fedexflyer

I have long preferred National because of their "pick your car" option on the Aisle. However, I've had two bad experiences with this location in the last four months and will not rent from them again: (1) when traveling with my family, I requested a minivan (which they didn't have), they instead gave me a high-mileage Chevy Traverse but would not honor my company's corporate rate. I turned it back in after a day and rented a (new!) minivan from Hertz (much better experience!). (2) When traveling on business, after waiting in line at their Emerald booth, they told me that they had no sedans left, so they put me in a tired Chevy Equinox that had over 25k miles. The wait, the lack of car choice and the age/quality of the cars will have me renting from elsewhere at SLC from now on.

ElmhurstNick

I may be going to SLC a fair amount over the next year, but I won't deal with a franchisee, and I won't deal with a site that tries to give me a Malibu as a full size vehicle. I had to stop renting from National at ALB because of that one.

Thanks for the heads-up, everybody. I'd rather have 1/5 of a free day as Executive Elite, but I'll settle for 600 Virgin Atlantic miles instead from Hertz.

Alaska737890

And the staff is completely anal about the whole Chevy thing. I was there back in 2010 and the return guy completely lost his lid when an old couple one-wayed a Sonata from AZ. He actually told them that they should return it back in Phoenix and only accepted to move it to Alamo once they were actually residents of Salt Lake, but vacationing in Arizona!

bocastephen

That isn't the only thing they're anal about. Before you drive off, check your car carefully, and that includes running your finger under the front bumper lip at the bottom - and make them write down EVERY (and I mean EVERY) molecule that you see out of place on the car before you drive off.

This station has a reputation of "cycling" damage - if a car gets damaged, they will bill for it (and I mean anything, even under the bumper) - they wont do the repair unless it's major - and any unsuspecting future customer who doesn't note it on their pre-departure damage report will get hit with a bill for the same damage after they return the car - and so on and so on. They should be in prison for doing this.

Auto Enthusiast

He actually told them that they should return it back in Phoenix and only accepted to move it to Alamo once they were actually residents of Salt Lake, but vacationing in Arizona!

Wouldn't Alamo be under the same franchise ownership? I can see them giving a corporate car to Enterprise, which I don't think franchises.

By the way, slightly OT: When I did my I-90 roadtrip, a few cars passed by with vertical National windshield barcodes, and Western (ex SD, MT) plates. These cars also had dealer stickers on the trunk liftgate, ex Joe Schmoe Ford & Tire. I assume these were National's franchise cars, right?

phoenixstar

Very unimpressed with this location. Just dropped of my rental, and hoping this is the end of it. Arrived two days ago, got in my car, and then looked at the receipt printout. Showed a rate that was more than double what I had reserved. Went back to the booth, and pointed it out. Had my printout from the website reservation, thank goodness. Then pulled up the actual confirmation email from my phone itself to show the "manager" on staff. Difference was significant. Had reserved at a rate of $30.00 per day, they were trying to charge me $63.98 per day.

Said "manager" told me he was too busy at that time to make the correction, so "after hours" he would do so, and could I please call the location back later that evening, or preferably the next day, to verify that the change had been made. Warily agreed, because I had a meeting to get to downtown anyway, and this was taking far too long.

Called the next morning, spoke with another fine SLC National employee. Inquired about the rate. Her response was, "What, you mean the $63.98 per day rate?" I said no, it should have been adjusted to $30.00 per day, as the original reservation showed. She said, "Yes, it is $30.00 per day now. So why are you calling again?"

Fantastic... Well, when returned today, the receipt indeed showed a $30.00 per day rate. Have never had this issue at any other National location, and in fact am quite concerned about some sort of extra charge showing up based on other stories here... I marked the bumper scuffs on the damage report before leaving, and the car was basically parked at the Hilton downtown. The gentleman walking around the car upon checkin didn't say anything, but at this point, not quite sure what to expect...

Ysitincoach

One of the worst locations. Another Midwest Car Corp location. Almost as bad as CMH.

I had one of their attendants claim my company was anti-LDS. I should have left at that point and rented from another airport vendor.

Their cars are the notorious Midworst sht boxes. I hate hate hate this location.

GW McLintock

Has anybody rented at SLC recently? I've read about people getting decent cars lately and heard fewer reports of renters being given a hard time. AFAIK they are still operated by Midwest Car Corp., but I'm wondering if anything has changed since last year. I haven't personally rented from them but you can tell it's a National car from the window stickers; I've seen lots of late-model Chevy vehicles (everything from the Spark to the Traverse) as well as Nissan Versas (IIRC) and Dodge Avengers.

-J.

COSPILOT

I have 3 recent rentals from National at SLC. I don't have the experiences noted in this thread, as my experience has been ok, I wouldn't say great, just ok. That said, it's much better than my previous Hertz rentals at SLC, so take my experiences for what they are worth. I don't understand why Hertz and National SLC are so different compared to other airports, some much smaller. Nevertheless, SLC is one unique experience IMHO.

Steven NH/BOS

Here is my experience in this additional thread regarding SLC:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/natio...ntals-slc.html

The BNA Gentleman

Tons of Buick Regal TT's - not a bad choice and they'll let you get it on a full size slot.

Also: They do not like seeing salt flats salt on it, just happened to pass by them and wanted to take a look.

Hot Pocket

Truly horrible franchised location. Makes CMH look halfway decent by comparison (at least CMH has EA and ES - SLC does not). Staff with attitude and not helpful, ended up with a beat up 2013 Regal with 33k on the clock. Easily the worst car I have received in 40+ rentals this year.

Cannot recommend.

flyerbjorn

I booked a standard SUV from National SLC in January and got a Chevy Equinox 4x4 with 30k miles on it.

Worked fine for a ski weekend. No complaints.

leighjohnwi

Had a 3-day rental in SLC last week. The staff interaction was fine picking up the car. What was most surprising was the HUGE lines at both the desk and the booth out in the garage. Being Exec and capable of bypassing the desk and going to the booth might be a time-saver. Not so much. The line was at least 25 people deep, and the wait was around 30 minutes. What made things sting even more was that Enterprise, Budget, Hertz, didn't seem to be experiencing ANY wait. Enterprise even had floaters walking out with tablets the moment a line even formed (I had some time to observer their activities)
As for the car, I was given a 4-cy Captiva with 32k on the odometer. I don't know if this was a status upgrade or just what they gave me, but the tired old Chevy got the job done.
I also wasn't impressed at the return lane. A minivan full of company drivers decided to enter the garage at 40 mph and light up the tires while stopping 6 inches from my rental. Everyone including the check in crew thought it was hilarious and celebrated with high-fives. Nothing short of astounding.

So my overall impression: the rental was just what I paid for, a car that ran, with no upgrades, and cordial but nothing special interaction with staff that could not have been a year or two outside of high school.

The BNA Gentleman

Anyone wanna find out the closest National location to SLC and start doing one-way's to SLC to .... with them?