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renting a car in mexico and paying for auto insurance

Olga777
Explorer C

Hi there,

 

We are flying into Cabo and wanting to drive to the Sea of Cortez.

 

We will be renting a car. would like to find out about how much auto rental companies charge for auto insurance per day.

 

The auto rental rates are low but do not include liablity and comprehensive/collision rates.

 

Any insight as to best prepare. we are not booking hotels, just going and renting a car and stopping where it feels good to stop...

 

Blessings, Olga

2 REPLIES 2

Re: renting a car in mexico and paying for auto insurance

DancingDavidE
Aviator A

I've only visited Mexico once, thank you Southwest for those early in the game MKE-CUN flights. Hopefully more frequent visitors will see this post and chime in. The advice I found online and through other resources about car rentals and driving:

 

1) Full coverage was recommended by many sites since even for liability on the other persons part the rate of coverage in the area you are driving may be spotty - for peace of mind you may want the higher level of coverage from the rental agency and that unless you specifically knew differently your home auto coverage wouldn't apply, credit card coverages may also not apply, etc. I think our total was $600 for the week, that was for a September in Cancun so not the peak time for sure.

 

I'm not sure if you have any additional questions...here are a few additional thoughts on driving in Mexico in case you can use them...if not, stop reading here...

 

2) Get an international driver's license from AAA. If for some reason you had to surrender your credentials you may be able to provide that instead of your state license. (...and then abandon it if needed.) Extra benefit that this provides a translated copy of the key information on your state driver's license which may be useful at times even when not driving.

 

3) Mexican police drive around with their lights on all the time, as opposed to USA police that turn the lights on when they want your attention. Apparently it is common for drivers from the USA to pull over when they see the Mexico police with lights on, and then at times this may lead to being taken advantage of. I don't know personally about that, but you shouldn't stop just from seeing their lights on at any rate, you can take it from there.

 

4) A key road sign is for the "Topes" - shown by a couple of semi-circular mounds - these are some devilish type of double/triple speed bump that you need to slow down for. Way slow. Slower than you think.

 

5) We had little trouble driving around the Cancun, Riviera Maya, Tuluum, and Chitzen Itza areas. The speed limit was a little slower and it was busy, but not really that hectic compared to downtown of major US cities. I had visions of Mexico City traffic jams and we never encountered anything like that.

 

6) We did end up driving through some moderately uncomfortable areas when I made a wrong turn on the way back to Cancun. If you can manage it, buy some extra data so that you aren't compelled to hoard Google Maps...if you use GPS to navigate in the US, you'll probably want it in Mexico too, at least when you are on the local roads.

 

 

Home airport MDW, frequent visitor to MCO to see the mouse.

Re: renting a car in mexico and paying for auto insurance

fly
Explorer C

My boss just went there with his family thinking that their credit card would cover their CDW (Collision Damage Waiver). The card does, but the rental location refused to allow it and charged. them $200. They were too tired to sit and argue.