Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Strange California Law

I just got back from the Hertz FL to NY one-way special. The MIA location had cars from all over the place, as usual. The cars at my neighborhood office also had cars from nearby states, but a smaller fleet and so less of a mix.

The Cobalt I was given in Miami happened to be registered in FL. They surprisingly had several (larger) cars from NY, NJ, and PA, even though this is the reverse out of season. I spoke to one of those renters, who told me she paid a very high rate to do this, but her circumstances required it. I explained it's probably because they're trying to discourage this.

Upon return in NY, I mentioned that I might do a one-way from CA later in the summer. The agent said that CA will gladly give out one-ways for a relatively low price because they're the only state with a very strange law: CA can only rent out CA-plated cars unless it's a one-way. I asked him about the NJ cars I saw at SFO. He said those cars are stuck there. The guy said to call ahead and remind the branch this is a one-way to NY, so they should find an out-of-state car they are not allowed to use otherwise.

I asked the guy what about the similar AZ and NV special to CA. Don't they get cars "stuck?" No, he said, they're trying to get the CA cars to come back so they can use them locally. CA to Las Vegas and Phoenix are very popular one-ways.

By the way, when I opened the office door to go home, I was astonished that another employee had already cleaned the car and parked it nose out. He was preparing to give it out again to another customer who was patiently waiting behind me. They said they like to have a fast turnaround. I watched another car, a NJ-registered Camry roundtrip rental, get returned and re-rented within a span of 10 minutes.

The restrictions in CA are due to the strict emissions standards in that state. CA-plated cars meet the emissions standards and can thus be rented in state with no problem. Out of state cars do not meet the same standards and cannot legally be rented in the state of CA unless their final destination is outside the state, essentially the vehicle is then just "passing through" the state of CA and is exempt per interstate commerce law. Manufacturers have similar issues, the vehicles they sell in CA often have slight modifications that are not found in other markets that bring the vehicles in line with the emissions standards, vehicles made available for rental in CA must come from this stock. It's a bizarre situation that neither the rental car companies nor the manufacturers are too thrilled about. Hope this answers your question/provides some insight!

When picking up rental cars here in SFO, I have reguarly received vehicles from other states, albiet primarily from National not Hertz.

I suspect there maybe an exception for vehicles that are sold/manufactured as being 50 state compliant and also another exception for Hybrids as Hybrids are exempt from undergoing a "Smog Check" in California.

If there is such an exception it could be that National buys only 50 state compliant vehciles to enable maximum fleet flexibility

NY and several other Northeast states follow the CA emissions rule, but our rental cars come from all over the place. We tend to get a lot of gas guzzlers from the deep south. In fact, rarely do our locations have cars registered in NY. Lately I've seen a couple more that seem to be brand new.

The agent also said the one-way reverse in the fall, out of California to AZ and NV, are intended to get rid of the out-of-state vehicles so they can rejoin the nationwide randomly circulating rental pool.

Dollar and Thrifty at LAS maintain a seperate selection of cars specifically for 1-way returns to CA. I have received many a CA plated car at LAS, but never a NV plated car for a rental in CA.

In the future, I plan on doing San Diego to Seattle on I-5. My friend who just came from there said it's beautiful. Like with my CA to NY trip, the rates to go out of CA are cheaper than in. I attributed this to the emissions law, but some people on here said at certain CA airports they received out of state cars for local rental. I decided to investigate a little bit.

I called two airports in CA to corroborate the answers from the agents. Here's the "official" answer:

1. Due to CA emissions law, out-of-state cars are not supposed to be rented locally. However, the agent said they will give such a car for local use in extenuating low availability circumstances, because there is a fine every time they do that.

2. If the computer shows a reservation one-way out of state, the location will make every effort to find an out of state car. It doesn't matter what state the car is from. They gave a WA plated car that came from Seattle yesterday to someone going to Vegas today, for instance. It doesn't matter. What matters is they get rid of the car. If they don't, the car might sit for a while. Eventually the company makes the branch pay for the parking for a month.

3. If someone books a full size car one-way out of state, the branch might not have a full size car from out of state. But the customer was promised a full size car. The branch will try to find a "better car" registered out of state. (I put what the friendly agent said in quotes because some of us wouldn't see bigger as better if the gas money is going to eat our lunch.)

I told the agent about my trip from CA to NY, and how I booked a subcompact but the only out of state car they had was a Ford Escape with GA plates. She said yes, that's what they would try to do. The subcompact is the bottom rung, so substituting anything above that is fair game.

However, from a full size car, there isn't much higher to upgrade to. So, sometimes there isn't such an out of state car to be found nearby. In this case, the branch will, very reluctantly according to the agent, give away a full size car with CA plates. The agent said this happens more frequently with specialty vehicles like minivans, for which a substitution can not easily be made. This would explain the Toyota Sienna with CA plates I saw at MIA. "We don't like to do that," she said. "But if we have to, we will."

I forgot to mention that by low availability, that means:

If the customer ordered a fullsize car for local rent in CA, and the only one they have is from out of state, the branch prefers to give an upgrade to another car registered in CA to avoid the fine. No suitable available upgrade means they reluctantly give the out of state fullsize and pay the fine.

Im in SAN now and have a car with NV plates I rented from Alamo. So does this mean they had to pay a fine to give it to me? They were slammed today and I rented a midsize and got an SUV :td: I didnt want to argue with them so I just took it. I only paid $45 a/i for 2 days so if they cant be making money on this rental if they do actually pay a fine.

Im in SAN now and have a car with NV plates I rented from Alamo. So does this mean they had to pay a fine to give it to me? They were slammed today and I rented a midsize and got an SUV :td: I didnt want to argue with them so I just took it. I only paid $45 a/i for 2 days so if they cant be making money on this rental if they do actually pay a fine.

Coincidentally, I spoke with Hertz in Burbank and National in San Diego. Hertz said they try very hard to honor the emissions law. National said they don't care. If I were to hypothetically book a one-way to SEA, Hertz would scrounge up, say, a Nevada car. National said they'd probably give me a CA car. If I brought a WA car from Seattle to SAN, National said they wouldn't care. Hertz said they would have to take the car but would try to send it on it's merry way out of CA as soon as possible. I think part of the discrepancy is that National and Alamo's long haul one-way rates are not so good, due to their hybrid business model of corporate and franchise stores. So their fleet composition at each location will be different than Hertz.

Ex: One-way CA to NY, Hertz is $278 plus tax for 7 days. National/Alamo is an eye-popping $1,752. If I wanted to do I-40 from Barstow to Wilmington, Hertz offers the same price as to NY. National wants $2,875, maybe because I'm guessing Wilmington is a franchise and will need to send the car back. But SAN to SEA, both Hertz and National are within one or two dollars of each other, because those airports are probably both National corporate stores and so can keep the car.

Hertz said they try very hard to honor the emissions law. National said they don't care.

I wonder if "don't care" is code for "We cook the books to avoid paying the fine."???

I mean, the fine could only be enforced through either random, on-site spot-checks (unlikely) or self-reporting on the part of rental companies. Shouldn't take a genius to figure out how to bypass that particular regulation.

National said they used to care, "years ago." Hertz said "everything must be documented."

I checked with a suburban Avis branch in CA, down the street from the Hertz branch I rented from last time. The agent didn't know of this law. He said, "Avis California can rent cars from anywhere in the country." Interesting.