "stoodents" at $100pw(then), which we usually split five or six ways, to make it affordable. Gas is cheap so that's not an issue. The downside is that, after so many highway breakdowns due to non-existent servicing, the school banned students from driving to Miami or Orlando to pick up incoming students/leave off outgoing students. An arrangement which suited Ben 'n' Trevor until the Aviator Boss presented them with the repair bill for retrieving the latest roadside casualty. Trips outside the local area were promptly banned, much to the chagrin of the students, who were trying to save on the considerable expense of going to and from the airports, which are at least 90 miles away from Fort Pierce. Just think of how much the Aviator boss was making from the studes at $100pw per car (average of four in service), given their dereliction, age and lack of maintenance.
Also, the accomodation thing deserves a second look. We were in apartments about five miles from the school, paying $500/month or part thereof(watch thisone,very important). The school (aviator) block-books the apartments for less than $500/month and pockets the difference, by leasing them for 12 months at a time. If you make enquiries at the booking office, to book one independently, they fob you off declaring a minimum lease period of 12 months, so most people give in and pay up. They were also vigilant against students living more than three per apartment, although we managed to make it work by being equally as vigilant. The Boss's wife dealt with the car-hire (her only apparent function) and chased students with the determination of a hungry bounty-hunter. Other students were housed in rented houses nearer the airfield, often sharing with the instructors (ie, helping to pay the instructor's rent.Given their penury, not a bad idea). Living in Vero Beach only worked when one shared with instructors and commuted with them, but it was furthest from the airfield and left one without a car off-duty.
The fact that EFT piggybacked on Aviator meant that EFT had/has priority for aircraft, given that, at the time, American students were scarce. The downside was that the aircraft were worked flat out, day and night and the maintenance staff were worked hard, daytime only, to keep them going.The alleged eight Duchesses never, ever came to more than five, none ever had a working radar or heater and only one, in their own opinion, was ever good enough to be used as a test aircraft (6047w). Ben and Trevor were, in fairness, always available when problems arose, but tended to avoid dealing with housing or transport issues.
Unless things have improved,I would take everything to do with EFT with a grain of salt. There was, to my mind, more attention paid to extracting money from students (not even a basic sim trainer) than putting student fears to rest over housing, transport and money consumption. In their defence, the actual flight training was first-class and most of the instructors very,very profeesional and competent. One should ask them very thorough questions before shelling out money.
PS: the Aviator charged the students 3% to pay by foreign Visa card. Use Amex if you have it.This is something that B 'n' T don't mention in the brochures. Also, the cost per hour of the Be76 was, for European students, considerably more than US students were charged. Go and get your FAA MEP first and build hours cheaply, then sit for your JAR MEP.
regards
TDD

[AAY]

TDD,

Thank you for your post.

With regards to getting my FAA MEP first, can i just add that on to my JAR PPL or in a few weeks my JAR CPL. Do i not need to have an FAA licence in order to make an FAA MEP addition to it?

Thanks again
:ok:

[TwoDeadDogs]

Hi there
Get an FAA medical from Doc Killeen before you go. You'll be able to do the FAA exams over there and arrange to do some flying with the Aviator school and then sit for the FAA PPL.I assume you already have an Irish or JAA PPL. Then sit the MEP written and do the requisite MEP training, at a considerably lowerrate than the JAA students are charged.
regards
TDD

[AAY]

TTD,

Unfortunetly its too late to get a medical done with Killeen. I leave for Florida on Sunday. I think going through the whole FAA PPL route may be more hasel for me than it's worth. To be honest i just finished my final ATP's last week and don't really fancy sitting another 7 exams and a PPL flight test again.

I think i'll have a shop around some flight schools when im there.

Once again i do thank you for your advice though.

:ok:

[charliealpha]

The car siruation at EFT as of today is:
They have ridded themselves of the older, heavy cars, and have purchased newer model smaller cars. The rates are far cheaper than commercial rental companies. The rates are currently $175 per week. I was told that they are now offering free airport pick up if you are going to be renting a car, which saves you from $100 to $150 dollars. A freind of mine is there now doing the APP course, and he says that they also service and wash the cars once a week. Sounds like the way to go to me...