Car rental taxes & surcharges in CA

[f-LORI-da]

I'm a WDW vet, but this is my first trip to DL. I've never been to the west coast, let alone CA, so I am clearly out of my element

I've been pricing car rentals online, and my question is:
are there really no surcharges, etc. added in CA?

The only additional charge applied to the base rate is the CA sales tax. What? No airport concession fee, etc. etc.?

Is this for real, or is there some clause in CA where they do not have to quote those addional fees before hand, and I will be unpleasantly surprised when I go to pick up the car, and they are added later?

Please help, so that I won't be Confused in California

 

[kimkatmom]

We live in the Napa Valley -- so, I don't believe there are any surcharges in CA. We actually were surprised that there was a surcharge when we were in in FL in May/June of this year.

Are you sure you want to rent a car? Do you really need one? The traffic in So.Cal is so bad -- you just won't believe it. You might want to rethink this. What are your plans?

 

[chocolatelover]

No surcharges. I use Enterprise every time since they offer 15 percent off at airports with coupons. I come out of Los Angeles airport, not John Wayne airport. I use my own car insurance always, just turn down the insurance. The cost for my rental for this time coming up will be from Thursday - Sunday for 49.59. Details from my email: (They have upgraded my car the last 3 times I've visited at no charge)
Car and Rate Information:
Compact
Dodge Neon or similar
$45.81 (Daily 3 Days @ 15.27)

$45.81 (Subtotal)

$3.78 (SALES TAX)

Total charges $49.59

 

[tycopj]

We rented a car once in California, I don't remember about the surcharges, but we HATED the traffic. It was horrible....but....we are going to rent a car again. We want to drive from Disneyland to San Diego to visit some friends. I can say it wasn't that bad because my DH drove I would say if you are staying at Disneyland and not planning on doing anything other than the park, then you don't need a car.

I will also be unpleasantly surprised if our rental car is more than the quote

 

[Buttercup26]

Just rented from Dollar at the San Jose airport and all I paid was sales tax and a $5 'transportation fee'. No additional fees or surcharges.

 

[chocolatelover]

Originally posted by tycopj
We rented a car once in California, I don't remember about the surcharges, but we HATED the traffic. It was horrible....but....we are going to rent a car again. We want to drive from Disneyland to San Diego to visit some friends. I can say it wasn't that bad because my DH drove I would say if you are staying at Disneyland and not planning on doing anything other than the park, then you don't need a car.

I will also be unpleasantly surprised if our rental car is more than the quote

I've rented from Enterprise each time I've gone for the last two years and always get what I am quoted. They pick up from airport and I always get directions at home from mapquest to destinations we want to visit. Never had a problem. Los Angeles always has traffic but it is not much better here in NJ on the highways.

 

[f-LORI-da]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Wow! Car rentals in CA are cheap compared to FL
I still can't believe the quote I got. All those surcharges sure make a difference.

I have rethunk my decision to rent a car, however. Since this is our 1st trip to CA and we will only be visiting DL, I think we'll hire a town car instead.

Next time, if we decide to add a west coast beach vacation to our plans, we'll rent a car then

Thanks again for everyone's help in making my decision. Now if only I could get such a cheap car rental rate in FL, lol!

 

[jlmarr]

Originally posted by tycopj
We rented a car once in California, I don't remember about the surcharges, but we HATED the traffic. It was horrible....but....we are going to rent a car again. We want to drive from Disneyland to San Diego to visit some friends.

IMO, the traffic heading to San Diego is pretty awful, even compared to LA and Orange County traffic. I'd say think seriously about taking Amtrak. The Anaheim and Fullerton stations aren't very far from the DL area, so would be a low cost taxi ride. The next issue of course is finding out if your friends will pick you up at the downtown Amtrak station.