Insurance is Important

Forceful upselling of extra insurance

The environment wasn't very clean with some trash around. They required me to buy a full tank of fuel and suggested returning the car empty, claiming that gas prices in Los Angeles were much higher than in San Francisco. This arrangement seemed a bit deceitful. The price for a full tank was locked at $3.xx per gallon, which was higher than the average gas price in San Francisco, which is usually around $2.77 per gallon. Additionally, it’s hard to return a car completely empty; I still had nearly half a tank. Many gas stations in Los Angeles also have prices around $2.77 per gallon. So, returning the car with an empty tank is a rip-off. The rental company should have offered an option to return the car with a full tank, but the staff didn't give any choice and just completed the paperwork. Being new to the place, I had no option but to accept it.

Overall, it was pretty good. Initially, I was given a Santa Fe when picking up the car. I requested a different car and they handed me two Dodge keys, which I declined as it should have been a Kuwei. Just when I was about to take the Santa Fe, a staff member brought back a freshly washed Grand Cherokee. I took it without hesitation and had a great ride. The staff was not impatient at all. Thumbs up!

They have Chinese-speaking staff, and there are many new car models

Like: I was particularly impressed at how quickly we went through the pickup process, especially given how huge the crowd was and how stressed the other customers looked. We used the self-checkout process at the SFO Alamo counter, and while the kiosk actually malfunctioned, this allowed a manager on duty to whisk us through the process in remarkably short time. We had no issues with the reservation, and we were even given a wide choice of cars to choose from in the parking deck, including even a pickup truck (despite that we'd reserved a compact car). The return process was equally smooth, efficient and utterly hassle-free.