Acar Rent-A-Car

Steve is a great guy. I rented a car from him for 10 days while my car was in the shop, and his business practices and customer service skills are some of the best. However, I have a huge problem with the fleet of cars he has.
1. The fleet is quite frankly, very old and outdated. I was offered two cars by Steve. The first one and the one I stuck with was a 2000 Toyota Camry, pretty close to base model. It had just a hair under 200,000 miles, and I believe every exterior panel had some damage to it. The headlights were hazed up. The check engine light was on. The height adjustment knob for the drivers seat was broken, and so the seat was stuck in a position slightly lower than what I was comfortable with. The windshield wipers made annoying noise when running. The brakes squeaked and felt rough when coming to a stop. The AC made a horrible noise whenever turned on (thank god it’s November).
I was also offered what appeared to be a 1999 Toyota Corolla. Literally the only automatic/​power feature offered on the car was an automatic transmission. Everything else was manual or crank.
Now I’m all for a cheap econo car when I’m just trying to get a cheap rental, but at the least, I would’ve expected something from 2004 or newer and not as beat up. The only nice thing about the Camry I rented is that it started up and drove without problems. But beyond that, I did not enjoy driving the Camry at all. I honestly don’t know if he was giving me the cheapest cars he had because I’m 18, or if his entire fleet is like that. But I was disappointed that I paid for a car that was in worse condition than my own.
The only thing Steve has going for versus other places is price. He is pretty significantly cheaper than Enterprise and Hertz. There’s no underage fees, and no security hold on your credit card. For 5 days, it was about $ 160 to rent the shitbox Camry. Compare that to the almost $ 560 it cost to rent a Toyota Venza for a week with Flightcar (including the security hold), and it seems like a huge bargain. But then again, the Venza I rented was a lot bigger, nicer, smoother, and had very few problems. And if I’m paying to drive a car that isn’t mine, I’ll pay extra for the car that’s newer and has less issues.

Steve was super communicative and rented me a reliable car. I spent a month roadtripping from San Francisco up to Seattle and then back, driving over 4000 miles. Encountered 0 mechanical problems with the car. No under 25 fee; great for those on a student budget.

I called to schedule a rental on a Friday afternoon for a Monday pick up, but the guy couldn’t check at that time — apparently he was on another call. He said he’d take me number and call me back. That never happened. So I called again on Monday. He didn’t have any cars. Not surprised.
I tried again a month later and got the same response. So I just went to Enterprise via their web site and got what I needed for a couple days while my car was in the shop. I get that he probably not setup to do short term rentals. Rather than saying «I’ll take your number and call you back» and not doing that, he should follow up on the call and at least say «I don’t have anything until next Wednesday.»
I won’t even bother calling him next time. Let the out of towners who need wheels for extended times.

I’m sure that this place is as great as the other users have noted, but I wanted to make a note that I *wasn’t* able to reserve a car with less than a few day’s notice, due to unavailability of its entire fleet. (I don’t know if that’s standard for the car rental industry but being small-​scale can’t help.)

When I was looking to rent a car in the Bay Area for 4 months, Acar had exactly what I needed. The long-​term rental prices for all of the major chains are astronomical compared to Acar. When I talked to Steve, he was helpful and accommodating. Although the Toyota Corolla I rented from Acar was definitely older than what I would probably have gotten with a chain company, it was in decent condition and met my needs just fine. When I needed to keep the car for longer than I had initially expected, I was easily able to get in touch with Steve and extend my rental over the phone. Later, when I returned the car about a week before my final month ended, Steve paid me back the pro-​rated cost of that remaining week. Acar is honest, flexible, and affordable — the perfect combination for anyone looking for a long-​term rental on a budget.

The service is excellent, however, one is renting a car not a customer service person. The quality of the cars are abysmal. They all have dents and have over 125k (and at least 10 years old) miles on them. This is fine if you are a high school kid or a college student but if you are a working adult it might not be acceptable. Only a small price differential with corporate rental car companies. As i picked up the rental I did feel like i was ready for a demolition derby. :)

I came out to Palo Alto for a fall internship and rented a Camry from Steve at ACAR from August to December.
My rental experience was nothing less than outstanding — the car, the pricing, and the over-​the-​top customer service were fantastic. Steve was always available and had no problems with returning the car during the morning on a weekend — talk about putting the customer first!
I would definitely rent another car from Steve on my next trip to the Bay Area over any other rental service, and would recommend anyone to do the same.

Steve’s got some cars sitting around next to Meissner Automotive and would be happy to loan you one for a lot less than the national chains. How can he do this? Overhead is low– this is a small, local business. He’s very friendly, professional, and allows after-​hours returns. If I have to rent a car in the South Bay again, I’m calling Acar!
By the way, reviews for Meissner Automotive are great, so if they can fit you in, you can have a rental right next door for the time it takes to repair your car. That’s synergy, folks!

I needed a van for six people when my family came to town for 4^th of July, but the major rental companies were asking $ 700+ for the week.
Steve hooked me up with a very clean, well maintained Grand Caravan for about $ 250. He called to confirm the reservation and we agreed on times to pick up and drop off the car.
I can definitely recommend ACar.

I have rented cars from Steve several times. Always great service and great prices. No fuss renting. Always able to work with my schedule. Thank you Steve.

My husband and I needed a long term car rental, but we needed it to be 4-​wheel drive because we would be commuting between San Francisco and Tahoe over a 4 month period the winter. Little did we know that renting a 4WD car is actually very difficult and expensive.
Steve at Acar rent-​a-​car rented us a Subaru in great shape with less than 100K miles on it for a rate that was half that of the other places we looked. The car was clean inside and out, and maintained very well. Steve was lovely and accommodating, checking the oil and washer fluid each month as I brought it in to extend my rental. We were blown away by the care and consideration he gave us, he definitely went the extra mile to win us over.
If you want a long term rental car, this is the best place I have found in the entire bay area — we traveled from San Francisco to Palo Alto to rent the car. I would rent from him again should we have a need for a car over a period of a month of more, and I would definitely recommend his services for any business or individual that needs a car for a month or more.

I arrived in San Jose, under 25, tired, and in need of a rental car. I decided that with the help of the internet (purchased from the airport for $ 8) I could definitely beat the prices offered by the name brand companies. Especially since they had insane surcharges for people under 25.
After about 30 minutes of searching I came across A-​Acar. I can tell you one thing, it is hard as hell to find these guys on the internet. They need SEO or something because, I had to work pretty hard to find them.
In any case, Steve picked me up from the airport, and rented me a car for roughly half of what enterprise wanted. If you are budget conscious I would highly recommend checking out A-​Car, especially if you are under 25 and in the bay area for an internship without a corporate subsidy.
(Though ACAR’s rates start at around $ 120 a week, not too shabby)
The car was in good condition, and worked fine, it was an older model toyota corolla (not listed on the website as an option, it might be wise to ask about the availability of other cars.) Service was great, all and all a good experience.
I will say that it seems to be a pretty small shop, so if you don’t like personal service, (that may be fallible) your better off going with a big corporate car rental company, but if you are cool with supporting local old economy business, give these guys a call.