JUCY Mini RV Rental – Is it worth it?
There is nothing like the great American Road Trip. In my home state of California, we have an abundance of natural beauty, national parks, coastal drives, historic missions, sunny beaches, wine country and endless opportunities to get outside and explore. With the right planning, you can pack up the car and set out for the open road to make memories that will last a lifetime. Instead of taking our Prius on a road trip from Pasadena to Santa Clara, I decided to hire a mini RV for an extended weekend. I heard about JUCY Mini RV’s from friends and decided to give them a try. Here’s my review!
The Vehicle
Our JUCY was an older model Dodge Caravan with a whopping 140,000 miles on the vehicle. There is no blue tooth, so that means you can forget about connecting your phone to listen to your favorite road trip music playlist, podcasts or audio for navigation. They do provide a portable DVD player for use, but I haven’t used one of those since the early 2000’s and didn’t feel like dusting off my old DVD’s. We listened to a lot of NPR and the classical FM station. The vehicle is a mobile billboard, so it’s impossible to be low key in this car.
Since this is an old converted mini-van, this is not an eco friendly or gas efficient vehicle. On a return trip from Pasadena to Santa Clara we filled up the tank 3 times and spent $189.72 making it a pitiful 16-18 Miles Per Gallon. According to Reuters the national avg is 25.2 mpg, so any money you might save on lodging easily goes back into the transportation budget.
The fitted mini kitchen is the best feature on the JUCY. It does come with everything you might need for food prep, cooking and eating. But as a consummate light packer, I thought it was almost too much. If you insist on eating on ceramic plates when you camp, then JUCY has got you covered. If you will be doing a lot of cooking, I suggest you bring your own cans of butane. It will be much cheaper than buying from JUCY.
Sleeping up top was pretty comfortable and feels like you are in a tent. There is plenty of privacy available if you need it. We brought our own sleeping bags and made ourselves at home. Sleeping inside would be very tight for us and frankly not meant for anyone over 6 feet tall. It says that it can sleep 4 (2 people up top, 2 inside) but that would leave virtually no room for luggage and gear.
Logistics
The JUCY Los Angeles office is located in Hawthorne. For those landing at LAX, it’s a quick 15 minute über ride. If you live in Los Angeles, it’s an incredibly inconvenient location because of their limited pick up hours. The office is open for RV pick ups Monday to Friday between 1pm and 3pm. Driving on the 405 during those traffic times almost ensures soul crushing frustration. An early departure fee of $55 is charged for pick ups from the opening time of 9am up until 1pm. Another option is to have the JUCY van delivered to you. They will deliver the vehicle for a whopping $100 fee within a 50 mile radius.
Also you are allowed 100 miles per day included in the JUCY rental. After that, it is $0.25/mile! Alternatively, you can purchase an additional 100 mile per day package at $12/day. If you are used to rental cars for travel like I am, this is very different than the unlimited mileage you get for the average car rental. So, for a roundtrip long weekend holiday from Pasadena to Santa Clara (via 101, Hwy 1 and Interstate 5), I spent $60 on extra mileage charges. It could have been more had I not purchased the extra mileage package. I did not drive the JUCY van all day Wednesday, Friday & Saturday (Wednesday-Sunday rental).
The majority of the negative Yelp reviews had to do with the insurance bond. It’s a large chunk ($1500) if you decide to decline the insurances they try to sell you. Since it’s a Dodge Van, you can use the car rental insurance covered by your credit card. Most credit cards don’t cover RV’s, since the JUCY is technically a converted mini-van, this is a big plus! If you decline their insurances, you will have a $1500 hold on your card. I followed up to make sure the hold was taken off in a timely manner.
The End
So is renting a JUCY mini RV worth it? For our needs, it was not equitable. While the fitted kitchen was nice, we could have easily driven our eco friendly Toyota Prius to save money on gas. To be honest, there is the same amount of room for sleeping inside our Prius as the JUCY. Picking up the JUCY became a huge headache too. Without modern amenities for driving, the driving experience was not as pleasant as it could be. Sometimes it’s easier to not complicate things so much and enjoy the beauty and the process of traveling simply.
