Compare Car Rentals in Downey, California - Cheap Car Rental deals with RentACarNow.com

While Los Angeles has the Hollywood sign and San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge, Downey has something just as iconic and even more weaved into the fabric of Americana; the golden arches. If you have ever wondered how fast food got its start in America, you’ll find out when you visit Downey, the unofficial capital of fast-food kitsch and classic diners. The oldest operating McDonald’s resides on Lakewood blvd. and Florence Avenue and it was the third McDonald’s ever built. It was actually built before legendary fast-food entrepreneur Ray Croc bought the chain from Richard and Maurice McDonald. A trip to this McDonald’s is like taking a parking your car in the 50s. If you’re visiting Downey, you have to drive up to this landmark McDonald’s and RentACarNow.com can help you find the lowest prices on rental cars in Downey.

You can learn about the history of McDonald’s at an adjoining museum to this landmark restaurant, which was restored upon public demand after suffering damage following the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Besides McDonald’s, Downey was also the home of the first Taco Bell, opened in 1962 and within recent years a local Torrance Bob’s Big Boy had recently bought the famed diner, Johnnie’s Broiler, renaming it Bob’s Big Boy Broiler. Johnnie’s Broiler, originally Frankie’s Broiler is a staple of Southern California and should be recognizable to movie fans as it was used in countless films, including Can’t Hardly Wait, What’s Love Got to Do with It and Heat. If you consider yourself a film aficionado, you might want to head to Bob’s Big Boy Broiler and see if you can get the same booth that Robert Deniro and Al Pacino had their one classic confrontational scene in Heat.

For a town steeped in deep fast food kitsch culture, it also has a blossoming Farmer’s Market and is a community gathering place on Saturdays and a great place to find local products and California grown produce. Downey has a place in music history as well as it is the birthplace of Metallica’s James Hetfield, who was raised there and the place where Karen Carpenter died. The Carpenters built two apartments that still operate in Downey and they named them after their two biggest hits. I think it’s safe to say Metallica wasn’t heavily influenced by the Carpenters, but it’s not weird to think that Downey’s other favorite son Weird Al Yankovich might have cultivated his song parody skills after growing up listening to “We’ve only Just Begun.”

Whether you are planning a vacation to Downey, visiting friends or doing a road trip of classic California diners, RentACarNow.com can help you find the lowest prices on rental cars in Downey.