Cigarette Lighters in Hire Cars.

[Madabouttigger]

Hi Folks,

I have just had an email from someone who had recently visited the USA, and told me the hire car had the Cigarette Lighter disabled, to discourage people from smoking in the car.

Not a problem for some folk but I need to plug my Sat Nav into it - and also use it to recharge the phones.

Has anyone else come across this or is it just a one off?

Thanks for the help,

Diane

[blott]

I've had rental cars where the actual lighter was missing but I don't know if the socket itself was disabled.

If the socket has been disabled, you can charge up your sat nav and phones indoors and they should last quite a while I would have thought?

[Madabouttigger]

Thanks Blott but because of the low power supply, we have found in the past that it takes an age for the phones to charge, about 2 days if they go completly flat, but just for a top up at least 12 hours, where as in the car it's only about an hour.

Diane

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

We are told by Dollar that whilst the lighter themselves have been taken out, the socket will still work for sat nav charging etc etc. It certainly worked well for my iPod last time we were over.

[andrewandcarole]

We keep a car phone charger at the villa and have never had a problem using it in a hire car. We now always use Dollar - but in the past have used Alamo and Avis.

Carole

[christhear]

We always charge my sons gameboy up in the car. The cigarette lighter is missing but the charging bit works - this has been the case with both dollar and Alamo cars.

[domster]

If you keep the SAT NAV fully charged before you leave it should be ok on charge in the room.

My UK Laptop charges in the same as it does over here.

[berni_richards]

hi I have just returned from orlando in my hire car (mini van from dollar) there were 5/6 sockets no lighter as all cars have no smoking in them but we did manage to charge our phones & sat nav things in them so the power WAS still on.

Hope this helps

Berni

[wrpac00]

I bought a Nokia charger from Walmart for the mobile, didn't cost a lot.

[Madabouttigger]

Thank you so much - the info I was given looks to be a one off - another thing less to worry about.

[msnsmile2]

Diane.

NB Just got an email - Park tickets will be delivered tomorrow - doesn't take much to make me feel a bit giddy about my next year trip!!