4 ms·

Why rental cars are suddenly so hard to find

5 points by jonbaer 6y ago

PaulHoule 6y ago
Americans are too quick to take the rental car at the airport. The average American airport has a good car rental center, but often you are best off avoiding it. Consider California. The Car Rental Center at SFO is the worst in the world so far as I know, it is like the movie "Brazil". Take the BART. San Diego I walk out of the airport to the downtown to a fine choice of hotels which would charge you $40 a night to park your rental car. Fly into San Jose it is not hard to get to the fringes of Stanford, I would use transit if I could but every time it was early or late so I took a cab. LA without a car is an adventure, but the taxi service is solid and you could easily experience Santa Monica or Hollywood and other centers as microcosms.
- sidpatil 6y ago
  > The Car Rental Center at SFO is the worst in the world so far as I know How so? I've used that car rental center a few times and have had no problems with it. (Then again, that's the only car rental center I've ever used, so my opinion is essentially worthless.)
  - PaulHoule 6y ago
    One time I went there and took the shuttle train all the way to a lobby where I had to wait in line 30 minutes to get the keys, they give me the keys to a Chevy Malibu but when I make it through a maze of corridors and elevators to a giant parking garage there is a Ford Escort there (and the keys don't work.) I go back up and wait in line again and this time I get in the car. The oil change light is on and I realize that I forgot to get a child seat but I drive away, figuring I'll deal with those problems tomorrow, if it all, rather than wait in line for another 30 minutes. Contrast that to a normal airport (LAX or ITH) where the wait is usually less than 5 minutes.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
  There’s also the fact that you can often rent the same car from the same company significantly cheaper by going to the next closest car center 10 miles down the road from the airport. When I visited San Diego circa 2015 it was actually cheaper to pay for a ride share from the airport to an Avis in town instead of renting from the Avis at the airport (this may not be true anymore as rideshare companies are no longer subsidizing at the level that they were around 2015). Airports often add on additional taxes and fees to car rentals on top of the supply and demand convenience that the rental company charges you.
- sidpatil 6y ago
  > Take the BART. This is so obvious in hindsight. I should have done this just to avoid the southbound evening traffic on I-880.

5 points by jonbaer 6y ago

Americans are too quick to take the rental car at the airport. The average American airport has a good car rental center, but often you are best off avoiding it. Consider California. The Car Rental Center at SFO is the worst in the world so far as I know, it is like the movie "Brazil". Take the BART. San Diego I walk out of the airport to the downtown to a fine choice of hotels which would charge you $40 a night to park your rental car. Fly into San Jose it is not hard to get to the fringes of Stanford, I would use transit if I could but every time it was early or late so I took a cab. LA without a car is an adventure, but the taxi service is solid and you could easily experience Santa Monica or Hollywood and other centers as microcosms.

sidpatil 6y ago
> The Car Rental Center at SFO is the worst in the world so far as I know How so? I've used that car rental center a few times and have had no problems with it. (Then again, that's the only car rental center I've ever used, so my opinion is essentially worthless.)
- PaulHoule 6y ago
  One time I went there and took the shuttle train all the way to a lobby where I had to wait in line 30 minutes to get the keys, they give me the keys to a Chevy Malibu but when I make it through a maze of corridors and elevators to a giant parking garage there is a Ford Escort there (and the keys don't work.) I go back up and wait in line again and this time I get in the car. The oil change light is on and I realize that I forgot to get a child seat but I drive away, figuring I'll deal with those problems tomorrow, if it all, rather than wait in line for another 30 minutes. Contrast that to a normal airport (LAX or ITH) where the wait is usually less than 5 minutes.
SOLAR_FIELDS 6y ago
There’s also the fact that you can often rent the same car from the same company significantly cheaper by going to the next closest car center 10 miles down the road from the airport. When I visited San Diego circa 2015 it was actually cheaper to pay for a ride share from the airport to an Avis in town instead of renting from the Avis at the airport (this may not be true anymore as rideshare companies are no longer subsidizing at the level that they were around 2015). Airports often add on additional taxes and fees to car rentals on top of the supply and demand convenience that the rental company charges you.
sidpatil 6y ago
> Take the BART. This is so obvious in hindsight. I should have done this just to avoid the southbound evening traffic on I-880.