Is this the premier car rental place that is reputable? We are in need of a vehicle by the SJO airport .

Yep, great service!! No problemos

We used them at the Liberia airport, great service, no problems at all, exact rate as quoted which included all insurance with no last minute fees.

numero uno in CR above

I agree with the others. Made reservation on line and only problem I had was they "forced" me to take an upgrade at the same price. They picked us up at the hotel and picked the car up upon our return.

We've used them twice from San Jose and never had a problem. Very easy to work with. Online (email) quoted price was exact price with no additional fees.

We'd use them again - absolutely.

They gave us a really crappy car. I mean, so crappy that we didn't know if it was going to make it to Arenal and back. Had dents and such all over which we made sure were marked on our checkout sheet; however, there were almost too many to track. When we dropped the car off, they tried to tell us we damaged the front grill of the car and were going to charge us which was a joke if you had seen the car. Luckily, we had insurance thru our Capital One Visa and they reimbursed us for the amount - it ended up being only $50. In retrospect, we should have just asked for a better car and been more diligent I suppose about marking the damages (but there were just so many!).

That said, I'm sure they were just doing their job (or thought they were). Customer service reserving and checking in was good. They even let us use the phone when we checked in to call our credit card company (who we called before we left to tell them we would be using the card in Costa Rica!). They pick you up right at the airport and drop you off, and their rates were far better than anything else I found.

I am in the process of planning my trip to Costa Rica in August. I have been emailing many car rental companies in CR. The 3 main one's are Tri Color, Colones, and Wild Rider.

Tri Color has by far had the worst communication. They are not very good at answering questions and replying to emails. Not too friendly either. I have seen quite a few people mention this on the boards as well. Colones has had the best and friendliest communication with Wild Rider being a close second.

It seems like many people have experienced Tri Color's lack of communication, but I guess/hope they make up for it in all other areas since I am still going to be using them due to overwhelming support.

When communicating with TriColor, shillmac gave me a tip - put attn: Cynthia Segura in the subject line and she always answers quickly. It worked for us last year when we rented with them out of Liberia, although I believe Cynthia works in the San Jose office.

We lost part of the tailpipe going up the road to Monteverde, wired it back on, no trouble or charge when we turned the car in.

Other people have suggested photographing all the damage on rental cars before leaving so you have proof of existing damage.

Thanks Colibri. I have directed all of my emails to Cynthia.

colibri - Yes, photos! I think I posted in my trip report that i wish we had done that. Good reminder.

I would also make sure the hubcaps or plastic covers are secured on with those plastic ties since they can easily come off, especially when driving the road to AOL! We lost one of the cheap plastic covers and you would have thought we lost a gold-plated hubcap when they were assessing the "damage".