Car hire California

[24lemons]

We are flying in to LAX in March and need a hire car for 2 weeks. It’ll be for my wife and I plus our 4 year old daughter. Probably looking for something similar to what we drive in the UK (Kodiaq)

Any companies worth recommending? Equally any we should avoid?

[bimsb6]

There are numerous at the airport , I’m sure google can help .

[Man of gas]

I just got back from a 9 day trip to LA and Vegas, flew in and out of LAX. Used Sixt, highly recommend, hired an X5 from their prestige collection, included all insurance with zero XS for about $400

[mikef]

Last time I rented at LAX I had a Dodge Challenger from Hertz. To be honest, I just look for any deals on offer at the big outfits - Hertz or Avis usually, as they have slick high-throughput operations at the major airports and get you in and out of a rental car pretty quickly

[fourstardan]

Do they allocate cars now days? In the good old days you just turned up to your section and had a car shopping exercise, unreal!

[Rollin]

fourstardan said:

Do they allocate cars now days? In the good old days you just turned up to your section and had a car shopping exercise, unreal!

It's still the same at LAX

[Truckosaurus]

fourstardan said:

Do they allocate cars now days? In the good old days you just turned up to your section and had a car shopping exercise, unreal!

Depends which company. Avis seem to allocate you a car, National let you chose.

The only recommendation is to use one of the multinational firms and book through the UK website to get the correct insurance cover.

[gotoPzero]

Be aware all car hire at LAX is off site. So you will need to get the bus. So defo go with one of the big brands for that reason.

You can also sometimes find a better deal going with one of the big brands but at their secondary location which might be in an airport hotel.

There are several like that at LAX. Car choice might be limited or zero but price might be 20-30% less.

Its not so much of a deal any more though now prices are returning to "normal".

As above book from UK with UK credit card and you will get full insurance cover.

If you have not been to California before then don't leave anything on show in the car when its parked.

You might get lucky and get a clean car, but IME hire cars tend to be a bit ratty / leggy in LA.

[marcosgt]

Last time I rented a car in California I ordered up the smaller thing they had (a Dodge that was actually a Hyundai, I think) and they tried to upsell me a Mustang for about $50.

As I was going diving and didn't expect to use the car much I declined, but I was tempted to change my mind when I saw the row of convertibles.

Trouble was the queue was about an hour long and I wasn't doing it that again!

As it turned out some of my diving was cancelled, so I had an extra day of driving around in a little hatchback...