Best car rental company and advice?

We rented from Europcar in Nice, arranged through AutoEurope, and had a very positive experience. See my posting under Transportation. If you have an AMEX card, their Premium Rental Car insurance is the best deal I've seen We use it every time, except for Italy, where it's not avaiable. We've even actually hade to make a claim once, and I have not the slightest complaint about any part of the process.

Thank you! I also found the transportation section and got a lot of my questions addressed. I'll check into Europcar and read your post. THANK YOU!

Lydia

We've used Sixt several times in France. The company seems to always have the best rates when we travel. No complaints at all. We use Amex Premium as well which has saved a lot of money. Be careful of Europcar. There are complaints about billings after the fact for non existing damage to vehicles.

Thanks, Lee. I was looking at cars with Sixt as they had good prices. I don't have an AmEx and won't be getting one so I wonder if getting the insurance over there is necessary. I have my own, normal car insurance, AAA, and whatever coverage may come on my Visa card so I'll check those for coverage overseas.

thanks again.

Lydia

There are complaints about Sixt, as well as Europcar. And Hertz. And Avis. And virtually every company out there. Don't discard the complaints entirely, but take them with a grain of salt. True, there are some bottom feeders on the margins, but the majors do a pretty good job overall, or there would be nothing but complaints on these boards.

Out of tens of thousands of rentals every day, a certain number are going to go bad. In most cases, either the renter misunderstood or did not follow the terms of the contract, which are not always the same or enforced in the same manner as in North America, or there was miscommunication somewhere along the line. In some cases, the agent at the local agency was actually dishonest or just incompetent. That is a risk in dealing with hotels, restaurants, shops and any other business.

Most of the time, irate customers blame the corporation rather than the local site, especially if the company does not take the desired action. Companies, meanwhile, have to sort out the legitimate complaints from those by grifters and chronic complainers. And it is easy for anyone with a gripe to pepper the web with "Do Not Deal With Company X" posts that draw others with similar gripes, who seldom post on anything else. But, in the end, they represent only a tiny sliver of the people who rent from these companies without any problems at all.

And, no, I do not work for a car rental company or similar business and my income has never depended on them.

Hi,
Our two trips to France and our most recent toSpain all used Europe Car. As near as I can determine over the internet, we get the lowest rental price and the cars have been fine.

wayne iNWI

We got great deals with Avis by booking our train tickets and renting a car from that same station in a package deal. We noticed also that if you can navigate the French site (or have Google translate the page for you), you can get much better deals than some of the English speaking sites!

Hello,

Couple times I have rented car in Europe and almost all the time AutoEurope had the best deals. I have shopped around, but they have the best deal.

I have been using my credit card's insurance for the rental car.

We use autoeurope which uses other agencies. The most important thing in renting a car in Europe is to always document EVERY scratch on the car before leaving the lot in writing. (in Rome Hertz had a stamp they put on our document saying 'no scratch below 5cm will be charged -- they would not have put this on our paperwork if we had no insisted on documentation) We recently got a car in Hawaii that had serious (but not obvious) damage from going off road -- luckily we looked carefully and documented; the agent said the previous renter would have a bill for thousands since the insurance did not cover off road use -- that might have been us if we had not noticed and documented the damage) We once had an agency try to confiscate the paperwork documenting extensive damage to the car (picked up in Rome) without giving us a copy. Don't let that happen at turn in -- make sure you have a copy. We have paid for pre-exisiting damage in the past and so are very careful to do this now.

Make sure you gas up and have the receipts near the turn in point to show so you can contest any fuel charges (this happens all the time and you have to be able to prove you gassed up).

If at all possible get a receipt for clean, gassed turn in when you return the car. Sometimes agencies take long lunch breaks and you can't get this -- but it is the best way to prevent thievery.

The business model of European rental agencies is 'cheat the customer'; CYA.

We use europecar which uses other agencies.

What's that mean? They're an independent company which also happens to own Alamo and either National or Thrifty. They don't consolidate or sub out.

My bad -- I meant Autoeurope not Europecar.

I honestly really liked Hertz when we rented a car to drive around Normandy this past June.

Lydia, if you have AAA insurance have you checked for AAA car rental discount ? We rented from Hertz in France with AAA discount and service was good. (Used Amex for insurance -- $18 well spent for peace-of-mind)