Can you rent an automatic car in Tours, France and Dijon, France

Once you get outside of Paris or the larger airports, you will have a hard time getting an automatic transmission car in France. In 2013, I had to drive a friend from Dijon to Lyon to find a rental agency with an automatic transmission. If you must have an automatic, you will probably have to pick it up from Orly or CDG. Instead of searching agency by agency, try using AutoEurope which looks at all the agencies and see if one pops up that can guarantee an automatic. Be sure to click on the actual car offered because sometimes results will show up that look like the car will be an automatic but when you click through you will find that the offer is for a manual transmission. Good luck.

Also. Just because you reserve an automatic doesn't mean you will get one. If someone doesn't return a car as expected or someone comes by earlier and wants an automatic and they give them 'your' car you will be SOL. By booking out of an airport location you increase the odds that the car you want will actually be there. We have had the experience of having to accept a badly damaged car because the agency literally had no other car available when booking at a smaller office. We have also had the experience in London of the agency not having any cars because people failed to return them before Christmas (they booked early when they were available and then just didn't return them) At that time the agency drove us and others out to Heathrow for cars -- I assume someone coming in at midnight Christmas Eve to the airport might not have gotten their car.

Last time we booked a car out of FCO in Rome it took us two hours to just get our manual car. A guy who had been waiting two hours for his automatic was still there two hours later when we left and they still had no car for him -- and that was an airport.

When I search with AutoEurope.com, they find a compact automatic available through Europcar, picking and dropping near the rail stations.

@ Laura, Did you click through to look at the details of the offer? Often times, the request for automatic will be ignored if none are available and when you click on the actual offer you see that both manual and automatic have been selected as search parameters and the actual car being offered is a manual. Not to mention that the guarantee of an automatic always is "subject to availability" as as the previous poster mentioned which means that it is no guarantee at all. The long and the short of it is that is worth a phone call to AutoEurope and keeping in mind the possibility that no automatic will be available.

While not getting an automatic you've ordered is theoretically possible, it's never happened to me in 25 years of renting cars in France. The 1 time the agency didn't have 1 at the location in town, they had one of the agents drive us to the airport to get one. I've done advance searches for automatics in smaller cities, and when no automatics show up, I change the location. And 1 time AutoEurope contacted me shortly after I reserved and said I'd have to switch from in-city to the airport to get an automatic.

You are never guaranteed a specific make model or type of car when you rent, only a class. And as noted, if something happens and an automatic isn't available, there's not much they can do. Can't put a car up on the lift and trade out trannies, like they can do if your car class isn't available and they bump you up a grade. There's a risk, to be sure.

I know there's an Avis office at the Dijon train station. Speaking of which, the way to return a car to Dijon gare is complicated and at Avis they had a special handout they give to renters with detailed directions; you should ask for that beforehand.

Thank You Again Laura! Following your note I switched my Charles de Gaulle rental pickup to Tours. I had a reservation in place with AutoEurope and called them up today and switched it. This should make my first day much better as I'm swapping a 3 hour drive through Paris at 7am to Amboise for a 1.5 hour TGV ride to Tours. Also, for whatever reason, my rental price dropped following the switch ($40 difference), which makes up for the cost difference between the TGV and the would have been tolls+gas.

Thanks again for pointing this out.

-Matt

I also had a long conversation with the auto Europe agent about the probability that they won't have an automatic. It seems unlikely. For me, this risk is better than a jet lagged ride.

I wanted to point out that this thread prompted me to switch my rental car pickup from Charles de Gaulle Airport to Tours TGV station. It turned out that our flight arrived the morning of the taxi strike and this adjustment saved our skins. I am eternally grateful for this.

-Matt