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During my stay in San Francisco, I needed a rental car just for the day. As I was staying downtown, I wanted to rent just for the day and return it at night as I didn’t want to pay the outrageous parking fees in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it was also Thanksgiving Day and the rental car locations I could find near my hotel were all closed because of the holiday. That moment I thought about Silvercar and wondered if they have still a station in the San Francisco area but all of a sudden when I searched for the Silvercar app on my phone, I only found the Audi on demand app on my phone and I knew I never installed that app. After a quick check of www.silvercar.com it was obvious. Silvercar is gone. I called the Audi on demand hotline I found online and talked to a super nice agent. She told me what happened…
The actual Audi on demand service which was available in San Francisco as well shut down completely. The wonderful thing about Audi on demand was that they had a drop off service and would bring the car to your location where you want to start the rental. Saves you time to go to an actual rental location.
History
Way back there was Silvercar, a company based in Austin, TX which started to rent only silver Audi A4s. It was a great concept as you got a premium vehicle, and you always got a premium vehicle. The cars came with a lot of extras and even tolling was no rip-off like rental car agencies still do today. You literally only paid for the toll fees you accrued during your rental. No service fee or other BS-surcharges to make money of it.
As the company grew, they added more cars and more rental locations. Silvercar expanded to more airport locations and even locations in cities.
Besides growing to more locations, they also added more car models. Soon you were able to get one of Audi’s SUVs, the Q5 and many more models followed.
I have written about Silvercar a lot on this blog. Every now and then, I rented from Silvercar in multiple locations and always had a pleasant experience.
Then early 2017 came around and Audi acquired Silvercar. When I wrote about the acquisition, I already guessed if Audi will just dissolve Silvercar into their Audi on demand service. Because it makes no sense for a company to run two services offering pretty much identical service.
Audi rebranded the service quickly as Silvercar by Audi. A name change I didn’t like. But hey, Audi owns it, they can do whatever they please with the name.
While under the Audi umbrella, Silvercar kept expanding to new markets and even offered a broader car selection. More and more models were added to the rental fleet. Silvercar also started to offer drop off and pick up service for their cars in 2019. The idea was great, as you can just get in your rental car outside of your house, hotel or apartment and don’t have to find a way to get to a rental location.
Silvercar by Audi started to add Audi dealerships as rental locations.
Then the pandemic hit in early 2020. I am sure we all remember that time when the world stood still. Travel came to a halt and in December of 2020, Silvercar by Audi dropped all its locations, including locations at airports, except for dealership locations.
Dealerships were open to participate in the program if they wanted to. But dealerships change their minds for example the Audi Dealership in Seattle startet to participate to rent cars under the Silvercar by Audi program but later decided to not do it anymore. I have no idea what the reasons were. Maybe fees they had to pay to Audi? Not enough people using the service?
The new Status Quo
On November 5, 2022, the big switch happened. The old Audi on demand service died and Silvercar by Audi became Audi on Demand. As mentioned earlier, if you had the Silvercar app on your phone you will now see an Audi on demand app instead. Also www.silvercar.com will redirect you to the audiondemand.com website. For some reason you can still read the old Silvercar Blog before it was acquired by Audi as it is hosted on Tumblr.
Also, the rental locations shrunk. As of writing this post there are 42 locations in 14 states. It comes to no surprise that California has the most rental locations of any state, especially the greater LA area.
Besides the diminished rental locations, the car selection also shrunk. Besides the broad selection you had when it was still Silvercar by Audi, the selection is now very limited.
The following models are available to rent
- Audi e-tron® Sportback
- Audi Q7
- Audi Q5
- Audi A5 Sportback
The order above is from the most expensive to the cheapest model to rent. The e-tron Sportback usually goes for around $122/day. But prices are dynamic and depend on availability and demand.
It also seems that the e-tron Sportback is not available at every rental location.
Audi on demand Premium Rewards
With Audi on demand, you are now automatically enrolled in their rewards program – Premium Rewards. You will earn one point per $1 spent, excluding taxes and fees of course.
The good thing is there are no blackout dates, location or model restrictions with Premium Rewards. As long as they have a vehicle available you can use your points to book. Of course, there has to be a downside to it all. The points you need are based on the rental price of the car and that price is dynamic. The rental price depends on demand and availability at the location you want to rent from. A free rental day starts at 516 points which is based on a $49 rental rate of the car. If the rate goes up, the amount of points you need for a free rental day goes up as well.
Coupon
If you are a first-time renter, you can still save 15% on your first short term rental with the coupon code “FIRST15“.
Conclusion
In March of 2022, I speculated if Silvercar by Audi will cease to exist. Well, I was kind of right as Silvercar is now Audi on demand. But it’s not just a name change. As mentioned above, they also reduced the selection of models available to rent. On the upside, it is still a pretty good selection of cars, and it will probably cover the needs of everyone actually going to an Audi dealership to rent a car.
I don’t know how long this will be sustainable for Audi. It cuts out basically most of the business travelers as there is no airport location anymore. It used to be great for business and leisure travelers when the head locations in downtown of major cities. This would be great if you wanted to save on parking costs and just needed a car for the day or a few hours. That is not an option anymore either in most locations as you must travel now to a dealership located outside of the downtown area.
[Images courtesy of Audi]
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.
