I'll be traveling to South Africa this spring, and we're in the midst of planning our itinerary. Because we have items on our to-do/to-see list that span a large geographic area, friends have recommended that we rent a car for part or all of our trip.
My question is: as an American, are there any advantages to waiting until I am actually in South Africa to rent a car? I imagine we'll be picking up and dropping off cars at an airport (we're flying in and out of Johannesburg, but may fly down do Cape Town and work our way back north by car). Is it possible to negotiate prices, or simply get better deals, by waiting until we arrive? Or should we book rental cars well in advance? Would we be in danger of not having cars available if we didn't make an advanced reservation?
Our trip is 10 days long, so it's a short term rental rather than long-term/mini-lease.