Tips on Renting a Car in the Bay Area?

If your friends are flying in to Oakland Airport, I highly recommend Fox Car Rental. Their prices are much less than all the others, they do have occasional promotions and all-week deals, and there is a shuttle from the terminal.

If they use Fox, ask for a Doge Caliber. They'll try to give you a PT Cruiser in that class, and that car will NEVER make it up the hills to Yosemite. The Caliber was impressive - got me over the Grapevine in the fast lane - and had better gas mileage than anything else its size.

If you have a Costco membership, check out their website. They have special rates with the top car rental companies and I've secured great deals for our past few deals and recently secured a great deal for cars for our upcoming vacation in August (their prices were better than hotwire.com, etc.).

I have two local places I like. Enterprise has always treated me well. Including once getting me picked up and into a rental car in about 15 minutes flat when I had a breakdown and had to pick up my daughter after dark, outside a building that would be closing behind her. So I have a spot spot for them.
Also I have rented cars from Rent A Relic, who have always been pleasant and easy to deal with. They are cheaper than Enterprise, but some of their cars are a bit bare bones.
If you could check out exactly which car you would be getting, it might be okay.
(And I like that they are actually a local company.)

I've used Priceline.com to bid on a car rental and that has gotten me the best deals. They use the top rental agencies (Hertz, Alamo, Budget, National, Avis) so you get good service with any of them. Just know that once you put your bid in, if they accept it, your credit card will be charged and there are no refunds. Sounds a bit risky, but if you know your dates for sure and want a great deal, then Priceline.com is great. I've used it many times for hotels and a couple of times for car rentals and have saved at least 30 - 40% (don't use them for air flights though, you can end up flying all day to get to your destination).

Hope it works out.
L.