Never rented a ski-rack equipped vehicle as by myself and threw skis in car. Or, for example, a Suburban which Hertz has there plus whole range of vehicles. Racks typically rents for 20-30 day, weekly, think 5x daily. If you are going out and staying in Park City area you really don't need it. If going to the cottonwood canyons and with others, I can see it and if out there during monster dumps, a good AWD, the better. most of time I-80 negotiable even with FWD car unless you are heading into a howling snowstorm during drive.

I've never seen multiple Q50s at the site but they may exist. More likely they will just throw you whatever SUV is available with a ski rack. If the Q50 AWD is good enough for your needs (but you want a ski rack) I think you're better off negotiating at the site. The Q50 reasonably seats 4+gear+skis internally.

April skiing in Park City... which car??
 

I'm flying to SLC later this week for a few days of spring skiing. We'll be in Park City unless the conditions aren't good enough, then we may drive to Brighton.

My first time in UT, so I have no idea what to expect. I know it's late in the season, but: do I need AWD? I don't really need a ski rack (I'm only bringing boots and will rent skis there; my friend is bringing his snowboard, but it will fit inside the car. Not sure if I should add the $18/day "Ski Equipped Vehicle" add-on or not. If I get an AWD car, I assume I don't need it. If I get a FWD car, I might?

I've heard Hertz@SLC has a bunch of Subarus... does anyone know if they are available as Gold Choice for a particular group or if I'd need to upgrade?

I don't know if I should book Group F or Group D, assuming I can always upgrade the latter on the spot if I'm not happy with what's assigned.

Any advice welcome! Thanks!

I don't think you will need AWD and you definitely don't need an $18 a day package. Since there are only two of you, just fold down half of the rear seat and load skis and snowboard directly in the car from the trunk/hatch.

They gave me a Subaru there last month. It was a reward rental.

Thanks, oldgoldflyer. Appreciate the info.

This station is awful. I rent from SLC about once per month. As a PC member I consistently get cars with 30,000+ miles. I arrived in a snow storm one time and asked to upgrade to the smallest AWD vehicle from a midsize. I was willing to pay. I was quoted $90 per day extra for a Nissan Rouge... Nearly 4x my base rate. I told him my company rate includes the insurance and I would rather leave it smashed up on the side of the road than pay that much. The Hertz rep told me that it was a snow storm so there was high demand.

If my company didn't make me rent from Hertz I would be gone. I used to use National and they would routinely give me an SUV for free when ever I would ask if it was bad weather.

I'm also not a huge fan of this location but honestly I don't think what you were quoted was out of line for their normal practice. SUV rates are consistently high here through the winter season even with advance booking, particularly so for classes that g'tee AWD/4WD.

I don't really get it as SLC is a major statin and I would think these rates would get competed down, but perhaps there is some effective collusion in effect... in any event, not necessarily a Hertz issue.

Any recent experience?

I am Five Star but Hertz price is about $75 higher than Thrifty. I am wondering if I should pay to "upgrade" myself from Thrifty to Hertz here.

You could possibly use AUTOSLASH and get a better deal.

Already did ;)

I rented a vehicle from this location on the tenth of this month and returned it on the 17th. From an initial rate of 881 USD via HERTZ for a Standard size SUV, I got the rate ultimately reduced to 354 USD for 8 days via Autoslash. The carfirmation on arrival at SLC indicated a TAHOE and since we were two of us I asked for a change and was offered a KIA SPORTAGE which I found a very useful vehicle for our week in Yellowstone National Park. The Sportage had 1900 miles on the odometer and road handling was very good and parking was heaven though it seemed a tad underpowered in certain situations. I was supposed to have been charged 50 USD for the GPS which was missing in the Sportage and after due reflection I did not make an issue of it. On returning the car I found nobody around and took a chance on the Express return box and fortunately they sent a receipt in about 24 hours. The Gentleman in GOLD was very helpful and I will have no hesitation in renting a car from SLC HERTZ in future trips to the South West area.

I had a biz trip to SLC 2 weeks ago. Due to weather along the way, my flight ended up very delayed (and I misconnected, took the next).
I'm just Hertz 5*.

Anyway, my original carfirmation was: Nissan Sentra

By the time I arrived they had taken down my name from the board. A nice woman at the gold booth gave me a Toyota Camry...which is a better vehicle. ^

There were a few prestige vehicles available for upgrades..I think I saw a Mercedes sedan and an Infiniti SUV, among others. But I just took the Camry.

First time renting from SLC, and I can't say I'm impressed...

In fairness, much of the problem comes down to the location itself - as much as I generally like on-airport pickup, it clearly means that none of the rental companies have enough space. For Hertz, that means one exit gate for all UC rentals (PC, 5*, Gold - all others are assigned cars from what I could see), and a fairly poor range for all of those due to lack of space.

PC but was reasonably full (which isn't saying much given the small lot). Nothing overly exciting except for a Camaro - which had "No Keys" written on the door so I took a Subaru Legacy (~3000 miles). It then took over 10 mins to get through the one exit gate with only a single staff member working on it...

2 days into the rental the car started spluttering and losing power at times under acceleration, so I decided to return and swap it. Once again, the only exciting thing in PC was the same Camaro, so I took a Ford Fusion (which actually turned out to be AWD).

The real problem was returning the car today (Thursday, around 4pm). The line to get into the rental car area (for all companies) was well over 1/4 mile long when I got there (and growing), and very slow moving. It literally took me about 20 mins to get into the return area.