Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: San Francisco/Sydney
Programs: UA 1K/MM, Hilton Diamond, Marriott Something, IHG Gold, Hertz PC, Avis PC
Posts: 8,156
Yes, the buses are still in use, although from what I've seen it does vary night to night.
Having caught them about 5 times now from the terminal to the rental car center I'd say that the buses run a little less frequent than the trains (although just like the train sometimes you get lucky, such as last Thursday when there was a bus waiting as I walked up to the bus stop!), and the trip is normally a little longer - especially from Terminals 1/2/3 as they do those terminals first, and then loop all the way back around to the international terminal before heading off to the rental car center.
I haven't caught the bus in the opposite direction, but obviously they run with about the same frequency in both directions as they are just on a loop.
At the rental car center they depart from outside, ground floor, on the airport end of the building (there are signs pointing you in the right direction). At the airport, they pick up in the same spot as the SFO long term parking buses (ie, the official SFO long term parking, which pickup in a different area to the 3rd party ones like ParkSFO)