Car rental in France

Lois, after much research I just set up a rental for later this year. The price you mention sounds about right; I paid 405 usd for a 5 day rental southern France to central, VW Golf (with auto trans & gps). The basic daily/weekly rate by itself bears little resemblance to the total, of course. After selecting CDW (and, I suggest, zero deductible up-charge) etc, that's a competitive number, in my experience. I will pay separately a $40 airport pickup charge and a couple other minor daily charges for a total usd output around $480. I went through Auto Europe for a Europcar rental. Car rental is expensive.
Good luck.

That number is way the heck off.
For a short period like that it should be under fifty bucks a day. Maybe half of that if you kept it for a week or more.

Try kayak and see what happens.

The only other thing that could have skewed it is paying for the agency's cdw instead of letting your credit card cover it.

Through Auto Europe, I currently see rates such as $22/day without CDW or $41/day with CDW and the car in my example (May 6-10) is provided by Hertz. Dates could of course have an affect. Other fees may be mentioned when you get to check-out.

I do see that $41 price on Auto Europe, that is for the Fiat 500 "mini class", which some folks would find too small. The OP stated "compact" so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. As far as the CDW, I am squarely in the camp of buying it from the rental car company instead of risking a major charge to my credit card which I then have to battle to get reimbursed. And of course, if the main credit card being used for travel is suddenly maxed out from a fender bender, you may have a problem. The car I refer to that I rented is bigger, automatic trans, and comes with GPS, not necessary items, but for relative numbers good to note, I believe it was $71/day rate with CDW and zero deductible. Lots of folks have more experience with this stuff than I do and may do things differently, but it works for us.

That price sounds way too high to me, as well. I have a compact class car reserved for 25 days in May, in France, for $464, Europcar via Autoeurope. I don't take the insurance package. I use the Amex Premium Rental Car insurance, $17.95 total for up to 42 days. You are correct that most of the companies don't levy a drop charge if you return within the same country. On our trip last year, e.g., we picked up in Dubrovnik and returned in Zagreb with no drop charge. Only when you cross a border for returns do they zap you with astoundingly high fees.

By using an AMEX card for the rental you will not need to purchase CDW. Amex covers it with no deductible.

Thanks for you input everyone. I did some more shopping around and ended up with a total bill of $214.55 for a 4 day rental with Europcar, including taxes and basic CDW for an economy manual shift. Much more affordable!

Now you can use the extra $200+ you saved to pay tolls along the way. France and Italy will toll you to death.

Not necessarily. You can run from Dunkerque to Bordeaux in an okay day for a hundred bucks in tolls. If you used the free roads it'd take a lot more gas, you'd buy more meals, and you'd have to spend the night somewhere unless you were a glutton for punishment.

Plus, you'd wear your map out and that's another ten bucks down the tube.

We have a 7 day EuropeCar rental in May through AutoEurope/Kemwel for a compact stick-shift for $138. We use our AmEx card and AmEx premium insurance. They have sales and will adjust your price down if you find a better price. We've been using EuropeCar through AutoEurope/Kemwel for fifteen years with few hitches.

Not to sound ignorant, but what is CDW?? I am planning on renting a car in France later this year and all the above comments have helped, but you lost me at CDW!!!

Thanks, Janet.

CDW is Collision Damage Waiver and it is insurance. I have an Amex card and just purchase it when I am going to Europe. As someone else stated the policy is about $20 and covers you for a number of consecutive days (42?) Anyway, if you have this policy you do not need to purchase the expensive stuff sold by the rental car companies. I trust that Amex will take care of things and have not heard otherwise, so until I do I will stick with this plan. Others feel more comfortable purchasing from the rental agency. I do not, and I also never prepay my car rental (with a consolidator)... I never know if I might change plans and also I want to keep an eye on the rates and make a new booking if the rates go down....which they often do.

I read a favorable report recently (can't remember where) by someone who had an accident in a rental car while using the Amex Premium coverage. Nothing hit the credit card and Amex took care of everything.

We have a car rental arranged through Europcar this coming September. I was going to skip the CDW as both my credit card and a travel guard insurance policy we bought covers car rental. The Europcar people emailed and politely explained that they do indeed accept either of those as proof of insurance, but as it is up to us to deal with either of these insurance companies they would put a 13,000 Euros hold on our credit card when we picked up the car to protect themselves. Since that is a huge hold on a card, I guess we will be buying their CDW. Higher than the limit on the card that has no international exchange fees that we were planning to use for our trip! Has any one else had this occur? Maybe it is just the location in La Rochelle, France where we will be picking up our car that does this.

I've never heard of this. I suggest you find another company.

I used Autoeurope and it was a good experience. Have used other agencies I trust even more, and didnt get as good a deal. I picked up at CDG, and have to say it may have been the easiest pickup/dropoff experience I have ever had anywhere, incl the U.S., Germany, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Ireland. I rented in Italy, and I recall the CDW may have been mandatory. But elsewhere I would skip it. Like most insurance it's making them money or they wouldnt be selling it. Going for a manual and a diesel will save you money. They charge beaucoup d'argent for automatics in Europe, and unlike here, diesel is available everywhere cheaper than benzine and the cars get better mileage.

Sixt has much better pricing in Europe. I am renting a Mercedes in July from them and it will cost what a generic compact from Hertz would be.

@tabmk I just rented a car with a US credit card from Europcar in France, declining the CDW because my card covers it. They put a 600 euro "hold" on to card for any damages--not 13,000 euros. They were a bit flustered when I declined CDW. I had to sign extra release papers (all in French), but they let me decline the CDW. Maybe the La Rochelle office is a franchise office and has a different policy?

We use gemut.com (in USA) and you will talk with Andy and he can give you quote and set up everything. We paid ahead (can cancel for no cost) and our rental was $168 for 7 day rental in the peak of summer. We will use our American Express card to purchase the premium insurance for (I think $18.00 ?) the entire rental period. We got our credit card just for that insurance. We will be renting and dropping in another location, both in France. Pretty cheap! But, tolls are expensive, but still worth it.

I think of the IDL ... excuse me, the IDP like life insurance or a spare tire. I never want to have to use them, but also wouldn't want to be without them. It's just a few bucks, adds to the "adventure" of the trip, and heaven forbid you have an accident because ... as we all know, bureaucracies love rules and if you don't have an IDP this could be their excuse to lock you up for a day or two until you can reach the embassy/consulate.