Truck/SUV rental - automatics and insurance

[ijdod]

...Washington Slagbaai National Park....Most of the big-name rental places will not let you take their vehicles there.

This is important. I have seen contract wording which would prohibit diving as well, including pickups(!) from some of the big-name companies. Read the fine print!

I'm not sure AB's policy but I thought I'd been told they don't allow their truck to go there.

AB allows their trucks to go there, not their SUVs/cars. All their cars are Chinese. Their pickups are Great Wall Motors Wingle 5. (I know...). Not too fancy, but get the job done just fine.

I have done some diving up in the park and personally, I don't feel there are any dive sites that I would go out of my way to make a day trip to dive up there (if that were the sole reason for going).

Same. Essentially to cross them off the list, but not enough to warrant the daytrip unless you already planned to visit the park.

If you continue past Karpata and go up and around BOPEC and back down to the ocean, there are a number of marked and unmarked dive sites all the way to Playa Frans, which is the last dive site. Candy Land is the first dive site you'll come to and one of my favorites. It is unmarked, except for a huge pile of stacked up rocks that indicates its location. Nukove is also a nice dive, but on occasion can be riddled with mosquitoes, if so, get in and out quickly.

Candy Land, Taylor Made and Carel's Vision are my three favourite sites on Bonaire. All are reasonably doable from shore. Nukove and Playa Frans didn't do anything for me.

 

[hroark2112]

The one thing that makes me laugh more than almost anything else is the stickers in the trucks at Buddy Dive & Caribbean Club.

"No wet clothes in the truck!!"

Oooooooooooook!!

 

[boat sju]

Last time we got a truck from Caribbean Club it was a Buddy Dive hand me down. A POS even by Bonaire standards. We'll still stay at CCB but get a truck from AB.

 

[Doctorfish]

I always prefer a POS truck. That way no one cares if you add sand and water. I do photograph the vehicle like crazy at the time of the rental and make sure the company documents every dent, scrape, scratch. I do not want to be blamed for pre existent damage. I also purchase their full insurance package just to decrease the likelihood of aggravation at the time of return.

 

[boat sju]

We just get the full insurance and don't worry about anything.

The POS truck we had didn't have a tailgate - just a rusty void with a net. Made it difficult to gear up, and we could't trust anything loose in the back of the truck that might slip under the net.

 

[wwguy]

Assuming no grift is in play by the rental company I'm in favor of post-rental vehicle inspections and surcharges for things like driving around the island in seawater-soaked wetsuits.

Rusted tailgates aside, most of the "POS" dive trucks I've rented were that way due to renter abuse, rather than rental company apathy. Salt water inside the vehicle soaks and stain upholstery and rusts the springs underneath, which inevitably break. This, and driving through tide pools at the southern sites, lead to increased maintenance costs and shortened lifecycle. This puts increased financial burden on the rental company, which they of course pass on to unhappy renters who think the problem is caused by somebody else.

After 35 weeks of Bonaire shore diving over the years I don't get why it's so inconvenient and/or difficult for some folks to take off their wetsuits and soaked swim trunks between dives. It only takes a couple of minutes to peel out of a wetsuit, wrap a towel around my waist, drop my wet swim trunks, and slip into dry ones.

We leave old towels, shorts, t-shirts, and flip-flops in the truck with windows down and have never had them taken, even when the truck has been ransacked while we're out diving. So I'm not buying theft as a reason not to ditch wet gear. IMHO it's pure diver laziness.

 

[ijdod]

I'm actually surprised plastic seat covers aren't more popular. We used garbage bags, tape and some towels to keep our car seats tidy when we lived on the island, and some large tubs in the trunk of our sedan when we lived on the island.

 

[Dark Blue]

I've only once purchased additional insurance (and not through the rental company). I was renting from Avis and they don't have crappy vehicles. In general, I want the most whipped looking vehicle on the lot that has decent rubber, an engine that starts every time, and ac that blows cold. Really, though, I wish someone would rent vehicles more akin to sand rails (open, hard plastic bucket seats, offroad wheels, just enough coverage on the side to keep from getting one's arm shredded by bushes beside the road, you get the idea)