Have been looking at car rentals, see Fox has very good prices, but have seen some very bad reviews. Anyone with any experiences with them? Or any recommendations for other companies? I%26#39;ve been checking different online sites for prices, some of them are quite close. I%26#39;d rather pay a couple dollars more, and get a reliable company!
Thanks for any help.
LAX car rentals
Here%26#39;s what I do, and I rent out of LAX once or twice a year (liesure travel). First, I go to any travel site (like Yahoo) to check rates -- any travel site will do as long as they present all the different companies for you. I find that Hertz and Avis are always the most expensive. Beyond them, I only rent from Enterprise or the ';second tier'; of national companies, Dollar, Thrifty, Alamo, National, Budge (Enterprise is the largest rental company in N. America but their major market has always been locals who need rentals because their car is in the shop or something like that -- historically they have ignored the tourism market, but that%26#39;s changing). Just as an FYI, Dollar and Thrifty are really owned by the same parent, Enterprise now owns National and Alamo, and Avis owns Budget -- but they still will have different rates
Once I%26#39;ve identified the cheapest company, I go directly to that company%26#39;s web site to see if I can do better by going direct. Usually it makes only a very small difference or no difference. However, if you join the company%26#39;s ';club'; (generally but not always free) you get the benefit of going to the ';club'; line at the rental counter, which is usually (but not always) shorter. In fact, with some campanies (can%26#39;t remember which) you can avoid the line entirely as they just drop you in the lot and you pick whatever car is sitting around in your class. This can be a HUGE timesaver. You can generally join online and get a membership immediately.
Lastly, I have used Priceline and gotten a good deal once or twice. You may or may not know the way Priceline works, you bid a price and they shop your bid around; each company has a chance to accept or not. If they accept, you pay up front and there are NO cancellations. I%26#39;ve gotten good deals this way, but if you have to cancel for any reason you%26#39;re out the money.
What I do is take the lowest price I can rent direct for, and take a couple of dollars off that for my Priceline bid, and I%26#39;ve only gotten a better deal twice. Also, your ';club'; membership can%26#39;t be used if you go through Priceline. OTOH, I once got a very good deal the night before I left -- remember that car rentals are a ';use it or lose it'; proposition for the companies, if they have excess inventory they will drop the price via Priceline. You may do especially well on Priceline if you%26#39;re renting 5 days or less. The rental companies automatically put you in the weekly rate category if you%26#39;re renting 5-7 days, under that and you pay a daily rate, generally higher on a daily basis than the weekly rate.
Airport taxes are significant at LAX. In the summer of 2007 I rented a full size (Mercury Grand Marquis) from Thrifty for 14 days and this was the breakdown (Thrifty, Dollar, and Enterprise all had almost exactly the same undiscounted quote, btw)
Rental Time Charge $372.00 (2 week rental)
10% Discount $37.20 (this was an American Express promo)
With Discount Applied $334.80
Concession Recovery Fee (11.11%) $38.13
Customer Facility Charge ($10.00 per rental) $10.00
Sales Tax (8.25%) $28.31
Tourism Surcharge (2.5%) $8.37
Total Estimated Mandatory Charges $419.61
Estimated Grand Total $419.61
Then again, in Feb 2008 I rented a full size for 1 week from Enterprise at this rate:
121.00 USD (1 Week @ 121.00)
10.00 USD (CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE)
131.00 USD (Subtotal)
3.03 USD (CA TOURISM FEE)
13.44 USD (AIRPORT CONCESSION FEE)
11.09 USD (SALES TAX)
Total charges 158.56 USD
So, IOW, my base rental amount ws 335, but I ended up paying 420 after taxes %26amp; fees.
And lastly, here is my Enterprise reservation for summer, 2008, for 9 days:
Full Size (Chevy Impala, Nissan Altima or similar)
57.98 USD (2 Days @ 28.99)
138.00 USD (1 Week @ 138.00)
10.00 USD (CUSTOMER FACILITY CHARGE)
205.98 USD (Subtotal)
4.90 USD (CA TOURISM FEE)
21.77 USD (AIRPORT CONCESSION FEE)
17.97 USD (SALES TAX)
Total charges 250.62 USD
Two other things:
(1) NEVER take the offer to ';buy'; a tank of gas at a reduced rate at rental time with the ability to return the car less than full at no charge. This is basically a scam by the rental agencies as it will only be advantageous if you manage to return the car on empty (since any gas remaining stays with the car).
(2) After you make your reservation, keep checking prices as your trip approaches. If rates drop you will NOT automatically get the reduced rate, you have to book a new reservation and cancel the old. I%26#39;ve seen rates drop significantly this way in the past.
LAX car rentals
I would go with one of the major companies if I were you. Overall, they tend to have better customer service and are more willing to resolve your issues. Those would be Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, Alamo, Dollar, Budget, etc. Go to a comparison site as mentioned and compare all rates. Then go to a site like www.retailmenot.com and look up available discount coupon codes for each company. Try them out and see what the best deal you can get is.
Another much cheaper option is to rent via bidding on Priceline. Compacts usually go for $10 a day, Mid-size for $12-14. The only difference is that these are not cancellable as you%26#39;re getting a much lower price.
Check with rentalcars.com frequently. Then get a discount number from the airline website for more savings. Recently i checked to rent a van, every company was $300 a week or more. Next day, one of them was $150 a week! Booked it (got lucky). Next day it was back up to $300. I guess I got in during an ';error'; in pricing but now they%26#39;ve gotta honor it.
Also, check back a week or two before your trip, as some companies do go down if they have a lot of cars on hand, in that case you can re-book.
Priceline and Hotwire all use reliable companies-Budget, Avis, National, Hertz. I just got an $11.95 per day rate for a full size a couple of weeks ago. The major downside to this is that a)it%26#39;s not cancellable and b)Budget had so many people renting cars on this last trip that there was a line of about 50 people and they ran out of cars. We were there for about an hour waiting for a car and I ended up with a much bigger vehicle than I wanted.
I used to use expedia or travelocity to search for the best rates, I believe those rentals were always cancellable but read the fine print. I would not use anyone besides one of the top companies, if you have an accident or rent a car that already has damage or break down, you%26#39;ll probably end up very unhappy.
Thank you all SO much--you%26#39;ve just helped me make some decisions! That%26#39;s what I love about this site--there were a lot of things mentioned that I didn%26#39;t even think about--club memberships, coupons, etc.
Again--thank you!!
Chicago: Interesting that you mention the long waits at Budget -- I assume you%26#39;re talking about Budget at LAX. I too have have very long waits at Budget the two times I%26#39;ve used them -- longer than anywhere else.
At LAX, I%26#39;ve had good experience with Thrifty. It was cheaper than other options (with plenty of coupon codes online) and they have 10 windows or so. I rented on Friday afternoon before Labor Day and had no wait.
smartcooki: just curious, but why would you have needed a rental at LAX, being an Angeleno and all?
We were going to Mexico and needed a big car for 6 people with luggage. Plus, no one wanted to take theirs across the border.
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