Do The Driving Yourself With National
Written: Oct 24 '00 (Updated Jan 19 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The least expensive with a coupon; no drop-off charge
Cons: None in my experiences
The Bottom Line: Based on my three experiences with National I would highly recommend this car rental agency. Look around for coupons.
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| jo.com's Full Review: National |
There are two reviews in one on National Car Rental
On the island of Oahu in Hawai’i where we recently spent a 3-week vacation (June 2002) on 4 islands we rented a car through National. This was our first time using National and we were very pleased.
General Information
We rented a car Friday through Sunday on this island- not for our entire visit because my husband was at a conference and he was busy for a few days. They had a great deal for weekends. We had a coupon from The Entertainment Book giving us one free day for an intermediate or larger car and after our fiasco with the small Chevrolet Metro on our second island we decided to go with larger cars. The cost for the three days was $83.00. Back in November we were renting a car and did a lot of research. At that time National was $165 for 5 days making it $33.00 per day so the almost $22.00 a day for that weekend was really good.
In addition another very attractive option was that we could pick up the car at the address below and drop it off elsewhere, in this case it was the airport at no extra charge!
The website is: http://www.nationalcar.com/servlet/DocHandler/index.html?74d3e776349bfb77
The location we went to was:
National Car Rental - Waikiki
1778 Ala Moana Boulevard, Honolulu, HI 96815
(808) 922-3331
Customer Service and Other Information:
This was a different experience for me than I am used to. I am used to being shuttled to a large facility to get our car. In this case we called National Car Rental from our hotel and told them we were ready to get our car. They had told us we could do that with 1 hour notice. In much less than 1 hour a van showed up to take us to National’s office. We were the only ones in the van. The driver was on his way back to the office and turned around when he got the call to get us. He was so nice as were all the people who worked in the office. That is what it was. Rather than a long, long counter, National Car Rental had an office space. It was small, clean and everyone was very friendly. It was on the second floor in a complex of other offices but there was an elevator if you cannot walk the stairs.
We ordered the initial car online but not this particular one. Initially we were going with a smaller car. There was no problem with us upgrading. There were plenty of cars available. We were given several choices of types of cars from which to choose and picked a Trans Am. We had asked for a non-smoking car and received one. We were able to look at the car before they just told us to get in it. (I had a very different experience with Enterprise, though I haven’t reviewed them yet.)
National will not rent to anyone traveling with a child under the age of 5 unless the child is in a federally approved child restraint seat. This can be rented from National or it can be your own.
The Car:
The car we chose and were very happy with after inspecting it was a beautiful 2002 Grand Am with 2100 miles on it. It was in mint condition and it was evident that it had just been washed. We did fill out a scratch card or damage picture even though there were no damages. This was the first time during our renting of cars in Hawai’i though that it wasn’t collected. We just drove out. I would have liked it to be collected for our own protection and I could have gone back upstairs and given it to the customer service representative, but I didn’t.
My final thoughts:
This was an excellent experience with National. Truly I choose car rental agencies based on price but if the price was not much different between Thrifty and National I would choose National if it were just a little bit more than Thrifty. The service was excellent, the staff was friendly, the car was perfect and we had a choice and the price was right. Granted we did have a coupon, but there are coupons around if you look for them.
My Hawai’i reviews are on my profile page if you are interested in reading about our trip.
This is the 8th in a series of reviews of my trip this summer to San Francisco.
We have used National Car Rental two times recently and have had wonderful success with them. That isn’t to say that other car rentals have been bad, but right now I’m reviewing National.
We chose National for the following reasons:
1. We were only renting a car for 2 or 3 days and we had a coupon for the 3rd day free. The first part of our trip was without a car but for the latter part we stayed in South San Francisco and needed one. Having a free day free made National very attractive financially.
2. We could pick the car up in San Francisco proper (rather than having to go to the airport). There are actually 2 pick up spots making it very convenient.
3. There was no drop-off charge. We wanted to drop the car off at the airport rather than at the location where we picked up the car. The fact that there was no charge for this was very nice. Thrifty was less money per day but if you factor in the $25.00 drop-off charge Thrifty tacks on, they become more expensive.
4. Payless was even less money but we would have had to pick the car up at the airport which is 20 miles from the heart of San Francisco. The cab ride alone is over $30.00 so that didn’t make sense.. Financially it can be looked at like this: if you don’t have to pay for a drop off charge, it is as if you are not paying for transportation to the airport when you leave, so that’s an additional savings of over $30.00!
The cost was $70 for the 3 days. National upgraded us from a compact to a full-sized Malibu. We wondered if the more expensive car rental agencies have more full-sized cars available; and the less expensive ones have more compact cars. That would explain why they upgraded us for free; they just had lots of cars available.
Mileage is unlimited; just make sure to fill up the tank before you bring back the car or you’ll pay $4.00 per gallon!
In conclusion, based on my two experiences with National I would highly recommend this car rental agency. Look around for coupons and compare them with other agencies. My experience has been that in the car rental business the price you pay doesn't have much to do with the quality of the car of the service you get.
Links to my San Francisco reviews are below:
Haight Ashbury
National Car Rental, Do The Driving Yourself
I Am A Rock, I Am An Island: Alcatraz Island
Muir Woods, An I Wood Do
From Chinatown To North Beach
The Stinking Rose Restaurant
American Airlines
Santa Cruz Boulevard
Neptune's Palace Restaurant
Hawaii reviews are below:
Other Hawaii reviews you may be interested in:
Traveling to Hawaii on a Budget
The Westin San Francisco Airport Hotel
Aloha Airlines
Garden Gate Bed and Breakfast in Maui
Maui
LahainaTown Maui
Hana Highway in Maui
Haleakala National Park in Maui
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Hawaiian Airlines
Puff the Magic Dragon Lived in Kauai
Waimea Canyon on Kauai
Poipou Beach Area, Kauai
Na Pali Coast, Kauai
Hideaway Cove Villa, Kauai
Royal Kona Resort,The Big Island
The Island of Hawaii - The Big Island
Pu'uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park on the Big Island
Oahu
USS Arizona Memorial on Oahu
DiamondHead State Monument on Oahu
Polynesian Cultural Center,Oahu
Wailua River State Park in Kauai, Hawaii
Recommended:
Yes
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jo.com
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Member: Jo
Location: On a bluff overlooking the ocean.
Reviews written: 1673
Trusted by: 1172 members
About Me:
On the road again until mid-January. Happy New Year!
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