Tips for Keeping You Safe in Your Rental Car

Rental cars allow you convenience when you are away from home. However, driving an unfamiliar vehicle also poses a hazard to you and others. Autos.com provides these tips for your next rental car experience:

Brakes

You know how good the brakes in your car are. You drive it every day. But you don’t drive this rental car every day. Until you become familiar with the brakes it’s a good idea to do the following things:

• Leave more “cushion” in front of you when in traffic
• Don’t wait until the last minute to start slowing down or stopping.
• If you can, inspect the system for leaks, or at least check the reservoir level.
• Check to see if there are any brake induced pushing or pulling conditions.

Steering System

You know all the little idiosyncrasies that your car exhibits while driving. Like that tendency to drift to the right a bit. When in a car that you’ve never driven before, it’s a good idea to go somewhere with lots of room and see what tendencies it exhibits while driving. It’s a rental car; chances are very good that the suspension isn’t in perfect condition and the alignment is off some.

Horsepower

A car with more or less horsepower than what you’re used to is going to act and react very differently than your car. Again, test driving the car to see what it can and can’t do is a very good idea. You’ll need a nice wide open stretch to see how fast it accelerates and decelerates from speed. Until you’re familiar with how the car accelerates especially, it’s a very good idea to leave more room when merging into traffic or making turns across traffic.

Different Laws

No matter where you are, ignorance of the law is never going to excuse you from a ticket. Whether you’re going to be traveling internationally or domestically, check the vehicle code or laws where you’re going so that you’re at least a little familiar with some of the differences.

Source: https://www.autos.com/car-rentals/tips-for-safe-driving-in-an-unfamiliar-rental-car

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