I wiil be staying in San Francisco for few days and plan to travel down the coast via highway 1 to Los Angeles. Where is the best S.F. location to pick up a rental car so that we can get on the highway with the fewest traffic problems.
Thanks,
Fred

At SFO, the air train takes you to the car rental area - I believe that all of the rental companies are in the same complex.
I used it for Hertz several weeks ago and found it to be easy. The train is free and stops at all terminals and a couple of street locations( I think this was for long term parkers). You access the air train after baggage claim....I found this a little confusing but there were plenty of folks there who knew where to go.
When you exit the rental complex, it's very well marked. I needed 101 and was able to get right on it without a hassle.
Hertz gave me a complimentary "talking GPS" ( Neverlost) and I found this to be a huge help in an area where I was not familiar with the roads....it's also fun to use!I believe that costs about $6.00 per day if you order it.

Most agencies have places near Union Square and some have them around Fisherman's Wharf. Neither should be a problem as they give you simple directions to go out a major street or two to get onto the freeway and head south. The only difficulty is some of them won't allow one way rentals from their downtown locations.

As Patrick notes almost all rental agencies have locations in town. I've used several, usualy from the Union Square area locations, and have never been told I could not do a one way rental, just that there was a (sometimes quite significant) additional charge to do so. Traffic getting out of town is not that big a deal, quite honestly. It's once you get on the freeways that things can get hairy. IMHO, you'd spend more time getting to and out of the airport than it would be worth.

Thanks for your help! That will also help me decide which hotel to book.
Fred