Luxury SUV Rental in Los Angeles

Why the SUV shelf is the largest here

Thirty-two vehicles, more than the other three body styles put together. The reason is geography rather than fashion. Los Angeles is a city of private driveways with a lip at the kerb, canyon roads with a crown down the middle, unpaved last miles above Malibu, and a speed hump in every residential street in the Hills. An SUV takes all of that without being thought about. Anything low spends the week being walked over things.

The second reason is people and luggage. Four adults with four large cases do not fit in a saloon and do fit in a Volkswagen Atlas. Five models here have a third row an adult will sit in: the Atlas, the Lexus TX, the Chevrolet Traverse, the Ford Explorer and the Nissan Pathfinder. That is the difference between one run from the airport and two.

The honest cost of the shape. A full-size SUV will not clear the six-foot-eight sign posted at the mouth of a good many older parking structures downtown and in Westwood, it rolls where something lower would not, and it drinks. If the week is two people and a good road, one of the lower shelves will suit it better.

Choosing among thirty-two SUVs

The range runs further than anywhere else on the site. At one end the BMW X1, the Volkswagen Tiguan and the Mercedes GLA: small, simple to park, cheap enough by the day that a fortnight is not an extravagance. In the middle sit the ones most guests actually take, which are the BMW X5, the Mercedes GLC, the Porsche Macan, the Range Rover Sport.

At the top are the ones chosen for the badge rather than the boot: Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Bentley Bentayga, Maybach GLS 600, Lamborghini Urus, and the two square Mercedes, the G 550 and the AMG G 63. Beside them sits one honest four-wheel drive, the Jeep Wrangler, whose roof panels come off by hand and whose last mile can be sand.

Six or seven seats, and what fits behind them

The seat counts, which the grid itself does not carry. The Lexus TX is six seats across three rows, on captain’s chairs rather than a bench, at $159 a day. The Volkswagen Atlas, Chevrolet Traverse, Ford Explorer and Nissan Pathfinder put seven or eight belts on a bench second row, at $114, $114, $114 and $114 a day in that order. Those five are the whole of the third row here.

So if there are six of you, that list is the whole of the choice. The ones taken for the badge — the Cullinan, the Bentayga, the Maybach GLS 600, the Urus and both square Mercedes — are five-seat vehicles, and six people do not fit in any of them. The TX is the only model on this shelf that seats six and is also a premium one.

Seven belts is not seven suitcases. With the third row upright what is left behind it is a shelf, so seven people with a full-size case each is the Kia Carnival at $114 a day or the Honda Odyssey at $114, whose load floor drops between the rear wheels instead of sitting on top of them; above eight it is the Mercedes Sprinter at $399, which is listed at twelve seats. The seating capacity guide sets the certified counts against what actually fits.

Any of them goes to LAX for a fee, priced each way and in two tiers: $75 leaves the vehicle in the airport parking structure and you ride the free shuttle out to it, $150 brings it to the terminal with somebody standing beside it.

And the difference from a counter rental is what you are choosing. There you book a category and take whatever is in the bay; here you book a named model in a named colour, and it is delivered to the address you give.

Booking an SUV in Los Angeles

An SUV rental in Los Angeles starts at twenty-four hours and runs to a month. Rates by day, week and month sit on each model’s page and on the rates page, with a refundable deposit taken at handover. Delivery goes to a hotel, a residence or an office anywhere in Los Angeles, CA, and is complimentary at our partner hotels in Beverly Hills. Drivers must be 21 with two years of licence history, a young-driver fee applies between 21 and 25, and you carry your own full-coverage insurance or take one of our daily plans.

One more thing worth raising early, because it is what this shelf gets asked after the head count. Nevada and Arizona are open to part of the fleet with notice, which is what makes an SUV the shape people rent for a drive to the mountains rather than around town. The FAQ covers it.

I am visiting from Canada and have no US credit history. Can I still rent an SUV?

Yes. What is needed is a major credit card in the primary renter’s name — foreign-issued is fine, and no US credit history is checked — a passport alongside your home-country licence, and cover for the vehicle. We do not require an International Driving Permit. The refundable deposit on this shelf is $350 on the Nissan Pathfinder, the Chevrolet Traverse and the Ford Explorer, held against the card for the length of the rental and released after the car is back. Insurance is either your own full-coverage policy, if it covers the replacement value, or our daily cover arranged with the booking.

Six of us are visiting Los Angeles — which luxury SUV takes six?

The Lexus TX at $159 a day, which is the one on this shelf built for exactly that: three rows and six seats, with boot space behind the third row rather than in front of it. It sits in the $500 deposit band, so the damage-and-liability cover is $75 a day, and delivery is complimentary at our Robertson Boulevard lot and the four Beverly Hills partner hotels. For six people who want the badge rather than the seats, the five-seat SUVs higher up this page are the other direction — but they are five seats, and a sixth person is not a squeeze, it is a second car.

We are a family of seven flying into LA — do you rent seven-seaters?

The three-row cars on this shelf are the Ford Explorer, the Chevrolet Traverse, the Volkswagen Atlas, the Nissan Pathfinder and the Lexus TX, from $114 a day. Row-three seat counts vary by the exact trim of the car we hold, so we confirm the seats for your specific car and dates in writing before you book rather than printing a number here that might not be the car that turns up. If seven is firm and the luggage is real, the Mercedes Sprinter at $399 a day is the honest answer — it takes the party and the cases in one vehicle instead of splitting you across two SUVs. Either way we meet the flight: send the flight number and the handover is timed to the aircraft that lands rather than the one on the schedule.