Spoiler Alert: Only rent from Avis MX is my best advice.
I’ve never been able to convince myself that I need to purchase a car since I have lived in Mexico. I want a car. At times, I definitely need a car. But the interest rates are insane down here, and I have never actually HAD to have one. I live in a very central neighborhood in Guadalajara. I have always been pretty good with public transportation and the buses are fast down here. Plus I absolutely love riding my bike all over the city.
That said, I generally rent a car for a week every month or two. 1. To run all the errands I have been waiting for since the last time I rented a car. 2. To travel to my projects or to visit friends on the west coast of Jalisco and Nayarit, Mexico.
I have rented cars from a ton of rental companies with varying degrees of satisfaction - more times than not it has be a horrible experience. I’m pretty devoted to Enterprise in the US. They have mostly treated my very well, and lets face it, once a company has you really locked in to a good loyalty company, it’s hard to walk away.
I used to rent from Enterprise MX until they started forcing me to purchase additional insurance without the option to sign a waiver and put a large deposit hold on my credit card. I don’t love driving without insurance, but I am generally a very safe driver and always aware of my surroundings.
Avis Mexico of whom I’m not that familiar with in the US has always gone above and beyond. Well, the do exactly what they say. I have even turned a car in nearly two days after the scheduled return with no penalty. At the moment and quite often they are having a 50% off prepaid rentals and 1 free tank of gas which basically means you can bring the car back empty.