Cheap Car Hire in Burbank

I reserved 4 days out for a Lexus RX 350. I selected Budget as the website reported having Lexus RX 350 or equivalent. When I arrived at the location they had only 1 person at the counter with 2 ahead of me in line and it was taking far too long to process people who had reservations. At this point the person running the Avis station started handling my reservation. I gave him my name and drivers licenses #. Sooner he told me they didn’t have much available and all the cars he gave me as an option did not come close to the car I reserved. We finally wrote up me taking a Jeep Wrangler with the understanding that if I felt it would not meet my needs I would come back to counter. The car did not meet my needs so I returned. At this point I was very unhappy to have reserved for a certain car and they did not have it. At this point the agent told me I had not reserved a certain car. After back a forth I pulled up my reservation showing the car I had reserved and at this point the agent realized he had processed me under somebody else’s reservation. Now he realized I had reserved a luxury SUV but they had no luxury SUV to rent. He continued to call the garage and found a new Ford Edge they could clean and make available for me. After being there for now an hour ( both waiting in line and back and forth for the reservation process) I took the car as I needed to get on my way. Bottom line I paid for a Lexus RX 350 or equivalent and got a Ford Edge which is not equivalent to a Lexus RX 350.

Great value. Great car. Great service experience.

They did not have the vehicle I had reserved and tried to rent me a very different vehicle for more money. When I returned to complain, the found a vehicle that I needed. Overall rental took two hours.

This was a horrible experience I reserved my SUV online. My daughter flew into LAX and I drove to Burbank Airport to pick up the rental. I arrived at the counter and they told me they had no more SUV’s that size . This complete messed up out plans. We were supposed to pick up some of my daughters art works and drive them up to Norcal. This completely messed up our plans. I was never able to find an SUV to rent and had to rent a Uhaul. Why would Avis say a vehicle is available and then drive an hour to pick it up and they tell me they have none of those vehicles. Horrible experience and horrible company. I will never use AVIS again.

There was not an area for me to drive my personal vehicle to the pick up area. Also, the customer service desk was in a completely different floor from where I drove up. There was a desk there but they said they could only help members and would not help me even though they did not have any customers. Then when I returned in the vehicle, I was charged a different amount than I was quoted. Fortunately I caught this once I got home and then had to call customer service to get this fixed.

Travelers be warned this is NOT at the airport. I needed to catch an UBER to drive the three miles away, and this was a challenge - this is too short of a trip to be worth it for the drivers… that it took nearly an hour to be have my ride accepted and paired with a driver. Once at the rental facility, I waited for an additional hour in line while the two employees scrambled to find cars for people. They loudly complained about having bad cars given to them by the company, and struggling with computer errors, and let the phone ring to voicemail in another room a couple times. The customer line (and frustration) grew behind me and I was asked how long I had been waiting in the heat. The hallway area of the building does not receive any of the AC coming from the office desk. This was rough during 105 F heat. I finally received attention at the front desk and obtained my prepaid EV vehicle - on the warning that they hadn’t charged or cleaned the vehicle - but also this wasn’t their fault, blah blah blah…. I was annoyed enough to get the heck out of there ASAP regardless of what they handed to me. The car had food crumbs, food stains, and human hair throughout and a less than 40% battery. This was enough to get to a quick-charging station at a Target where I purchased car cleaning wipes and cleaned the car myself. I extended my rental a few more days online and that was super slick and easy. I wish the ease of online booking and payment matched the experience in person. Oh well.

No debit card allowed for 1 way trips

Total rip-off! For our drive back to San Francisco, we rented a car for 5 days. The make and size of the car was unimportant to us, which is why we chose a "Supplier‘s Choice". However, we wanted a gasoline car and NOT an electric car. So we transferred a deposit of $180 before the trip (in the confirmation email we just had to pay a pick-up balance of $85.13). When picking up we had our big surprise. According to Thrifty, we have selected a Manger Special, behind it is an electric car that is not apparent to a renter. Only a „C“ in the Car Rental Confirmation Number that is the evident according to Thrifty employees. An upgrade to a gasoline car cost us $30/day (cheapest option, initially the employee wanted to sell us an SUV for $65/day). In addition, we had to book an insurance, otherwise we would not have gotten the car (additional 125$), although we are already sufficiently insured in Germany. For the rental car that we had previously rented with friends, this was not necessary. After we were already completely overcharged, we accepted a „Vehicle license fee“ of 7.65$, but totally unnecessary for the highway 1 drive back to San Francisco (what he know already by our discussions). The whole thing cost us then 470.37$ (instead of 85.13$). We won‘t accept it, but we had no other choice as we booked already the entire trip back to San Francisco! Never again will we rent a car through KAYAK or Thrifty. Note at the end: The employee only meant that many fall for this trick and end up accepting an expensive upgrade!

Fine, no issues, should be asked if you want an electric vehicle if travelling long distance, as we would have opted for a standard vehicle as we lost time in stopping and charging that wasn’t accounted for in our trip