Flyertalker01234

I am renting a car for 8 days during the holidays and these 3 companies had the best rates. They all had special rates for a Premium car. Thrifty and Enterprise are both $360 and Dollar is $310 including all charges/taxes.

In another post, I read Dollar and Thrifty are the same location at SAN now so I assume cars will be the same as well. Is Enterprise any better than Dollar/Thrifty and will it make a difference in the kind and condition of cars? All three say the Premium car is a Nissan Maxima or similar. I don't mind paying a little more for a better car.

Any information is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Daggett76

Stay away from Enterprise in SAN. First off, they are farther away from the airport than any of the other rental car companies. Especially during rush hour the shuttle ride can be a pain. Also, their employees and service level is not up to Enterprise standard. Read some reviews (or my other post)...

Regarding premium cars, they had a bunch of Maximas, and I think a Dodge Charger.

Poki

To be fair, Dollar and Thrifty also have their fair share of bad reviews (San Diego airport location); not just your typical "bad reviews", but surprisingly bad reviews - I mean almost the whole page is filled with '1 star' reviews .

Where I'm from (IN), Enterprise has always been decent and helpful; they do push a little to sell their insurance products, but they have never lied or tried to deceive me. It's not necessary the customer service employee's fault, but rather the higher ups pushing and even threatening them to sell sell sell. That's just that though, considering I don't know how they act in San Diego.

Have you considered Alamo? Just asking... they charge less than Avis and Hertz.

ACE rental car doesn't exist, even though its listed on cheaptickets.com I can't find an email address to write cheaptickets, but if you book ACE through their website, you are actually booking with TravCar. They also don't allow you to travel to Northern California, or out of state (I'm personally stopping by Yuma). Their holding charge is $750 - $1,000, so depending on how high your credit limit is watch out.

Not sure if I helped much; I'm in the same seat, traveling to San Diego in the near future.

Flyertalker01234

Thanks, that was helpful information. I prefer to rent from Alamo because you can choose your own car on their lots at larger locations. But they are $500+ like the other big companies (Hertz/Avis). Premium cars are around $700 so $300 - $360 just seemed like a very nice deal. It's an expensive time to rent a car. I'll check to see if there are any last-minute deals the day before I leave. Dollar and Thrifty now also showing $500+ for the same Premium car.

I also read mostly bad reviews about Dollar/Thrifty at SAN. But as always, people usually only come to these forums to complain about a bad experience while 99% of rentals are probably just fine.

Both Thrifty and Dollar allow for driving the car in Mexico, according to the rental agreement. You can buy insurance for that for $27.80 per day. Not sure if you can get the insurance for only a few days instead of the entire rental term. I don't any definite plans yet but may just drive to Baja for a few days. I can't find rental terms from Enterprise on their website at all.

Not really concerned about the shuttle ride as I'll arrive late morning on the 24th and leave late morning on the 1st. Most important is the kind and condition of car. With my luck, I'll get stuck with a Crown Vic they found in the back of the lot. I read they had these for a Premium car but I am sure they don't have these anymore. Right??

Flyertalker01234

I picked up my rental car at Enterprise a few days ago and couldn't be happier with the experience.

The shuttle from the airport to their location took less than 10 minutes. Very friendly staff and wait time was a few minutes. This was on December 24 so may be busier on different days.

The CS agent looked up my reservation and everything was all set after a few minutes. No up-selling or forcing to buy insurance and other services. I waited a few minutes for another CS agent who walked with me outside to the cars. I reserved a Premium car but none were available at the time. She was helpful in trying to find something else and a Dodge Challenger was available. Perhaps not a premium car but more fun and style than a Maxima. So I didn't mind at all. It has 10K miles so not that old. No scratches or dents at all.

She asked if I was all set for insurance and hinted I was probably already covered through my own car insurance. We went over the charges on a tablet computer, I signed and got my rental contract when I left the lot. The estimated charges on the contract were exactly the same as my reservation.

Very friendly and helpful employees. I think I found my new favorite rental car company. At least at SAN.