Silvercar is one of my the rental car services I love a lot. It’s simple and straight forward with great customer experience. Everything is digital and you don’t have to worry about a humongous amount of paperwork before or after the rental. Check out my review of my experience in San Francisco. Silvercar was founded in 2012 and lets you take complete control of your rental with your smartphone. You actually need your smartphone to start the rental. If yours is dead at the time of arrival, Silvercar will loan you one to get your rental initiated and the car unlocked. So make sure you always know your login credentials.
Yesterday I received the news that Silvercar has entered an agreement to be acquired by Audi. Silvercar’s complete fleet are mainly Audi A4 cars. Audi has already invested in Silvercar and is now taking it over completely.
Let’s see what happens. Audi has already a car rental service called Audi on demand. As far as I know it’s only available in San Francisco right now. I never used them, because the prices are a little bit too high. Will they dissolve Silvercar and rebrand it as Audi on demand? Will Silvercar live on? We don’t know yet.
Audi and Silvercar expect approval by applicable regulatory authorities with the transaction concluding in the first half of 2017.
I haven’t rented to often with Silvercar but every time I enjoyed my time with an Audi A4. However, Silvercar made a mistake with some of their models. They had neither backup sensors or camera which is a standard nowadays. They fixed this with the newer model year cars but the old once are still in the fleet.
Silvercar had a lot of extras for which you got overcharged with conventional rental car outfits.
- Free GPS Navigation
- Free WiFi Hotspot build in
- Only real toll fees. (In San Francisco the cars are equipped with a FasTrak transponder and you only pay for the tolls you would pay if you had your own transponder. No daily fee for the transponder itself or using overpriced cash rates instead of the toll by tag rate.)
- Free Satellite Radio
If you are an Audi owner you can get a free day (minimum 2-day rental) or two days (minimum 4-day rental) off with your myAudi account. I still have a coupon with a view free rental days I never used. If you have one too, make sure you use it soon. Who knows what they will do once the deal gets approved.
The future will show us what Audi is doing with this service. So what do you think about the takeover? Are you excited or worried? It’s not always good when a big corporation takes over a small business.
Just in case you want to give Silvercar a try, please consider using my referral code. This will give you and me $25 after you completed your first rental.
Read more about it on the Silvercar Blog or Audi Press Release.
And no, this is not an April Fools Day Hoax!
Peter has a passion for Traveling, Photography, and Geocaching. These are the best ingredients for amazing adventures all over the globe. “Traveling is fun, no matter if you stay in a luxury hotel or travel like a backpacker.” Peter shares his experiences on his Blog www.gatetoadventures.com
Some of Peter’s photos are published on corporate websites, in-flight magazines, travel guides, and much more.