National Car Rental Reviews

My wife and our family traveled to maui for our honeymoon and decided to to hop a plane over to see pearl harbor but we needed a rent a car. well the service was slow and I will never use them again. We decided to use the GPS system which was flash based and did not work so well. When I returned the car I had asked to have a refund for the GPS since it didn't work well 30 minutes later and after speaking with the manager they credited me my $12.00 and change. Not having the GPS really stunk plus all the wait time we only had a day and we waited over one hour to pick up the car and almost an hour...

In San Francisco we had a similar very positive experience. The cost was $70 for 3 days and we were upgraded from a compact to a full-sized car. Mileage was and is unlimited but even before gas prices went sky high the price at National was $4.00 a gallon so make sure you fill up before you bring the car back.

Most recently...

We rented a vehicle through Alamo/National in France.  We bought all the additional insurance (we were "persuaded" to buy more than we originally planned).  When we got a flat tire, there was no road side assistance and we had to change it ourselves, during which I pulled a muscle in my back.  We had to change our vacation plans to swap the car out, missing out on half a day of more fun things we could be doing.  Even though it was not our fault whatsoever, we were charged $189 for a new tire for National, which is preposterous and excessive!  

The vehicle was unsafe and not maintained...

I've rented from National on many occasions.  I've always found them to be fine (I like the fact that they treat all of Manhattan as a single location....so that I can pick-up near my work and drop off near home).

My only criticism is that they sometimes don't have the car that I've reserved.  While they've always upgraded me, sometimes I end up with a much larger car than I need (and in this age of high gas prices, that can be expensive)

April 2009 Update:  I still rent from National, but am going to have to reconsider.  I just received a notice from them regarding a red-light trap that...

On March 22, 2008, Seattle, WA, I left my sweater and Air Force gloves in the car.  It took 4 days for them to find the sweater.  But, of course, there was no sign of the gloves.  They charged me to have the sweater returned to me but I cannot get anyone to answer the phone to further pursue the issue of my gloves.

 These are not gloves that can be bought in a store.  One of the employees is wearing them (and they do stand out) and National is too lazy to check it out.  They know who cleaned that vehicle and who turned in the sweater (reluctantly, apparently). 

I want my gloves back!  People...

THEY ARE INCOMPETENT, NOT HELPFUL, THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW THERE OWN POLICIES. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND TO MY WORST ENEMY. IF I HERE OF SOMEONE TALKING ABOUT RENTING I WILL JUMP IN AND SWAY THEM TO GO ELSEWHERE.

THIS IS ABOUT THE NEWARK LOCATION ONLY.

I booked a Full size car and had a double upgrade coupon so was basically planning to get a Minivan but after calling the rental location was informed that there are no minivan's to rent. So far so good. The customer service asked me to goto the nearest airport location and pickup the van ( she politely mentioned they will add additional airport tax ). Before leaving for the airport I thought of booking a minivan incase the upgrade doesnt work ( which somehow I knew would not work ! )..amazingly a third party website allowed me to book a minivan at a decent rate at the original location !!!! After...

On October 30th, 2009 I rented a compact vehicle from National and Returned it Tuesday the 3rd of November.  On my way to the San Diego, CA drop off location I got lost and was in a hurry to catch my flight to new york. 

 Upon dropping off the car I forgot to grab my Garmin NUVI navigational system because I was in such a hurry.  I realized I didn't have it with me upon boarding the flight to new york.  I immediately called their customer service and told a man about my situation and he told me he would call me back within 48 hours.  Two days passed and nothing was reported back to me. ...

I rented a car from National and drove off the lot without checking the gas. I called a day later when i had only driven 5 miles to my hotel to inform the company that they had given me an empty car and request reimbursement for the gas. I was worried after driving 5 miles that i was going to run out of gas before i arrived at a gas station because it was so close to empty. During my customer service experience i was transferred 3 times, then put on hold for 10 minutes, then while on hold i was hung up on, and eventually told i couldn't be helped. When i called back, i was clearly speaking to the...

National Car rental is my first choice every time. As a frequent business traveler I am always in a hurry, so I am an Emerald Club Member. This service is free, and they even reminded me that my license was about to expire! All your information is kept on file so there is never any waiting, you just choose your car, and show your Emerald Card and drivers license at the check out gate. Talk about no hassle! No matter what airport I travel to, whether there is an on site rental, or offsite location, I know I have a car waiting for me with the key in the ignition ready to take off. Even the shuttle...