I need to rent a 4-wheel drive pickup truck for 11 days, beginning
January 16th. Any location in the San Francisco Bay Area is
acceptable, but testing will occur in the Sunnyvale / Palo Alto areas.
Most truck rental companies do not rent 4-wheel drive, but this is
absolutely necessary as we will be doing research in a uneven and
potentially muddy field. An acceptable answer will consist of a phone
number and name of a rental company that has available a 4-wheel drive
pickup truck for those 11 days (16-26). If you can manage to find 2 or
more different companies/trucks, that'll be worth a tip as well. Thanks.

If they can't get us the truck for quite that long, the days are
negotiable slightly, but we DEFINITELY need a 4-wheel drive pickup, no
2-wheel drives or SUVs need apply.

Hello mirage:

It was a pleasure to answer your question. I am going to provide you
with three websites that will fulfill your needs. With the help of
these websites you will be able to rent a pick-up truck for your
desired dates. Please read the summary to see what I found while
visiting the website. Below are the results of my findings for your
review:


Kear Rentals
http://www.travelnow.com
The shortcut for car rental page is:
http://www.travelnow.com/index.jsp?pageName=index&cid=64569&indexType=car&home=true
Kear Rental checks the vehicle rental companies that have the
availability for your desired vehicle type. Please, select a pick-up
truck from the menu of car listings (Best Buys). When I checked, it
provided me with three rate quotes from Budget, Enterprise and Hertz
at San Francisco for a Chevrolet S10, Ford F-150 or similar rental
pick-ups. You may also choose another area for cheaper rates.

Ford Company Rentals
https://www.fleet.ford.com/rentacar/
Ford motor company provides consumers a chance to rent a pick-up or
any other vehicle from their authorized dealers. When I typed San
Francisco, it provided me with a variety of locations in the Bay Area.
Although, there was no availability at the first two locations
(including San Francisco) but other dealers had the pick-ups available
for your desired pick-up date. A few had almost two types available
i.e. Ford Ranger and Ford F-150.

City Rent a Car
http://www.cityrentacar.com
This is a San Francisco based company which has a Ford ranger and GMC
1500 trucks available for rent. When I checked, they provided me a
form to fill in order to reserve bookings. You might want to call them
for a better and quick response.


A few terms from the Search Criteria used:

?<Pick-up rental san Francisco bay area >?
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=pick-up+rental+san+francisco+bay+area&btnG=Google+Search

?<Car rental, san Francisco bay area>?
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=car+rental+san+francisco+bay+area&btnG=Google+Search

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you are not satisfied. I will
do everything to locate the pick-up truck of your choice.


Sincerely,
Leader-ga.

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Request for Answer Clarification by mirage-ga on 14 Jan 2004 12:59 PST

As was noted by research_help-ga, the requirement is for a 4-wheel
drive pickup. The sites that you've listed have confirmed that they
both rent 4-wheel drive pickups AND that one is available for the
required period?

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Clarification of Answer by leader-ga on 14 Jan 2004 13:05 PST

Sorry! I am doing furhter research.

Thanks mirage nad research help-ga:

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Clarification of Answer by leader-ga on 14 Jan 2004 14:42 PST

Hello mirage-ga:

I was a little worried after the research_help-ga suggestion. On
further research, I am able to confirm that the 4 by 4 pick-up trucks
are available. Let me know if you need further information, I will be
happy to assist you. May be I should have stated the information more
clearly.

Thanks.
leader-ga

Leader-ga, I'm sure the asker will notice this and come back to you
too, but did you carefully read the question? Between the title and
the question, the asker mentions 5 times that the truck must be 4
wheel drive. None of the options you give in the answer seem to meet
this requirement. You may want to research further.

Be careful with the rental agreements.  You might find that the
vehicles are 4WD, but you are restricted to staying on paved roads!

Worked out great. The second link led me to a Ford/Lincoln/Mercury
dealer who directed me to their association with Hertz. Turns out that
Hertz was able to get us an F150 and didn't have a problem with
offroad. We even got a pretty good deal (1-week price for all 11
days). Thanks again!

Thanks for the 5 star rating and the tip. I am obliged.