Going Green with National Car Rental
Written: Jan 30 '06 (Updated Jan 30 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Clean, dependable cars, decent international coverage
Cons: Great deals are rare, few choices beyond basic car types
The Bottom Line: National isn't my favorite car rental company. Their prices tend to be too high, their selection too mediocre, their polices generally too "industry average". Unexceptional.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: National |
I love a great deal, and that means I jump around a lot when renting cars. I don't stick to one company. I go with whoever gives me the best deal for a particular time and place. Occasionally, that company is National, though to be honest, I usually find that they're a heck of a lot better outside the U.S. than here on home field. I'm getting ahead of myself though....let's talk...
General Impressions from My Experiences....
A long time ago, I used National fairly often, but then, one trip into Houston (before I lived here), I got stuck in the queue from hell. For the next 7 years, I refused to do business with any National location anywhere under any circumstances. They probably lost several thousand dollars worth of revenue because I had to stand in line for almost an hour, once. A company is only as good as its worst-performing location on a bad night.
Time heals some wounds, and the availability of cheap bargains cures the rest. So, over the past year or so, I've again let myself do business with National when the price was right. Lately, the experience has been better...as good as other chains anyway, and they haven't done anything to tick me off lately, so my general impressions are (slowly) improving.
Today, I'll tell you that National is pretty much average. They're not number one in the industry, and they don't seem to care that they're not. Their rates are usually on the poor side, their cars usually on the good side, their service straight-up average for the industry.
It's easy to write glowing reviews of a company, it's easy to write scathing exposes. It's a lot harder to write 'em when everything is just pretty much middle of the road....which is how things are at National. They're not great. They're not horrible.
Service vs. Elitism...
A lot of folks here will rave about National's Emerald Club. Most rental car companies have something similar. They're a double-edged sword though. While they do help improve relations with frequent customers, the improved service to a few means that agents are sometimes pulled away from servicing the main lines. End result: degraded overall service level.
I'll say it again: A company is only as good as its worst-performing location on a bad night. Fact of life.
If agents are delivering acceptable service levels to the "club" members at the expense of overall throughput, then the company's overall service image drops right along with the escalated overall wait times.
On the other hand, there are some services that National offers that are on the right track. They offer the ability to dodge lines with pre-checkin and go straight to the cars and on out of the lot. National touts their Emerald Club "benefit" of heading straight to the Emerald Aisle, but they don't advertise that similar service levels are available to all customers, regardless of Mickey Mouse Club gimmick participation, by using an inconspicuous button on the web site (QuickRent).
Some folks will tell you that National's Emerald Club membership is free, but National is trying hard for that to not be the case....they really want to start charging folks $50 for the "benefit" of being a regular customer. Pretty insulting, if you ask me! I don't mind being recognized for genuine loyalty, but I'm not going to put up with fees to do so --- and by the way, it depends on how you enroll whether or not you get charged (waiver "deals" are the norm). Stupid people have actually been known to have agreed to be charged $50 to be in the Emerald Club. They probably don't like me calling 'em "stupid", but hey, sometimes you gotta call a spade a spade, and person who would PAY to join a loyalty club is pretty damn stupid if ya ask me!
Emerald Club: A few benefits, but mostly just the promise of getting minimally acceptable normal service levels that the company should be meeting for all customers all the time. Most of the benefits are unpromoted but available to "regular" customers anyway. Emerald Club is basically an elitist gimmick for saps. It's no better than the frequent customer programs of other companies. Worth signing up ONLY for free.
Car Selection....
I'm generally happy with the cars that I've gotten from National. They've always been clean. They've always been late model vehicles with low mileage. They've always had enough perks to keep me happy.
As other folks have said here before, most of the vehicles that National rents are Chevies and Pontiacs. When you go the SUV route, you'll probably get a Chevy Trailblazer. When you go for the luxury ride, you'll probably snag a Cadillac. While most of these wouldn't be my first choice if I were buying a car, they're all comfy enough and perform well enough when young that I'd happily drive any of 'em.
When you rent outside the U.S., you probably will not get the basic GM car that you'd get back in the states (but sometimes you will, since they have a bunch of little Chevies). When I've rented in Mexico, I've usually gotten Volkswagens --- the last time, a small sedan called a Pointer. The vehicle will also likely be equipped differently than you'd get in the U.S.: manual transmissions are more common, power windows and door locks less common. If that matters to you, talk to the rental guys before you take the car and see if they've got something else (last time I rented from National in Guadalajara they didn't have anything on the lot other than Pointers with sticks --- except a Chrysler Town & Country for 4 times the price...).
National's car selection is adequate for most corporate travelers, though they aren't very aggressive about getting new customers by expanding their vehicle offerings. I like that Budget has sometimes offered me little pickups at close to the intermediate price, and I really like the very upscale offerings that Hertz offers me through their prestige collection (nuthin' quite like renting a new Jaguar S-type or a Hummer for a long weekend!)
One quick tip: reserve the intermediate car. These days, it rarely saves you any money to take the economy car, so there's no reason to settle for less comfort, and full-size vehicles rarely give you much increase in usable interior or trunk space. Also, some of the services that National offers --- like that ability to just by-pass the check-in line and jump in the car and go --- assume that you're renting an intermediate (or a full-size, in the case of their Executive level perks). Just save the headache and save money: rent the intermediate car. It'll probably be a Grand Am if you get an '05, or a G6 if you get an '06, and they're both fine cars for a few days driving...
Rates...
Lots of people talk about rates in their reviews, but to be honest, most of those folks don't consistently comparison shop and they really don't have a clue whether or not they're really getting great rates or getting totally soaked. Let's just say a lot of 'em are all wet...
I do things a bit differently. I regularly do benchmark tests on travel prices, especially airfares and car rental rates. When I tell you that one company is the best or worst on price, they generally are, though of course you can always find exceptions to the rule on any specific itinerary. Such is the nature of the industry.
In general, National tends towards the high end of the price scale. They like to compete on price mostly against Hertz and Avis, which are the only two companies who consistently perform worse than National on the basis of price. In general, Dollar and Thrifty consistently beat National, and Enterprise generally gives you the BEST combination of good rates with RELIABLY good service. This is simply the long and short of the car rental industry at the close of 2005.
As always though, I run through a series of benchmark and pricing tests before I state conclusions, so that I know whether or not I'm still on the right page with reality, or whether the industry has shifted gears on me lately. For the record, here is a subset of my test data generated on 1/5/06 using Travelocity price comparison tools. This test data reflect 1-week rentals for the period February 1 through 6 at a variety of different locations, both large and small market, and both domestic and international. Companies compared in this test are: National, Avis, Hertz, Enterprise, Thrifty, and Dollar. As always, your mileage may vary, excludes local, state, and federal taxes, objects in mirror are closer than they appear.
Location: Rates
MSP: N-232, A-237, H-237, E-172, T-177, D-179
MIA: N-183, A-197, H-183, E-130, T-134, D-134
LAX: N-193, A-199, H-199, E-145, T-165, D-182
BWI: N-190, A-225, H-218, E-195, T-190, D-190
LHR: N-204, A-187, H-179, T-195, D-160
PVR: N-135, A-265, H-279, D-131
CUN: N-221, A-274, H-323, T-193, D-199
Gotchas on the rates...
Car rental companies have a nasty habit of hiding charges and surcharges and add-on charges etc. etc. etc. National is a car rental company, ergo they suck too....not as much as some of the low margin players, but they still pull stunts on their customers.
On one recent rental, I was shocked to find an add-on "surcharge for tires/battery". WTF??!?!! What's next? Add-on charge for seatbelts? Dome light? Turn signals? Criminey!! Is this an industry crying out for goverment regulation, or WHAT?!?!?
Also, keep in mind that National is one of the car rental companies that does charge you add-on fees if you ask for airline frequent flyer miles. You might be better off skipping that particular "perk", especially since the number of miles awarded is often abyssmally low. Ten years ago, getting miles on car rentals was a nice perk. Now it's a hassle that only complicates life.
And of course, as with all car rental companies, the insurance (i.e., "collision waivers" or "damage waivers") can cost you considerably more than the rental rate...especially in an era when most people have coverage on their own auto policies and/or when charging rentals on their major credit cards. Often, these "waivers" are as redundant as they are overpriced.
The International Travel Side of the Business...
Car rental is a travel industry, travel implies international support. In some regards, I find National better than average when used internationally, in other regards, worse than average.
I've rented from National a couple times in Mexico. The reason has been simple: better rates. While National rarely gets my business in the U.S. based on their rates, I've been happily surprised to find that they often do significantly better than average in Mexico. I don't know why, but they do. I call myself The World's Cheapest Traveler(tm), and it's no idle boast --- I love getting a good deal, so when that means renting from National, that's what I do.
Take a look at my test data above. I included two Mexican destinations in the test: Puerto Vallarta (PVR) and Cancun (CUN). While Cancun is a little tricky to compare accurately via the internet (because there's a lot of small market local providers who handily beat the best you'll do online), but even still, National's price is significantly lower than Avis or Hertz, and only a bit above the mainstream low price mark set by Thrifty and Dollar.
Puerto Vallarta is more typical of some of the Mexican deals I've been able to scarf through National. National, at $135 per week, clocks in at about half what you could do through Avis or Hertz, and is completely competitive with the lower price tier. THAT is the kind of deal that can get me standing in line at the big green rental car counter...
National has some serious issues in terms of supporting international sites and customers renting outside the U.S. (Spotty communication, poor web site support, etc.) But I've generally had good experiences renting at the National locations in Mexico and have been quite pleased with the level of local support and service that I get on-site. (The downside of renting in Mexico is that they're sometimes very imaginitive with their car classes....a VW Jetta is a "full size"....ummmm.....yeah, sure, and the Pope is an atheist.)
One thing National needs to improve with respect to international support: provide NON 1-800 phone numbers for international reservations and customer support, and publicize them. Nothing aggravates me more than being given a number for the "international" desk that CAN NOT BE DIALED FROM OUTSIDE THE U.S. This is not rocket science, it's not a new concept. It is fundamental customer service for any company that ever does any business outside the U.S.
Using the National Web Site...
National's web site (www.nationalcar.com) looks pretty at first glance, but I'm not ecstatic about it as I delve deeper and actually try using the sucker to get something done.
I occasionally get script errors as I reserve cars (happened today when I had to select a vehicle type). I'm also unhappy when non-sequential (i.e., non-transaction) pages time out or get lost when I click a Back button. If I get to blank pages or the very top-level home page, my frustration level mounts.
There are numerous problems throughout the site. I'll highlight some of them when I get around to writing a review on the site itself, for now, suffice it to say that there are problems in the FAQ area, there are problems with poorly thought out navigation in some parts of the site, and there are errors in places that shouldn't be rocket science to get right.
What I like about the National web site is that it's pretty easy to spot deals, and since I like to call myself "The World's Cheapest Traveler(tm)", spotting deals is something I hold near and dear. The internet specials occasionally have a gem or two, but I usually find that the best prices show up under the "Last Minute Specials" section (from the home page, click "Specials to Go", then click the link for "Last Minute Specials" to see the deals organized by state and city --- much more reliable than the scattershot kind of deals that show up under the Internet Exclusives links...
I have more thoughts on their web site, but I'm saving that for another review.
Bottom Line...
National is okay. Their cars are okay. Their rates are usually too high, but are sometimes okay. Their web site is pretty average. Their loyalty club is average, headed downwards. They're an unexceptional company that occasionally delivers a good deal, but generally prices themselves on the high end of the market.
I don't particularly recommend them, but I don't NOT recommend them either. They're average and it's easy to do better elsewhere. If you want a big company that consistently delivers better value and better service for your buck, look to Enterprise. That's my opinion.
Until next time, see you on the road. As always, look for me to be looking for value for my travel dollar!
Closely Related Reviews...
Want to see reviews of National's competitors? Here ya go!
* Avis
* Hertz
* Thrifty
* Enterprise
* Dollar
Recommended:
No
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