Best rental car deal in Pittsburgh? (Avis: rentals, car insurance, home)

[whitelotus]

I'll be traveling to Pittsburgh in December for at least a couple of months and will need a rental car most of this time period.. I'll be flying into the main airport.
If it were just a week or two, I'd just rent at the airport...which I may ultimately do anyway. I'm posting here to check if anyone has researched this question and knows the various options and costs. My understanding is that airport car rentals are most costly due to extra taxes/fees but I'm not sure.
I was also considering trying rent-a-wreck. I don't care what the vehicle looks like, my main concern is cost due to the length of time I'll need a car. Heck, I may end up better off purchasing an old clunker.
Also, since I'll be traveling from overseas, my car insurance won't cover me in the states so I'll have to purchase liability insurance. I'll use my VISA which will cover the collision portion. Anyone have any idea if rental car insurance can be purchased from companies like Geico?
Any information or suggestion is welcomed, thanks!

[greg42]

That's a few tricky things there. First, when coming from overseas it isn't a bad idea to check your home country web site of the major rental agencies like Hertz, Avis, etc. From reading about others' experiences I have inferred that sometimes they package up better rates that include insurance for you, knowing that your current insurance doesn't cover you here. Also there can be third-party travel operators that do the same thing. Now whether they can get you a rental for a couple months, I don't know.

If you think you'll need a car only sparingly, and will be staying somewhere within the city, it's possible that Zipcar would work for you. I don't know their policies on having members who are from overseas, but this is designed essentially for those with no car and thus they have hourly and daily rates that include all insurance. This would save you a lot of money if, for example, you only need a car on weekends or such. For that matter, you could just do multiple short rentals from a regular agency on weekends as well if that works for you.

The airport does have certain taxes and fees that aren't collected at other locations. So yes, you might save some by choosing a non-airport office to pick up the car. If you're going to be far and wide around the Pittsburgh area, you'll save an additional $2 per day tax if you rent from an office outside Allegheny County. This is probably impractical, though.

Hertz has monthly rates, and perhaps the other agencies do as well. If you don't find something inclusive of insurance, I'm not really sure what would be the best route. I suspect you would be better off looking for a product from home that can cover you while abroad as opposed to counting on being able to buy some kind of insurance here, apart from what the rental companies sell.

If you're getting into several months, then you could look into buying a car I guess, but there's a fair amount of red tape with that, so if it's something like 3-4 months or less I think you're probably better off avoiding. I don't think I'd buy a car unless I was into like about 6 months at least.

Hope that helps a little, please ask if you have more questions.

[whitelotus]

Greg, thanks so much for taking the time to help me out, appreciate it. WL