Nextcar Reviews 

Hidden fees. Deceptive upselling. Terrible vehicle maintenance. The vehicle itself had an oil change light on from the first; it also had a rattling heat shield so loud you could hear it from a block away. We were told they could either accept the credit card insurance or my personal insurance, but not both, which is absurd, since they are redundant not exclusive policies; if I hadn't carried proof of collision, we would have been forced to buy theirs. We were told we would not be able to avoid toll roads and should pay the ridiculous per diem toll fee rather than the even more ridiculous charge that would be applied afterwards (but we knew the city). We were told it would take a month to refund the deposit to our cc unless we left a good review right then and there. Of course we refused. The whole thing was manipulative chicanery.

FAILURE TO PERFORM: Booked a NEXTCAR rental through Orbitz. Off Airport location was difficult to get to but we got there. In line for a half hour before we were told we would not be serviced. The only person working the counter said they were not taking any more customers from me back.
Stood there flabbergasted and confused. Had to go somewhere else and rent a car.
Still trying to get a refund with Orbitz but so far Nextcar is not responding to Orbitz, And Orbitz is essentially honoring the cancellation policy as if I'm lying about not being serviced.
Nextcar cancelled my Res as if I was a no show.

Would rate it negative stars if I could. hidden fees, long wait times, poor customer service. Overall terrible experience. Cancelled reservation and lost $600, but that was better as they were trying to charge $5000 UDD. After initially saying it would cost $800. That’s 4200 difference! All because of hidden fees. They claimed they wouldn’t charge that amount and wanted us to sign anyway. So we cancelled. Stay away from this company if possible. Use a reputable rental car company.

I book a nextCar rental service in Orlando, FL and that's the worst car rental experience I’ve ever had.
1. This agency is listed as an airport location on website, but it’s not at the airport and it closes quite early.
2. They refused to accept the collision insurance from my credit card and tried to force me to buy their own coverage.
3. I arrived around 10 PM. While I was trying to sort out the insurance issue and making a few phone calls, the staff told me I had only five minutes or they would cancel my reservation. They didn’t wait—they actually canceled my booking.
4. I was left outside late at night with no car, no help, and nowhere nearby. The ppl here really have zero compassion.

Unfortunately my flight was delayed and I arrived to Ft. Lauderdale 2.5 hours later than planned. Once I arrived, I had an email waiting for me telling me my car reservation was cancelled. I was forced to find another car to rent and NextCar still charged me for the rental that they cancelled. After numerous phone calls where each time they told me they were looking into and did not have an answer, I finally was told three weeks later that I was considered a no show and no refund was available.

I had every intention of picking up the car had they not cancelled my reservation.

Worse company to deal with. STAY AWAY
Cars are trash, and beat up. Forceful upsale. They do not just hold $1500 on your credit card but charge it and they take over 30 days to refund you. Meanwhile you have to pay the credit card as the bill will come due within the 30 days. In other words they are making money on your credit hold charge, while you pay the credit card bill.

The girl who checked me out added to my rental agreement Road Hazard, Towing & Deduct Waiver (2) @ 14.99/day without my consent. When I asked her what is the extra $30 charge, she lied to me saying that it's in the terms and conditions that if im declining insurance it's mandatory to purchase Road Hazard, Towing & Deduct Waiver @ 14.99/day.

Upon checking your website I saw clearly that this coverage is OPTIONAL and it's not mandatory, it doesn't say anywhere in your terms and conditions that it's mandatory.

If you think that Nextcar is cheaper, it's a big mistake! They will add on additional fees so you'll end up paying much more than the national brands

In November of 2025, my family rented a mid-size SUV from a company called NextCar in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It is my understanding that NextCar is one of several brands owned or managed by an umbrella organization called Stride. While I have reason to believe that renting from other Stride brands would result in a similar experience, my specific situation involved exclusively NextCar.
First, let me acknowledge that the car itself was fine. It was not the vehicle I reserved, but it was in the same class, clean, and in decent condition.
The process of obtaining the car, however, was a nightmare that nearly ruined the first days of my family vacation. Worse yet, I saw multiple families around me experiencing the same frustration, visibly upset and defeated after a long day of travel.
The problems were serious, and there were many of them.
1) Location of the Rental Office
In Fort Lauderdale, the rental agencies under Stride operate several miles from the airport. Getting there requires two separate shuttles and some walking. The instructions are unclear, and they certainly fail to communicate how long the trip actually takes. Honestly, the better advice would have been to simply take an Uber.
Even worse, Stride agencies operate at two different off-airport locations. Our shuttle made two stops—first at Mex, then at NextCar. Families dropped at the Mex office soon discovered that it was closed, forcing them to be rerouted to the next location, where we were already waiting. This is an unacceptable and irresponsible organization!
2) Rental Office System
Inside the office, a crowd of frustrated travelers was already waiting. I initially thought I got lucky because one clerk at the counter was free. Not so. The clerks at the counter do nothing related to the rental process.
Instead, every customer is funneled into one of two oversized phone booths to speak with a remote agent via videophone.
Efficient? Absolutely not.
There are only two booths, so when the line grows, nothing can be done to accelerate the process. Each booth session takes at least 30–40 minutes on average. And based on what I saw, only about half of the customers even walk away with a car. The rest storm out—rightfully furious—and head to a reputable agency instead.
The system exists solely to save the agency money, with zero consideration for customer experience.
3) Conversation With the Remote Agent
The videophone conversation itself is painfully slow. The agent works remotely and shows no urgency whatsoever. His software was slow (he mentioned it repeatedly), he was slow, and this experience was consistent across all booths and all customers.
Why would he hurry? He cannot hear the frustrated crowd outside or see the mounting line. Whether the office is empty or overflowing, the agent has no idea—and clearly no incentive to care.
The questions and steps feel endless. After years of renting from Budget, Dollar, Alamo, and others—companies that complete the entire process in minutes—it is baffling that NextCar and its affiliates choose to operate this way.
And then comes the security deposit: on a $500 rental, they demanded $2,500. Utterly unacceptable. I watched at least two families react with shock and demand a manager, but of course, no manager was present.
Upon declining their insurance coverage, the agent demanded a copy of the declaration page from my auto insurance. Thankfully, I happened to have it on my AAA app. Many travelers will not, and will be punished for it. Outrageous.
After the exhausting ordeal, the agent flashed tiny, blurry contract text on screen and asked me to initial ten separate points rapidly. By that time, I was too tired to read anything even if I tried.
Roughly 30–40 minutes after entering the booth—and more than 90 minutes after arriving at the office—I finally received my car, only because I reluctantly accepted the absurd $2,500 security deposit. Around me, people were openly expressing frustration as their vacations unraveled before my eyes.
This was, without question, the worst rental experience I have ever had. I will warn others to avoid NextCar, Mex, and any company associated with Stride.
Finally, now that my rental has ended, I expect the immediate return of my security deposit—without any waiting period and without further delays. That is the very least your company can do after such a shameful, disorganized, and needlessly burdensome experience.

AND FOR THE LAST BIT

This review was initially written as a response to the survey received from Stride. Upon submitting the survey the response was…: “An error occurred while getting survey”. Very fitting, if you ask me.

they are thief, soon they will close their business.
i have rented a vehicle for 2 days, due to flight delay i picked up the vehicle 1 hrs late and i return the vehicle 1 hrs late which is within 2 days rental period of 48 hrs, Because i returned the vehicle 1 hrs late they forced me to pay 61$
Also they dont accept credit card insurance coverage.
they are a lot of hidden fee.

This company is a complete scam, set up to steal your driver's license and credit card information. They have no actual office, but instead you go into a sleezy building, with multiple unheard of rental car company's names on the sign. There is a small cubical, where there is a screen to speak with a live feed from Bogota, Columbia. After they scan your license and card information, they say your auto insurance is not accepted by their company, and instead of their agreed upon low rate, you will have to purchase their insurance at an extremely high rate. Well if you cancel the reservation, they still have all your personal information on file. This is a bait and switch scam, and extremely dangerous company. Stat far away.

I was treated like an animal by NextCar. You can see they have shocking reviews on Google, I got to live through the worst aspects of this company. Arrived into the airport, rang the number and asked them which terminal to go to get the transfer. The call centre agent told me the wrong terminal. I went to the new terminal and waited over an hour for the collection (despite actually meeting the transfer bus driver who ignored me the first time around). NextCar virtual agent was a disaster, was all online with no person physically there to address the way I was treated. The virtual agent was totally unsympathetic to how I was treated and gave out tired, machine-like answers as if she was reading from an answer sheet rather than treating me like a human being. It went from bad to worse when they would not accept debit card, only credit card, and eventually said they would accept debit card but would charge a debit card fee in excess of the total value of the rental just to use the debit card. They also refused to send me the rental car contract via email or print it out in the office. A very shady operation. This booking was done via Skyscanner who directed to Discover Cars who then sent to United Car Rental who then send it to NextCar. What an absolute ponzi scheme. My worst ever experience renting a car.

Good Car but shady practices.
First of all, you will be dealing with someone sitting in South America on a video call. He/She will complete your contract.
Mind you they charge $24.99 per day as an administration fee for the days you have used tolls. That is outrageous.
Do Not Rent from them.

There should be a zero. From the first call I knew it was going down hill fast. Was told a specific van would come pick us up, after 45 minutes was told a different van. After picking up the vehicle I had to fill it with gas, before making it to our hotel, the low coolant light, overheat light and check engine had come on, called and had to leave a message. The next days had to do the same thing, ended up checking and there was very little coolant in the vehicle. It was not till late afternoon before ai heard from them and ai was told to just put water in it. And not worry about the check engine light. And at my earliest convince to return the vehicle. I was three hours away and had a full weekend scheduled. I asked for money back and was denied would never recommend this horrible establishment ever.

Shady shady shady business practices.
90 minutes to rent a car that we had booked online.
We booked using a premium travel credit card with car rental insurance included and were then told that we must pay for supplemental insurance if we wanted the car.
Basically a car rental that we booked for four days at $35/day ended up costing us $400.
Avoid at all costs.
You've been warned.
Read online reviews. They are universally bad all over the place.

son unos verdaderos estafadores y ladrones, nunca se les vaya ocurrir caer en la trampa de estos hampones, se roban su plata de frente y no hay quien diga nada.

They are real swindlers and thieves; never even think about falling into the trap of these crooks. They steal your money right out in the open and nobody says a word.

Please avoid this company. They have several hidden charges that you will be unaware of until the arrive to pick up the vehicle. Your required deposit of $250 will NOT be returned when promised and probably never.
They expect you to be in a hurry to get to your next destination and agree to extra charges. SCAM!!

PLEASE AVOID this company.

I booked a car for 3 days at Nextcar Santa Rosa airport. It should have been between 350 and 400 dollars, but I ended up paying 1300 Dollars for 3 days!!!
They didnt tell me I couldn’t leave the state and charged me extra pr mile.
Terrible service, scammers!

Unless you have extra cash to give away, avoid NextCar!
This company is extremely unethical. I paid in full through Expedia, including car insurance, but NextCar refused to release the car unless I purchased additional coverages — which made the total cost far higher than what I had already paid through Expedia.

To make things worse, they charged a $500 deposit to my credit card. Even though I received an email confirming everything was cleared after returning the car, they still held my deposit for 30 days. That means they get to use our money and earn profit from it, while we pay interest on the charge.

Bottom line: Dishonest practices and poor customer service. I will never rent from NextCar again.

I had a highly unsatisfactory experience with this rental company during my recent visit to Orlando. After landing at MCO, I waited over an hour for the shuttle to arrive. When I politely asked the driver about the delay, he completely ignored me and offered no explanation or acknowledgment.

Upon arrival at the rental office, I encountered further issues. As a Canadian traveler, I had arranged insurance coverage in advance, but the staff informed me they did not accept Canadian insurance. Despite the booking confirmation vaguely stating that insurance “may be required,” I was told outright that I could not rent a vehicle without purchasing their in-house coverage. When I asked for details about what the insurance covered, no one could provide clear answers. I was simply given pricing without any explanation of the terms or coverage — a concerning lack of transparency.

When I insisted on understanding what I was paying for, my questions were either ignored or dismissed. This lack of professionalism made me extremely uncomfortable, and I ultimately decided to cancel my reservation.

While I was there, I overheard multiple other customers expressing frustration — some regarding the condition of their vehicles, others about unexpected charges related to tolls and the company’s insistence on using their EZ-pass system, which appeared to involve inflated fees if you declined it.

Overall, the experience felt disorganized, misleading, and at times, confrontational. I would strongly advise others to consider more reputable rental companies to avoid similar issues.

I received a filthy scar from the vehicle from Next Car in Sea-Tac, and had to deal with David Lanzerd from costumer service who was very unethical. Next Car in general is a scam rip-off car rental company with no care for their customers. If you so happen to run into David Lanzerd, you will get the runaround for months via email until you no longer are able to make a claim for any overcharge or inconvenience. Next Car Rental also goes through third parties, and you are renting from someone totally different. I ended up receiving a car in terrible condition from RentAWreck in Sea-Tac located at an abandoned motel. Next Car is a complete scam.