Experience with JFK
 

I am flying through JFK in the fall and would love to try Silvercar (rates are actually comparable to other non-toy car rates when searching) but the location looks to be somewhat inconvenient.

Does anyone have any experience renting from JFK versus simply going for something from Hertz/Enterprise? Worth it to schlep to their nearest location (any tips on which is most convenient to access via public transit or Uber if so?)?

Thanks a bunch!

Jeff

I rented a Silvercar from the CLT location. Their cars are kept off site - around ten minutes from the airport (fairly close to Billy Graham headquarters). I was picked up by a friendly rep in an A4 and taken to the lot. As it was my first rental, he talked me through the whole process in the drive over & then verified my credit card & license. Next time I rent, he said I can just scan & go.

I had the Q5 which was great - I couldn't think of a way to improve the experience. If Silvercar were everywhere, I would never rent from another car company again.

In the NY the only airport silvercar is at is Newark (EWR). NYC locations are Downtown Brooklyn, Williamsburg Brooklyn and two on the West side Manhattan Columbus Circle and W 42nd St and River St.

I'm very tempted to use this discount code... I would totally use the weekly code if they had that, but since they did away with it I'm looking for something else. Does anyone see any other terms anywhere? In those terms it doesn't actually even state you must currently own an Audi or limit it to specific model years or anything. If someone in your household owned an Audi could you consider that as "an Audi owner" ? What proof would you even show at pick up? I'm not going to carry my Audi keys around if I'm traveling out of town and was dropped off at an airport. I'm not going to carry insurance paperwork around if it's a spouse that drives the car or something. Has anyone been asked to verify this during pick up? (I used to own an Audi, but got rid of it because it drank fuel like crazy... lol)

"Bookings must be made by 12/31/19. No blackout dates. Complimentary one-day rental applies to reservations of two days or more. Complimentary two-day rental applies to reservations of 4 days or more. Offer not valid with any other offer. Discount applies to base rental rate before surcharges and taxes. Offer subject to change, and is based on the individual merchant's terms and conditions. Any taxes are the sole responsibility of the purchaser."

I've got a VISAINF20 code for Silvercar. I am suspecting, but not sure, that this may be a Visa Infinite code. Does anyone know if you need a Visa Infinite card for this to work, or does it work with any Visa card?

Does work with any. When I still had the Sapphire Preferred I've used this coupon code without issue.

Experience in BOS
 

This was my fifth time renting with Silvercar; unfortunately, while I'll consider it in the future, it may be my last. (I've rented it twice out of downtown Brooklyn and twice out of LAX.)

The Boston location in particular is a bit tough, because it's a 10-minute drive away from the car rental center, to which you have to take a shuttle from the airport anyways. So the convenience factor isn't really there. (This may be particular to my situation, but I also had trouble getting a hold of the rental agent, which meant that I was waiting at the car rental center for an additional 20 minutes after arriving. That may be a challenge of their lean staffing model.) On the other hand, they paid for an Uber/Lyft to take me directly to my terminal when I dropped the car off. All in all, I found the experience a bit like they were flying by the seat of their pants, not a seamless process of getting customers from the airport to the Silvercar rental center and then back again.

My real gripe, though, is that the value proposition seems to be going away. The discount for holders of the CSR went from 30% to 20% (which I suppose was inevitable), and as other posters have noted, you often end up with high-mileage cars. I also was (unpleasantly) surprised to see that the fuel surcharge is $9.95, not the $5 anymore. And while they used to only charge you for the tolls you incur, now there's a one-time $4.95 fee for using the transponder. That seems out of character for a company that sold itself as taking the hassle out of rental cars. Sure, it's great to get an Audi, but at least for me, the things I liked about Silvercar are the lack of add-on fees (i.e., transparent pricing), comparable pricing to a legacy rental company, without sacrificing significantly on convenience. I'm not sure I see that Silvercar bring that when compared to, say, National (heretofore my go-to when there's no Silvercar available).

One thing that remains good about Silvercar is that there's no additional fee for adding an additional (qualifying) driver.

Have other folks experienced similar things?

Experience in SAN
 

Last week arrived at SAN at 8.35pm. Received text from Silvercar to welcome me to SAN and told me to text "landed" so they could order me an Uber to drive me to rental location (rather than taking shuttle bus to car rental center and then Silvercar shuttle to off-site location). Was in Uber less than 15 mins from leaving plane and at Silvercar location (which is co-located in a larger airport parking garage) 10 mins later. Silver Q5 (5,100 miles) was ready to go. On return drop-off was taking only a few minutes and was then directed to the parking shuttle bus leaving from the same location directly to terminal building. So neither on way in or out did i go through the car rental center, saving me time and making it an even easier process. Can't comment on toll or refueling charges as i didn't use either. Overall a very positive experience.

Obviously I can't speak to location specific issues, and I do wish they were on location, or at least handed off the car at the airport and then THEY took an Uber back to the location... that would avoid the awkward chats about why I'm there and what I'm doing and blah blah blah. But, it's still really hard for me to beat their price for that class of car. Using my CSR card and the Visa Infinite benefit I can do a 8 "day" rental (Pick up morning of Oct 19th, return morning of Oct 26th) for $388.55 total! (So about $48/day). I know what car I'm getting, it has enough pick up and go for busy freeway traffic, XM radio (love listening to the chill station), and built in Sat Nav so I'm not looking at a little screen or having to use my cell phone. With National (and without promo code, I'm sure I could hunt around for one, but SilverCar's is clear and just works with any location and car) I guess the Luxury would be similar (Cadillac XTS or similar) and that would be $538, and I'm not sure that has XM or build in Sat Nav. That's $150 more which means I would need to find a promo code for almost 30% off to just get the price the same. To me, as long as SilverCar keeps coming in with a daily rate lower than the other guys and continues to offer Sat Nav built it, I'll deal with their off site locations and maybe slightly increasing extra fees for fuel or tolls. (Though man they totally should bring you the car, have you make a few clicks on your cellphone, and then let you leave directly from the airport while they take an Uber back, that would be awesome... hell, probably worth an extra $9.99 service or something)

I just had my first experience with Silvercar in Newark. The pickup was super fast (less than 2 minutes after my text) and the ride to their location was quick (less time that the train to the rental facility). There was one employee who was just finishing up with another customer so I waited another two minutes. He described the nav/entertainment system, twice noting that it is not touch screen, I scanned the QR and was on my way. Great car with about 15K miles. The return was even faster, I was on the bus back to the airport in a minute or two. The neighborhood is a little sketchy (it is Newark), but I will rent again.

Q5 rental in DEN week of July 4th (interestingly, got a 2018 with no sunroof whatsoever, but not a big deal on that front, had just read previous post :) ). Picked up on 7/3. Apparently they had just moved facilities the day before. The shuttle driver didn't even know what Silvercar was, but via text everything confirmed.

We needed two car seats, but I had forgotten to add to reservation when I made it almost 6 weeks earlier and by the time i remembered, they were fully committed.. not their fault, mine... I mention b/c staff on site really did check around for me, even offered other boosters to see if theyd work for us... I appreciated their effort. (BTW - Silvercar in this case was *CHEAPER* than Hertz and Avis... and I even bought online and picked up in store 2 Scenera car seats from the Walmart on tower road near DEN... all in *STILL* cheaper than Hertz/Avis with their car seat fees... and a guaranteed Q5.

Here's a datapoint on roadside assistance:
- just after pickup, we were headed to Aspen, and outside Golden, along the highway, we blew a tire... I mean totally shredded somehow. Audi roadside assistance towed us to an Audi dealer who swapped in a new tire in about 90 minutes... and I haven't heard a thing about it.. they said they'd bill Silvercar directly and good to go.
- it seemed seamless... roadside assistance got the VIN, and checked coverage, tow truck came, dealership knew what was up... done
- I declined their coverage, paid on CSR.. just in case this comes up later... but i'm guessing it wont

Only frustration was on return.. the nav AND the app had return instructions for their old address... some confusion and 20 minutes of wasted time near DEN airport later, all good. I sent a note to their customer service to be sure to update their app and vehicles immediately.

All in all, love the Silvercar experience. Having the Q5 on those mountain roads was awesome.

New location is 5950 N Jackson Gap Way, Aurora, CO 80019, which is Fine Airport Parking.

This location looks to be 3-5 minutes closer to the terminal.

180 day booking window
 

Was looking for an end of January 2020 rental today... in a location w/ Silvercar... wasn't able to book on app... got errors, went on laptop... said unable to book out past 180 days (actually technically I am within 180 days, but maybe they release by the week in blocks, etc)... I haven't tried to book Silvercar this far out before, just wondering if this has always been the case? A tad annoying, but wont stop me from checking back.

Anyone find their prices went way up?

Booked last September for a few days in NYC and averaged $92/day. It is now averaging $144/day here in NYC with the CSR discount. Definitely not as attractive as it used to be.