This big, glitzy facility housing all of the major and minor car rental companies is a 1 stop shop for renting a car at PHX. That sounds like it should be great but its comprehensive largesse cannot overcome several shortcomings that are a little aggravating from the customer side of things:
1. It is off site. Way off site. It is several miles away and at a minimum it is a 10 minute shuttle ride IF there is no traffic. That is a big "if" because PHX is a busy airport so it is typically fairly congested. I travel a lot for business so the last thing I want to do is get off a plane only to sit on a shuttle in traffic to get to my rental car. As an example, on my last trip I timed it from the point I stepped off the airplane to when I cleared the rental car company security check out: 56 minutes! (and I am a top elite renter with 1 agency so I get all the short cuts like bypassing the counter and jumping in any car on the lot and simply driving it away!) I know that sounds arrogant like I am too important to waste 56 minutes but that really misses the point which is one of convenience and efficiency.
2. The shuttles tend to be packed. I get it, their job is to move a lot of people to the car rental center. So they don't leave the terminal until they are full. Sometimes overfull. This creates a process where they wait at the terminal curb for more and more people to show up (further delaying you from getting on with your car rental) and then they start creatively jamming more people and luggage onto the shuttle. By the time you pull away from the curb, if you are not handicapped, elderly, legless, or pregnant, you will be standing jammed in shoulder to shoulder with a lot of people. Arrive on a hot day (every day in PHX) and it becomes apparent pretty quickly who's deodorant has failed.
3. The traffic that the shuttle has to navigate is tremendous on the way to the Car Rental Center. It may be that PHX is currently undergoing some construction in areas so that is making it more congested but the reality is that it is still part of the process to get on a shuttle and wait in traffic to get to the center several miles away.
4. The reverse of all of this is in effect when you return your car and need to catch your plane. Be forewarned, leave a large time buffer if you need to return a car. I have flown almost 3 million miles in my career all over the world and rented cars in many places. I have only missed 1 flight ever in my life and it was at PHX because the traffic and car return process was so lengthy.
This car rental center is a necessary evil for me but as you can tell, I'm not a fan.