I’ve used Silvercar at FLL a couple times now. Good rates, esp with promos and only slight inconvenience on pickup (you have to go to the rental car center to be picked up), but basically terminal drop off on the return. Cars have been close to new and clean.
I also like their gas refill policy - $5 device + pump prices. If all the rental companies did that, I would use it every time.
Might be too late (since Sherri’s post was in April) – but to brace myself for SFO sticker shock, I usually use a site like Hotwire (you can choose a rate from a dealer on the airport property so you’re not getting stuck with a no-namer far away). The other thing I noticed during my last trip was that a mid-size SUV was actually significantly less expensive than an economy or mid-size car. I probably paid a tiny bit more in gas than I usually do, but I wound up with a nice Jeep that was very comfortable and fun to drive (which served me great going back and forth between Sonoma and Napa in the rain!)
+1 big time auto slash user
The last few times I’ve reserved something early for Expedia when I saw a good price, knowing that you aren’t paying anything for the reservation and can just skip it if you find something better. Each time I’ve ended up sticking with that, a few weeks ago I ended up with a mid-sized SUV for 4 days (Fri-Mon) for $134 total. And ended up talking our way into a Grand Cherokee for no extra cost. This was at OAK.
Thoughts about rental insurance options: my daughter got caught when she got a rental car after her car was in an accident. Apparently it’s mostly electronic these days, so there isn’t really a record of what they told you at the counter, just the fact that you signed in the end. Her first time renting a car, so not familiar. She never would have accepted insurance if she had known the total cost, but that’s life.
Anyway, in talking to my own insurance company, I asked them about this. I knew we are always covered for liability, no matter what car we’re driving (including a rental). I didn’t know we are also covered for property damage, including the rental car damage, theft, etc. (with normal deductibles, of course). Couple that with CC coverage of rental cars, and we’re in pretty good shape. So check with your own insurance provider to see where you stand before walking into a rental office. I don’t know if this extends beyond U.S. borders, kind of doubt it.
I use silvercar often (at multiple locations incl. SFO) and have never had a bad experience.
Yup. Love renting through Costco.
Auto-slash beats costco everytime.
Make the Costco reservation and an Auto-slash reservation and see which is cheaper one day before the trip. no penalty to cancel either reservation.
The Costco price never changes but the Auto Slash price most often does
Last May we used Enterprise in SFO. Actually picked up downtown near our hotel on a Monday, drove all week up into Napa and then returned to SFO on Friday, total for the week was around $250
Have literally never paid more than $130/week all in for a car at SFO
Good to know. Will do. Thanks
Auto-Slash has changed its algorithm. I am sorry to say that Costco beat it today by close to $90.00 for a one week rental. They have gone to linking to Priceline. Sorry to lose this resource for booking car rentals.
You can ask them to track your rental. When I did this for a recent rental, they found a lower rate. It’s an extra step, but it reduced my rate by 5%. Track Your Car Rental Price | AutoSlash | #1 for Cheap Car Rentals
Dan- I am doing that on both this August/Sept rental and my Christmas rental, but the interface has changed.
I messaged Autoslash on Flyertalk. His response…
If the issue is that they don’t know how to track a reservation, the easiest thing to do is just go to Track Your Car Rental Price | AutoSlash | #1 for Cheap Car Rentals.
If the issue is that Costco is beating us…should be no reason for that, since we search all of the Costco codes in addition to others. If anyone ever finds a better rate than we do, two options:
We do have to refer people to Priceline to complete bookings, but the source we use to search for rates is exactly the same as what we had before, so absolutely nothing has changed there. We’re working on ironing the kinks out of the link to Priceline (and/or adding additional providers where we can), but again, people are always welcome to email support@autoslash.com (or just reply to any email our system sends) and we’ll attack the issue vigorously and make sure the best deal is booked. 
the issue of Costco beating them by close to $90.00- according to Jonathan-"we’ll see if we can get the rate down further for you. Note that we would have offered the same deal through us, but it looks like the Enterprise discount code in our system was expired, so I just updated it. "
I need to rent a car locally for three weeks at the end of August. Checked all of the sites recommended here, including Autoslash, Costco, and AAA. Best I could find was a direct rental through Sixt. Mercedes CLA for $590, all-in. The others were 50% more for an intermediate car.
I saw this post since I flew into SFO recently too. I rented through Turo.com, which is similar to AirBNB for cars. I’ll be using it again. Quicker, more convenient, and cheaper too.
A little off topic, but what is with rental cars in Portland, OR? Tried to find a rental car for several days this week and none available. There were vans for $899/day - not for my budget.
Might be getting a little close to people coming in for the eclipse?