EastBayer

Has anyone had an experience, good or bad, renting a car from Dollar? We plan to get a Suzuki Grand Vitara 4-wheel drive at the San Jose airport and their quote is better (slightly) than Tricolor. Any advice?

qwovadis

Tricolor better local service for me...

might also have a look at Vamos good local

sometimes cheaper...

EastBayer

Thanks qv for your advice

mdn

Take a look at Mapache as well. We rented from there last month and were really happy we used them.

flycatcher06

The only thing with Tricolor is they take a $1250. deposit right off the bat and it takes about a week to get it back once you get home. We were traveling on really tight budget and they put it through on a different credit card than we wanted to use for the car o thi put a dent in our vacation!!!

EastBayer

Thanks too, mdn and flycatcher. That was a big deposit--is that unusual? I've been hesitating to make a decision for days--my husband says just do it, but we've had problems (mostly being overcharged) with every rental we've made in the south of France, and we speak French but not Spanish. Anyway, it's helpful to know your experiences.

shillmac

We've never had the $1250 charged to our account. That voucher is always torn up in front of us upon return of the vehicle. Renting from Tricolor has been a positive experience for us for years, and we've not found anyone to beat their prices. Had good luck with Dollar once or twice in the beginning as well, but much prefer the location of the Tricolor office, closer to the airport.

flycatcher06

If you ask up front they will tell you what the deposit is. If you were traveling with a large limit on your credit card you may not even notice it but we were not so it was immediately noticeable. I did not mean to imply that they did not return the deposit - they alway have but it takes about 1 week after you return the car. If you click on my name you will see last Spring i raised this issue and someone had told me of another company that does not take as large a deposit.

shillmac

flycatcher, I do remember your post. We've just never had this deposit actually billed to our account so that it had to be removed. They just hold the signed credit card voucher until we return the card; then they tear it up. We've rented from them so many times with this same procedure, I'm wondering if maybe someone new was working on your rental and perhaps made an error.

flycatcher06

It was the Liberia off office all three times but why i want people to know is because I had our money divided between 3 credit cards and since i made the reservation in summer and we went in March he used the credit card number i had given him in March which is where i had put our last 2 hotel payments so it really screwed us up and he would not use the other card. Even when they hold it it comes off your limit.
So I am not preaching against Tricolor I am just trying to make aware because I am sure we are not the only ones flying by the seat of our pants!!!