Last Updated on May 5, 2023 by Jonathan

Silvercar shutting down
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Is Silvercar shutting down airport locations? In a nutshell, this appears to be the case. The AutoSlash team is a big fan of Silvercar, a car rental company owned by the German automaker Audi. While Silvercar is not going away, we discovered that the business is preparing to pull out of all of its airport locations in the U.S.

Silvercar is Shutting Down Airport Locations

Recently, we’ve been hearing reports of customers who had Silvercar their reservations at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Denver International Airport (DEN) cancelled.

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With a bit of sleuthing, we discovered that all Silvercar airport locations in the U.S. are indeed closing down.

  • Austin (AUS) – Closing 12/6
  • Boston (BOS) – Closing 12/6
  • Chicago O’Hare (ORD) – Closing 12/6
  • Dallas Love (DAL) – Closed already
  • Denver (DEN) – Closing 12/6
  • Fort Lauderdale (FLL) – Closing 12/3
  • Las Vegas (LAS) – Closed already
  • Los Angeles (LAX) – Closing 12/5
  • Miami (MIA) – Closing 12/6
  • Newark (EWR) – Closing 12/6
  • Phoenix (PHX) – Closing 12/6
  • Salt Lake City (SLC) – Closing 12/6
  • San Francisco (SFO) – Closing 12/6
  • Seattle (SEA) – Closing 12/6
  • Washington Dulles (IAD) – Closing 12/6

Audi Dealerships are the New Pickup Locations

Next, we started calling Silvercar airport locations. Representatives at multiple branches confirmed that Silvercar is pulling out of all current airport locations due to the pandemic. Essentially, Silvercar operations will be shifting from airport locations to off-airport Audi dealerships.

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Audi is planning to eventually open more dealerships that support their Silvercar rental service, but in the short term, there will be quite a few locations where Silvercar previously had an airport location but they don’t currently have a nearby Audi dealership with Silvercar service.

How to Get to Your Rental Car

Assuming Audi has a Silvercar-partnered dealership near a major airport, how would a customer get from the airport to that dealership? In some cases, a customer may receive an email or text with a link that allows them to redeem a complimentary Lyft ride to the local Audi dealership to pick up the rental vehicle. But in other locations, customers will have to pay for their own rides between the airport and the Audi dealership to pick up the vehicle. A Silvercar rep in Las Vegas told us that they would deliver the car to you and/or pick it up at the airport for a $50 fee. Seems pretty steep to us, but given that the shuttle bus to the rental center can be a pain, some folks might consider it a worthy splurge.

What to Do if You Have a Current Silvercar Reservation

What if you have an existing Silvercar reservation? It depends on your pickup location.

In some cases, when there is no Audi dealership near the airport, your reservation will likely be automatically cancelled. If so, ask us for a quote and we’ll get you set up with a new rental.

In other instances, your reservation will remain valid but your pickup location will be essentially moved to an off-airport Audi dealership. So it’s important to contact Silvercar to find out how you’re going to get to the new pickup location. If it sounds like more hassle than it’s worth, you can cancel your booking and get another quote for an airport pickup if you’ll be flying in.

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