Driving Highway 1 from San Francisco to Los Angeles

After driving over 80 miles, I noticed a strange noise from the car. I returned to the pickup point and requested a replacement. The staff quickly provided a note, and I was able to change the car upstairs. Quite satisfied.

The queue was very long, and they tried to upsell too much.

Quick paperwork processing

Excellent experience

Service attitude, waiting time, and vehicle condition need to be addressed separately: Our flight arrived at 10 PM local time, and we got to the rental office around 11 PM. Many rental companies are located on the same floor, and some had no staff at their counters. AVIS had the longest line, which we didn’t expect. After waiting for half an hour, it was our turn. The procedure was normal. The clerk asked if we needed an SUV and how many people and luggage we had, then gave us a Jeep Cherokee. I asked if it was the Grand Cherokee, and he said yes. When we went to pick up the car, we realized the model was much smaller than what we booked. We called the rental company several times but they needed time to process it. Eventually, we went back to the counter, by then the male clerk had gone off duty and we were helped by a female clerk. She admitted we were given a downgraded car and offered a full tank of gas as compensation, which didn't matter much as gas is cheap in the US. We asked for the price difference, and she printed out the receipt showing a difference of $220. It was clear we were downgraded without any notice. After confirming the downgraded price, we took the car since they didn't have the same class available. This whole process took us a long time and we got to our hotel very late, making this experience very unpleasant.