What kind of car to rent....

[corporanr]

I drove in the DR for the first time last year and it was not bad at all....

there were only 2 trouble stops.

1. Duarte con Paris. (but only when getting off the bridge)

2. Malecon, it was around 5 or 6 in the evening and I was trying to merge from the middle lane to the right so I could turn on Maximo Gomez. other than that is was a piece of cake.

Higuei is not bad at all pot holes werent big.

there were 2 things that I had to get used to

1. NO LANES what so ever... people just drove in whatever stop they wanted to drive in.

2. On coming trafic. you often see cars in your lane because they want to pass whom ever is in front of them. once you get used to that is not that scary.

Oh and I am a girl so you know I would have freaked out if it was that bad.

[mountainfrog]

Originally Posted by corporanr

...Oh and I am a girl so you know I would have freaked out if it was that bad.

Talking about traffic and/with sankies...

m'frog

[wjlc]

Thank you for all the suggestions...good and bad. But, I still haven't gotten an answer to my question...car or SUV (just in case I decided to rent).

P.S. driving in NYC, I think I can handle the crazy drivers, swivel necks and eyes in the back of my head. Thank you for the tips to DR driving.

[CFA123]

You expected an answer to your question?

Go with a small SUV. Gives you better view of what's ahead, handles bad roads a little better, keeps some headlights out of your eyes at night & still small enough to maneuver side streets and park easily.

Plus, size gives you the right of way except when trumped by high velocity of a smaller vehicle.

[cobraboy]

Originally Posted by wjlc

P.S. driving in NYC, I think I can handle the crazy drivers, swivel necks and eyes in the back of my head. Thank you for the tips to DR driving.

No comparison. There is nothing like it in the US, anywhere.

Even in NYC folks in the far right lane don't do a U-Turn across all the traffic...at a red light.

[Ricardo900]

Originally Posted by wjlc

Thank you for all the suggestions...good and bad. But, I still haven't gotten an answer to my question...car or SUV (just in case I decided to rent).

P.S. driving in NYC, I think I can handle the crazy drivers, swivel necks and eyes in the back of my head. Thank you for the tips to DR driving.

If you rent, get a SUV. Just observe some of the tips the other posters stated and stay alert, you should be fine. People get into accidents all the time, in the DR, US & Europe, it just happens, rent the car and enjoy your trip.

[sodapop]

pay a driver or do a organized trip you will relax a lot more

[montreal]

Unless you are sticking to the city, jeepeta for sure.

[sweetdbt]

If cost is not a factor for you, I guess a jipeta has advantages on bad roads due to higher ground clearence, and a (nominally) beefier suspension. It will cost you more than double the rate of an economy car from the major rental companies, and of course will also use double the gas at over $4 a gallon.

I have rented small cars exclusively in 16 DR vacations. I drive in exactly the manner described by cobraboy, with the added stipulation that one must also always be looking ahead for holes in the road and planning a safe strategy to either go around them or slow down suffeciently to navigate over them. I had never had so much as a flat tire til my last trip in March, when I lost concentration briefly and whacked a small but deep pothole West of Punta Cana at highway speed. I ended up having multiple problems with the same tire due to incompetent gomerias and the lack of a full-sized spare in my little VW Gol. It was a pain, but on bad roads a tire is vulnerable to flats, even on an SUV. In the future, I will try to get a vehicle with a full-sized spare tire, even if it costs a bit more.

[corporanr]

Originally Posted by mountainfrog

Talking about traffic and/with sankies...

m'frog

I don't get it.