National Car Rental is a rental car company based in Clayton, Missouri

Clayton, Missouri

Clayton is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis and the county seat of St. Louis County, Missouri. The population was 15,939 at the 2010 census. The city was organized in 1877 and is named after Ralph Clayton, who donated the land for the courthouse.-Geography:...

. National was founded by 24 independent rental car agents on August 27, 1947. It has grown from 60 locations in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 in 1947 to over 2000 locations worldwide as of 2005.

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

Tilden Rent-a-Car

Tilden Rent-a-Car, later known as Tilden InterRent, was a Canadian car rental company that was founded in 1953 by Sam Tilden. Its fleet was sold by the Tilden family to National Car Rental of the United States in June 1996....

.

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

Alamo Rent A Car

Alamo Rent a Car is the third-largest car rental agency in the United States. Based in Clayton, Missouri, it has branches across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, South America, parts of Africa, Europe, and Australia, and various Caribbean islands...

 and Enterprise Rent A Car.

On August 1, 2007 Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Enterprise Holdings, Inc. is a privately held company formed in 2009 to operate rental car subsidiaries: Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental, Alamo Rent A Car, WeCar and its commercial fleet management, used car sales, and commercial truck rental operations.Enterprise Holdings was formed as...

 assumed control of Vanguard Automotive Group

Vanguard Automotive Group

Vanguard Automotive Group is a company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Vanguard purchased ANC Rental, owner of National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car. The company has a fleet of nearly 300,000 vehicles, mainly from Ford and Chrysler, and operates over 1,500 locations. In 2007 Enterprise agreed to...

. It was purchased from Cerberus Capital Management

Cerberus Capital Management

Cerberus Capital Management, L.P. is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the United States. The firm is based in New York City, and run by -year-old financier Steve Feinberg. Former U.S...

, L.P.

Emerald Club

In 1987, National launched the Emerald Club, the car rental industry's first membership-based, frequent-renter program aimed at speeding up transactions for business and leisure travellers. Emerald Club membership has four tiers: Emerald Club (EC), Emerald Club Executive (CE), Executive Elite (EE), and Executive VIP, 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 Club 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 rate. Basically the same rate as Emerald Level but with a better selection of cars.