Cheap Car Rentals in Los Angeles

We had booked a luxury car online, but when we got there we found out we were too young, so we were downgraded to a different car. Despite that, we had to pay the price for the luxury vehicle. That is not even the worst part. The amount that we were charged for the car was double the amount that was quoted on the reservation. The "compensate", we were told we didn't have to fill the gas tank when we dropped it off. This did not drop the rate even near what we were promised. The car itself was fine and we were on our way. We then come back to drop the car off and are having it checked out. A scratch was found on the car that we are clueless as to where it came from. I'm assuming we are going to receive additional charges for that, but I guess I'll wait and see. Overall a sloppy, unforgettable experience.

Not the right car size rip off to upgrade to the size booked.

Booked size of car was not given.

My wife and I flew into LAX, and I had booked a reservation through Midway for a 9pm vehicle pickup. After arriving at their designated shuttle location, we soon realized that something was wrong as more travelers began to mention that Midway actually CLOSES at 9pm; this explained why there wasn't a shuttle. In the spirit of perseverance, my wife and I walked several blocks to the car rental site itself, with the doors closed, and the associate telling us through the glass door that they were out of cars. This was my first trip post-pandemic, so the assumption is that there is still a severe lack of rental cars through these agencies. Shameless plug: we ended up renting from Turo.com, where the host met us and dropped off the car for us at 12:30am (all popular rental agencies like Hertz, Budget, etc. were out of cars), and it was an excellent experience. I wish the reservation app for reserving the car hadn't allowed for the "false-security" and misinformation that for one, that the vehicle was reserved, and secondly, that the rental hours were "accurate".

I had to walk 20 min from the airport to the car rental place, dragging my luggage, because there was no shuttle. Then I had to wait in line for 10-15 min with two desk workers and one client in front of me casually having a conversation. Then I was told the place doesn’t take debit cards. I don’t travel with credit cards. So I was told I couldn’t rent a car from them. “Company policy” in told. I was not warned when I made the reservation. They wouldn’t take a credit card number my husband called in. Is this even 2022??? I was then told to walk another 10 min to a Budget to rent a car there, again, dragging my suitcase. All this happened while I was in a hurry to get to my destination, where I was to give a conference talk. This was the worst experience ever.

We had a short term need for a car and Midway was not able to supply a car (as per the booking) in the time scale we had. With double shuttles and long waits for both and then nearly two hours waiting at the checking desk. We were forced to cancel the booking. We were most disappointed that we could not make use of our last day in Los Angeles. To make it worse we were told that they could not refund the collision damage insurance even though we did not and could not use it. I have been put off using both Kayak and Midway for future vacations. I have used hire cars extensively in Europe and have never in 30 years of business travel had this sort of treatment - BUYER BEWARE.

Shuttle driver very nice/professional. Thrifty representative very friendly and helpful. Quick & easy to get vehicle and to return.

The pickup process was extremely slow.

Easy fast, just a short wait in line, and drop off was so fast.