My favorite car rental is Dollar , what's yours?

We joined the dollar express club (Free) and affords us the ability to by pass the counter and go directly to our car. Their price point seemed to be pretty good, the class of cars (due to abuse) isn't all that great and had to have our minivan swapped out two times last year prior to taking it due to damage on the vehicle.

Who is your favorite?

By passing the counter is a HUUUUUGE advantage for me.. I hate the upsell beat down one can get at the counter's.

 

Used to be Sixt, now it's Enterprise.

Enterprise - dedicated line, no "upsell", I've been in-and-out in 5 minutes or less.

 

we haven't rented a lot of cars, but we had a great experience with Alamo last year.
the manager at SFO upgraded us to a Camaro when we told him it was our honeymoon, and got great customer service the whole way through from everybody we dealt with.

 

Yes, either Dollar or Alamo ... whoever is giving the better deal. Lately, it's been Dollar unless we're using some form of points to pay, in which case we don't get a choice.

GG

 

Alamo. I get good pricing through Costco and I just use the kiosk. I also like being able to choose my car as opposed to being assigned one. I am fussy I guess!

 

Alamo has always been great. Love bypassing the lines by pre-checking in online and love the idea of choosing any car in the section, this way we can pick based on our preference of style/make/color. They've often allowed us to upgrade at no cost either.

We went went with Avis on our most recent cheap (due to price w/Costco) and they offered good service and a choice of 3 cars to choose from.

 

Alamo by far. I can bypass the counter and check in an extra driver without needing an agent. Cars are always new and in excellent shape. Lines are short if I have to use them and they are always nice to me.

Dollar i'm very leary of. I've never had issues with them at LAS (edit.. they did lose my reservation once), but at LAX they are AWFUL. Dollar/Thrifty are the same company so I avoid them like the plague.
Long story short.. I rented from Thrifty at LAX, I am a member so I should be able to walk to my car and by pass the counter. Well after waiting forever for a Thrifty van, one finally comes, jam packed. The driver brings us to Dollar, without any mention why. Turns out that Dollar/Thrifty are combining locations and they just went ahead and closed the Thrifty location. No mention to us on the bus or while renting the car online. Well Dollar is JAMMED. About 300 people waiting (NO JOKE), 3 customer service people working. No, this wasnt a holiday weekend. Heard someone that had been there for 3 hours. I figure I could still walk straight to the car.. WRONG. Only the Dollar express customers can, not the Thrifty ones. Thankfully a janitor there was going well above and beyond and told me to just cut the whole line. I did to MANY stink eyes. I had to do the million questions/upsell thing (which I am a member to avoid) and got a junk POS car. Smelled bad and was smashed up. I returned it to the ONTARIO airport location the next day and rented from Alamo.

I realize thats LAX but I've been told there are recent corporate changes at Dollar/Thrifty that is effecting all airport locations.

 

Alamo for us. Every time now.

Dollar seemed to be downgrading the quality of their cars in recent years. Also, one time when we picked up at TI, I don't think they had even looked at the car after the last renter. It was filthy! Plus the tank wasn't properly full. We went back to complain, got another car, but the 1.5 hours we wasted wasn't reflected in our return time. They will need to be a lot cheaper than Alamo for us to return.

 

it used to be Alamo but for the last year we've used Budget. i get a big discount if i prepay (plus AARP discount). never had a problem

 

My favorite car rental agency is the one that gives me the car the cheapest. I belong to all of the 'clubs' so that I have smooth sailing with whichever company I end up with. Next trip happens to be Dollar. The only time I had a bad experience in LV was with EZ when they were out of cars.

 

We've used Sixt, Enterprise, and Alamo. Sixt was probably the fastest and easiest, but is a pain in the arse due to their location.

 

Alamo has been very, very good to me.

 

I've always used Thrifty. but signup for Blue Chip card. and bypass the line everyone complains about. Most of the time. Once my name wasn't on the screen. and had to go to counter which had about Forty people in line. walked right up to counter waved my card with reservation at some guy and he jumped up and took care of me and off I went. BUT was very nervous about jumping in front of that many pissed people.
booked 4 weekdays in Oct. $84.00 plus
airport access fee $8.40
Cust. facility charge 3.75 a day $15.00
Rental Tax 12% $11.09
State Tax 8.15% $7.53
Grand total $126.02 with $42.02 in mandatory charges THATS OVER 50% TAXATION. I hate the rental car center its takes to longer than the old days. When they had there own lots and buses.

 

Enterprise. My car insurance gives me a great discount. Never had a issue with them in 20+ rentals.... Knock on wood!

 

I've been renting from Enterprise exclusively for the past ten years and am very happy with them. I have never had more than one person in front of me at the counter in the Las Vegas rental facility. I have a car rental insurance option when I book with my American Express card; provides me with bumper to bumper service and only costs me $25 per rental (that's not per day, but for the entire time I have the car and that includes a premium car rental). I've had a few minor problems over the years, but the Enterprise people have been pretty up front and fair with me. Several years ago I rented a car in Vegas only to have my son pull a small bag of "weed" out of the center console just as we were pulling out onto LV Blvd. I tossed the bag out the window and complained when we returned the vehicle at the end of the trip. I got a call from their district manager when I returned home and he gave me a free week's rental the next time I was in Vegas. I had rented a Lincoln town car on another trip which had a bad rear tire, which I had to put air into twice during my 5 day rental. I mentioned this when I dropped the car off and they discounted the rental charge so that I ended up paying only $85. It usually takes me about 10 minutes from the time I walk into the rental center until I am driving away in my car. Dropping off the car is even faster. It's been a long time since I've had a counter person give me the song and dance about really needing the insurance and prepaying for the gas. Their prices are not always the least expensive, but they are competitive; especially when I use my corporate discount code. I belong to their Enterprise Plus club and have used my points from time to time to further reduce the price of my rentals.

 

Hertz is our choice.

Good AAA rates, I book through AAA. With the Hertz Gold (free) membership we can have multiple drivers on the car with no upcharge, plus skip the up sell.

Our local Hertz location, not the airport, let's us park our little econobox at their site no charge for as long as we have their rental. I rent a full size car for long road trips, my little car is way too noisy for long drives.

 

Dollar in Vegas is my least favorite rental agency. It is all because of one jerk of a clerk still working there. He is obnoxious and will hold you up just to try to get you to buy the "extras". He even had the audacity to ask about my insurance coverage (I lied to him what my coverage was) and he made suggestions on what kind of coverage I should get (I didn't care, I just wanted to get out of there). All because it led into him wanting me to buy the full or extended coverage but after 50 minutes with him I still told him that I had my own insurance so didn't want to buy any extras. He wasn't very happy with that but I didn't care.

I rented from Dollar after that and will let others go ahead of me to go to him, I hate the guy that much. Now that thrifty is connected with Dollar I usually go to Thrifty instead. I still see the guy working at Dollar.

Yeah, yeah, I can always join dollar express to bypass the clerks but if I don't like the people they employ I won't give them my business.


As for other agencies, I have tried just about all of them and I don't really have a favorite, my favorite is the one offering the lowest rental rates. I usually go through Budget when I use the Costco rental cars but I also had Avis once with no problems. Advantage usually has a code (DCCLICK) on their site which gives you an automatic 5% discount. Ez and payless have low rates but their lines are sometimes very long and slow and they don't have a selection of cars, you are probably stuck with the one they give you. I think Enterprise closes at midnight so that limits me.

I never rent from Fox, I don't want to have to take another shuttle to get to the place and I heard they don't have a good selection I addition to not having a good counter reputation. Sixt I never tried but I usually find better rates elsewhere.

 

It looks like I am in the minority with Avis. I will always go with Avis if pricing is the same. I can walk straight to my car and drive out of the lot. The new app will now allow you to change your car on the spot without talking to anyone. So fast!

 

I too most often go with Avis. For the same reasons spicole alluded to. Easy in and out. I often lock in a good rate and pre-pay. The new app is excellent!

 

You crystallized my thoughts eloquently. I almost always use Alamo via Costco, even if Alamo is a few bucks more than Budget, because Budget was dreadful and Alamo was exactly as you describe.

Daily rates haven't been as good in the past year or two as I had come to expect in Vegas, and last year I wound up using Sixt via Sam's Club. I got a good deal on an upgrade to a BMW convertible, but all else being equal it's Alamo for me.