City Rent-A-Car

The awning says "Free Pick up and Drop Off" but when you go inside, they have a sign that says, basically: "J/K!" Apparently, they've discontinued their drop off service "to keep prices low." That's probably also why they haven't repainted the awning.

So, I just rented a car from this place. Nice guys, and very cheap. But they lose points because even though I made a reservation, my car wasn't ready when I got there. I had to sit and wait about 30-45 minutes with nothing to read but a brochure for Alcatraz.

When I finally got the car and drove out of there, I noticed on the dashboard that the "Passenger Side Airbag Not Working--Don't Hit Anything or Your Wife Will Die" light was on. Very nice.

My wife survived the trip, but not her favorite CD. It was eaten alive by the stupid stereo in our stupid Suzuki. It went in and then wouldn't come out, and wouldn't play. We had to listen to the RADIO all the way down to Santa Cruz. I didn't even know there still was radio.

Anyway, when I returned the stupid car, the counter guy said they'd try to get the CD out and that I should call them in the morning. If they get it out, I'll maybe bump them up a star. If they don't get it out but they reimburse me, I'll maybe bump them up a star. But if they don't get it out and they don't reimburse me, then I'm going to take one of their stars and I'm going to kill it.

UPDATE: Now it is Tuesday. I called about my CD. "What?" They said, "You forgot your CD?"

"No," I said, "Your crappy little white, compact Suzuki ATE it and you said you'd get it back for me."

"Hang on. I'll look in the lost and found."

[long pause]

"I didn't see it in there. I'll have to call you back later. We got a line of people here."

That's minus one star for you, City Rent-a-Car-Lose-a-CD.

Can a rental car experience be a pleasure? I didn't necessarily think so until I picked up my one-day rental from City Rent-A-Car on a recent Friday.

I have to admit that I started out with the big guys, like Hertz and Enterprise, even Budget. They all came back with ridiculous pricing for a one day rental ($150 in one case), or had some really time-constrictive stipulation about returning (well it's $60 per day, but you have to have it back by Saturday at 1pm, or it's a 2-day rental).

Frustrated, I turned to Yelp and came across City Rent-A-Car. Wow, not only did they hook me up with a nice auto, but they picked me up from my office to get the car. They said I could bring it back by 4pm to their location, or if I was running a bit late, they had parking at a nearby hotel. Wow, wow.

After the weekend, I called just to make sure everything was all good, and the guy on the phone told me that they were crediting my card since I filled the tank and it only needed to be returned at 3/4 full. Wow, wow, wow.

Renting a car should always be like this.

Well! You crazy kids on yelp are correct again. I recently wanted to rent a large vehicle for about a week to handle a move, but not a van, and wasn't really sure what I'd be moving. Looked at all the "majors" and their prices were high and/or they didn't have any large SUVs at their city locations, but only at SFO.

Enter City Rent-A-Car who had a Suburban for me at far less than the rental chains were quoting, brand spanking new w/only 10k miles and friendly service. AND a 10% discount for saying I found 'em on yelp.

Amazing customer service! Let me tell you of my last interaction with them:

Me: Can I get picked up for my reservation?
City R-a-C: Yes. What's the address?
5 Minutes later I get a call and they are outside my work.
On route I realize I don't have my I.D.
Me: Oh no, I forgot my ID.
City R-a-C: If you are close by I can take you home to pick it up.
Me: Wow!!! Okay.
10 minutes later I am driving away at an incredible rate of $32/day.

Sold for life!

I really, really want to give them a higher rating. They're great people, with good prices, and a wonderful City Car Share member discount, but . . .



!!!YOU CANNOT TAKE THEIR CARS OUT OF CALIFORNIA!!!



Maybe this isn't an issue for most car renters, but a long planned weekend trip to Oregon was almost ruined because of this fact.
We rented a car a week in advance. We arrived at City Rent-A-Car, and while going over the rental agreement, I noticed a line item at the bottom indicating that the vehicles were prohibited from leaving California.

I said, "Oh, we're going to Oregon"
They said, "Sorry, you can't."

Heart sinks. Blood drains. Gears turn . . . Crap! What do we do?

We ended up carrying all of our bags around Van Ness to other rental car agencies to see if we could get a car at a moments notice (on a Friday morning). Hertz was sold out, and thought it very odd that a rental car company prohibited the use of vehicles out of state.

On to Enterprise. They had a car, and since they knew we were in dire need of it, charged us $99/day for a Kia Rio. Um, thanks Enterprise. We were grateful for the car, but c'mon! Take advantage much?

A note to City Rent-A-Car:

A visible and obvious disclaimer on your website indicating 'no out of state trips can be made' would be greatly appreciated!

Hopefully this write up will prevent others from going through what we had to.

This review is not in regards to their car rental service, but rather their car cancellation policy, which is unusual for a car rental place. I had reserved a car for last weekend through this business, but then ended needing to cancel that rental at the last minute. I didn't check to see if they had a cancellation policy, but I did note that they took my credit card info to secure the reservation. I went online to check the night before my cancellation, and low-and-behold, there is a fine for reservations that are not cancelled within 72-hours of the pick-up date!

I freaked out a little bit, because this was the night after I was supposed to pick up the car. So I sent an email to cancel the reservation, and promptly got a reply the next morning (on a Saturday, no less), confirming my cancellation. There was nothing stated about any fees that would be charged, so I assume I won't be fined.

I just want to say I appreciate the communication in a timely manner, because when you cheap out and go with a "budget" car rental, you rarely get that kind of communication. In fact, when I have called "Budget" in the past, I have been sent to a central call center and then directed to the local branch, which can result in disconnections and wasted time (and we all know how crucial a few minutes can be when something goes wrong).

I would much rather deal with one direct phone number/email (both of which I utilized and had positive experiences with) that City Rent-a-Car provides. They are one of the only local companies I know of that rent cars. So this is my way of saying "thank you" to them for helping me out, even though I never did use their service. You guys rock! That is all.

Car rental seems like the kind of business that an independent company can no longer compete in. Everything comes down to volume, right? And how is a mom-and-pop outfit going to be able to compete with transnational companies that have bulk-purchasing deals with particular automakers?

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, but City Rent-A-Car is alive and kicking, and I'm glad for that. It's a tiny operation. When you book on the website the kind of car you want, you're actually picking a particular automobile, and the picture they show you might be a photograph of the ride you'll be driving. I really had no idea what to expect when I came here, and it was funny because the woman who helped me didn't seem like she normally worked here. She was good at her job and was pleasant, so she wasn't incompetent, but she almost seemed as if she were filling in at her older sister's job because Claire had come down with a cold and was calling in a favor.

The regular hours are pretty ridiculous, but you can return your car late (but not that late) to the Holiday Inn on Van Ness Avenue. That's what I ended up doing, and that process is mildly complicated and odd and quite an adventure. I'd definitely do it again.

In San Francisco for the weekend and reserved a car online. Went to pick up our car that morning and they told us they over sold and we wouldn't get a car. We watched them give a car to a walk in before us in line then didn't have a vehicle for us! DO NOT RENT FROM THIS PLACE!

I needed a 4WD SUV for a ski trip to Tahoe. Normally, I'd go with Zipcar, but I needed to be in Tahoe for two weeks (poor me!) and Zipcar maxes out at 4 days.

Most of the national car rental chains don't make any promises about the car you will be getting, and the SUVs they have are typically truck-based American behemoths. City Rent-a-Car has a Hyundai Tucson, which they confirmed (promptly via email) was the 4WD version. It's the perfect size for a trip to Tahoe. It handles like a car, yet it made it through Donner Pass in the middle of a heavy snowstorm like a champ. It never lost traction, even as I watched several cars fishtail and spin off the road. And it was very reasonably priced at $249/week and unlimited miles, cheaper than any other SUV I could find at the chains or on Hotwire.

As a plus, they picked me up from my house, their staff was friendly, and they didn't push any high-priced extras (insurance, GPS, etc.). It was such a breath of fresh air after dealing with typical car rental places.

These guys are great, rates are always reasonable and you can get in and out of there in about 5 min if you have all your stuff together. 24 hour return option at the hotel nearby is an awesome option too, almost as convenient as ZipCar but much cheaper for 24+ hour rentals.