Private Car Rental in Jamaica

2017 Update to this post – Since the original publishing of this post I have since become sponsored by Budget Rental Car who provide me with fantastic vehicles whenever I’m in Jamaica.  However, for those of you who email me asking about private car rentals in Jamaica, this is good information to consider.

If you’re looking to experiment with driving in Jamaica and need to rent a car I would highly recommend renting from a legitimate company.  They do things the right way, they have insurance and you bill it to your credit card so you’ve got that “just in case” coverage all the way around. It’s easy and generally hassle-free and you can pick it up right at the airport in most cases.

Since I didn’t deal with credit cards or legitimate ways to do things in Jamaica at the time (joke), I decided to rent one privately for my first experience. It was relatively hassle-free except for a few bumps along the way. I won’t say “YES definitely rent privately” – but I also don’t think it’s a bad thing if you’re a little bit of a risk taker. I know lots of people who’ve done it without incident but have also heard lots of stories from people who had NUFF incidents.

I did my private rental through an acquaintance and rented his brother’s car for a couple days. He picked me up and took me to where the car and the brother were, I paid for my couple days in advance, plus a $1000 JMD deposit (about $8.00 USD). I remember wondering what the hell an $8.00 deposit would cover if I actually trashed the car! The daily rental rate (at that time) was $4000 jmd which is about $33 USD – and away I went!

I was only on the road about five minutes before I noticed the gas gauge was on EMPTY and the gas light was on. Only in Jamaica can you pick up a rental on empty, so I decided to only put a few dollars of gas in at a time just so I could return it with the gas light on. It’s only fair right? 😀

In the two days I had the car I did a fair amount of driving in town and all the way into the country through the hills, valleys, farms and mud. I drove well, avoided most of the craters in the road and there were no incidents and I loved the freedom of having my own wheels! Only one little setback was that the car battery wasn’t super reliable. The car struggled a little bit each time I had to start it but it always started, and one day I left the lights on while I ran into a store for no more than 10 minutes and the battery died, leaving us needing a boost. I was lucky with the dude who boosted us – he didn’t want any money. Usually people want to be paid for every little thing there, it’s quite unlike back home where information and guidance are free.

The morning I was to return the car was also the same morning I was leaving Jamaica so it was all a bit rushed. They came to my apartment to pick up the car and believe me the man cussed me out over the little bit of dirt and mud around the wheels from the country driving! I found it kind of funny and argued back that they never stipulated I had to return it clean. He did a walk-around of the car and decided there was damage to the back bumper as well, then tried to pin it on me. I said NO SAH, that was NOT caused by me and I would not be responsible.

At the end of it all he wanted to keep my $1000 for a car wash LOL! I said if that’s the case I will go wash it myself across the street where it only costs $500, and if he really felt right keeping money for a car wash all he could keep was $500. I know what a car wash costs because there WAS one across the street from my apartment!

The moral of this story is that if you rent privately you really have zero protection.  Please take this information as gospel because I’ve been involved in a heavy dispute involving a private rental;  I was t-boned on a main road in Montego Bay.  I was alone in my car but there were four Jamaicans in the car that hit me so their story absolutely changed to benefit themselves.  It will be your word against theirs in all cases of discrepancy so just be cautious when renting private vehicles in Jamaica.