Thrifty Car Rental in downtown San Diego, founded in 1958 on Route 66 in Tulsa by Leslie Crow — who launched with a 1957 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia and Beetles at six dollars a day — operates from the consolidated Rental Car Center at San Diego International Airport as a subsidiary of Hertz Global Holdings. The counter shares the four-level facility with parent brand Hertz, which absorbed the Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group for $2.3 billion in 2012 and now positions Thrifty as its value-tier alternative across 1,000-plus locations in 77 countries. The Blue Chip Express program — introduced in 2008 — lets enrolled members skip the counter and proceed directly to their assigned vehicle, paralleling the bypass-lane models that National and Hertz Gold operate at the same facility. Fleet vehicles cycling out of the rental rotation receive maintenance through the same quick-lube infrastructure that chains like Jiffy Lube operate for consumer vehicles across downtown San Diego. Multi-vehicle group reservations with staggered pickup windows for convention delegate arrivals represent the counter's most scheduling-intensive booking type.