National Car Rental

National Car Rental is a rental car company based in Clayton, Missouri. National was founded by 24 independent rental car agents on August 27, 1947. It has grown from 60 locations in the United States in 1947 to over 2000 locations worldwide as of 2005.

In 1996, National acquired the Canadian fleet and operations of Tilden Rent-a-Car.

National is owned by Enterprise Holdings, which also owns Alamo Rent a Car and Enterprise Rent A Car.

On August 1, 2007 Enterprise Rent-A-Car assumed control of Vanguard Automotive Group. It was purchased from Cerberus Capital Management



In 1987, National launched the Emerald Club, a membership-based express rental program aimed at speeding upctions for business and leisure travellers. Emerald Club membership has three tiers: Emerald, Executive, and Executive Elite, where the higher tiers are reserved for those who rent most frequently from National. Members have the ability to earn credits each time they rent that can be used to earn free rental days.

At some US locations, members bypass the rental counter and proceed directly to the rental lot, where they can choose their own car. Emerald level members who reserve a mid-size car are directed to the Emerald Aisle, where they are allowed to choose any designated car, all at the mid-size rate reserved. Executive and Executive Elite members are directed to the Executive Selection lot, where they can choose from full-size or higher class cars for the price of a mid-size. Members with reservations for other car classes (e.g. compact, SUVs) are directed to the appropriate section of the lot (usually a row in the parkade) where they can choose from within that class.