Paging frequent car renters!

I do not rent cars very often, once or twice a year. When I do, I just poke around the various travel aggregator websites and pick the cheapest one.

I also have a very bad memory.

I have, on occasion, rented from places that say "Go pick any car from Row A", rather than, "Here's your Versa, have a nice day!"

And I'm not talking about Gold Club members (or whatever) but for ordinary Joes like me.

For the life of me, I can't recall which rental brands give you that choice. If it's within a few bucks of the cheapest, I'd gladly pay a bit more to get freedom of choice.

Anybody? Anybody?

National. Join their emerald(?) club and you get a pick from the row of cars.

I have had that happen both times I rented in Phoenix, with different companies. Once with Alamo and I think the last time with Dollar.

P.S. In Phoenix I always pick something white!!!

I've had 7 or 8 rentals over the last year, always with National. As Ihayes mentioned, sign up for the emerald club. When you rent a midsize, you can pick anything in the emerald aisle, which usually has midsize - fullsize cars, minivans, and small SUVs. The cars are optioned pretty well. This week, the lot was pretty empty, so they offered me a brand new Expedition Limited for no upcharge.

Another fan of National emerald club here. It's just so damn easy, takes all of the hassle out of it. It also helps that I get to use my company's contract rate and free LDW for personal use as well.

I'll just add this about "tourist taxes."
Typically, if you rent a car from the airport or your local tourist hotspots, the municipalities add on significant taxes and fees. This can be as much as $25 per day.
If you do the same rental but pick the car up at an "in town" location, these fees are not charged.
Using the company websites, try pricing the same car from multiple locations if you do not need the convenience of airport pick up.

In reply to JohnRW1621:

True about taxes but the offsite places usually have limited vehicles to choose from.

Most of the rental companies do this now. Even if you can't walk the row and pick, at the counter they'll tell you what they have available for you to choose from. I've rented from Enterprise, Alamo, Budget, EZ and a few others in the past 18 months or so. Most of them have free to join membership clubs which will make the process quicker.

At the counter you can usually ask what's available if its not a "pick any car in the row" type place. Dad and I respectively rented a new Taurus limited and regal turbo this way on a family vacation.

+1 on National being the pick any car place. Its also about 10x faster at the airport getting your car because no other rental places have figured out that you don't need to make everyone stop at the counter.

Enterprise is my other go to though. They have a location right near our house, which is convenient, and the staff rocks. Trick about enterprise is that EVERYONE who starts at enterprise works in rental sales for a period of time. During that time they evaluate each employee and where your career goes from there is highly dependent on your performance as a rental car sales person. Needless to say, enterprise people are HUNGRY for upsells, and will wheel and deal with you like crazy. So if national is too expensive, I go with the cheapest rental available at enterprise, and then when I get to the lot, I ask them to put me in a challenger (or whatever) for $5-10 a day more. Usually works, esp at airports with a ton of available vehicles on the lot. Note, the neighborhood locations usually don't stock many cars, so this method is less successful there.

I travel a good bit for work and use National now exclusively. In the past I have used Hertz and Enterprise, but I like National by far the best and never use anything else anymore.....no waiting in line and pick what you want.

Well, I just reserved a rental for tonight with Alamo at PDX. $18/day, total with taxes, for 2 days. At that price, I'm not gonna be picky!

EvanR wrote: Well, I just reserved a rental for tonight with Alamo at PDX. $18/day, total with taxes, for 2 days. At that price, I'm not gonna be picky!

This. That's why I've used so many different rental companies. I usually will go with the one that has the lowest rates. Sometimes I wind up cancelling and rebooking right before I leave because I can get a last minute steal. Dollar tends to do this a lot, and they let me choose my car.

The company I work for uses Budget exclusively. Generally my conversation goes as far as "Do you have anything made by Mazda or a Focus ST?" Then we go from there, as long as it's in the same category as you chose there generally isn't a problem.

Priceline name your price is usually what I use. I have rented a compact for $12 a day in most cases.

The0retical wrote: The company I work for uses Budget exclusively. Generally my conversation goes as far as "Do you have anything made by Mazda or a Focus ST?" Then we go from there, as long as it's in the same category as you chose there generally isn't a problem.

Who rents the Focus ST? They all rent the SE, but I've never seen an ST rental. Having rented the Focus SE hatch several times was one of the reasons I bought my ST.

EvanR wrote: Well, I just reserved a rental for tonight with Alamo at PDX. $18/day, total with taxes, for 2 days. At that price, I'm not gonna be picky!

It would bet it will be a Sentra. A miserable little car. When we went to Vegas they had a big field of the awful things.

I use National and Avis.. I have used cheaper brands in the past, but for business no other will do.

Klayfish wrote:

The0retical wrote: The company I work for uses Budget exclusively. Generally my conversation goes as far as "Do you have anything made by Mazda or a Focus ST?" Then we go from there, as long as it's in the same category as you chose there generally isn't a problem.

Who rents the Focus ST? They all rent the SE, but I've never seen an ST rental. Having rented the Focus SE hatch several times was one of the reasons I bought my ST.

Enterprise does pretty sure they do the FiST too. Budget I know for a fact rents the FiST.

Tons of good things to say about National. As dar as the others always ask they have that's fun. Typically the high end cars don't get rented and they sell out of the compacts. I find that they'll typically give me the high end toys at the same price as it gives them another compact to rent out. Have gotten some cool rides this way,

National and Hertz are what I use. I used to do the cheapy guys; Dollar, Thrifty, Alamo. Got sick of the crappy little cars and the pickup/drop off hassles.

I will say the last two time I've rented from Hertz were a disappointment. The Fiat 500 in France was dirty and the AC wasn't working. I also got stuck with a beat up Nissan in Montgomery.

Wall-e wrote:

EvanR wrote: Well, I just reserved a rental for tonight with Alamo at PDX. $18/day, total with taxes, for 2 days. At that price, I'm not gonna be picky!

It would bet it will be a Sentra. A miserable little car. When we went to Vegas they had a big field of the awful things.

Almost. When I got to PDX, I had 4 choices: 2 Nissan Versa Note SV hatches, a Hyundai Accent hatch, or an Accent Sedan.

I took the sedan, only by virtue of two facts:

I could not (in the dark) find a USB or cig lighter port in the Versa Note.

And the Accent sedan was the only one with in-state plates. I have a weird thing about driving around with out-of-state plates.

Driving the Hyundai for 2 days made me glad I didn't buy a Hyundai, which was high on my list.

For the team we use National and Avis. National is always preferred for convenience if price is the same. Sign up for the free emerald club. Not all National airport locations allow you to skip the counter. Smaller airports still require a stop at the desk. Vehicle choices are largely variable. Point of note, if you are looking for a one-way rental, vehicle class and rental agency will make a big difference as to whether they will charge any type of one-way fee.