Car rental advice

See if you can find ANY rental car company or broker without "bad reviews." I doubt it. I've rented from several places in Europe that had bad reviews.

Auto Europe, FYI, is a broker not a car rental company like Hertz. You book through them and they make the reservation for you with a company like Hertz.

I have rented from Auto Europe in the past (they are based in Portland, Maine) but not in a while.

I have used them over 10 times, number 11 coming up in September! And I recommend them highly. I have never had a problem renting through them. They have great prices and their customer service is excellent. If you search AutoEurope on this website, I think you’ll see basically positive reviews and recommendations.

Have used them several times...reliable and their pricing is very competative

You want autoeurope.com not .eu. The .eu is for European residents who have to pay all the EU taxes. If you are from outside the EU, use autoeurope.com. Was that a typo in his book?

BTW, I’ve used AutoEurope for the past 20 years. No problems.

I've used them many times, most recently in May 2017 in France. Picked up at CDG, dropped off 10 days later in Chartres. Their pricing and service has always been good.
Most of the negative reviews I've read are from people who didn't read their contract, or whose problem was actually with the car company (I.e. Hertz, National) not with Auto Europe.

The www.autoeurope.eu reference may not be in error. There could be a very big difference with reservations made on .eu vs. those made on .com depending upon one´s rental objectives. Reservations through .com will be limited to a minimum of 3 days and will not include government taxes or any fees possibly charged at drop off such as location surcharges, road tax, additional driver fees, or environmental fees.

I suggest checking them both and comparing very carefully the terms and conditions of each offer.

Rented through autoeurope.com in May of this year for an 18-day trip through France, no problems.

"Confused" - you aren't really.

Most of the negative reviews I've read are from people who didn't read their contract, or whose problem was actually with the car company (I.e. Hertz, National) not with Auto Europe.

That's likely true. I've been renting through Auto Europe or Kemwel (their sister company) for 20+ years, and never had a problem with them. Any issues I've had have been with the car rental company, not AE, and AE has been able to straighten almost all of them out.

Reservations through .com will be limited to a minimum of 3 days and will not include government taxes or any fees possibly charged at drop off such as location surcharges, road tax, additional driver fees, or environmental fees.

That's not true as to taxes, and as for the fees, AE clearly explains what they are and approximately how much they will be.

We had a one-day rental last fall through the eu. website. All the usual road taxes, second driver fees, and all were tacked on afterwards, just like with the .com website. The difference is we paid about 80 euros for the one day before the fees added on, much more per day than renting on the .com website. And this was still less expensive than renting directly from the rental agencies or Expedia, etc.

I've had only good experiences renting through autoeurope.com from the US.

I really haven't had bad experiences with any rental in Europe. I normally look at all the options, including perusing fine print for potential additional charges, then go with the best deal. I believe I used Auto Europe for a rental in Spain. It was at least as good as my other rentals, no surprises, everything was as agreed - which is really all I care about.

I use American Express for CDW (first accident in June, we'll see how it works out). With Auto Europe the premium wasn't automatically charged to my account as it has been with direct rentals. I had to call and ask them to charge me, when I booked the car, to make sure I was insured.

Just returned from France- we booked our rental car from autoeurope.eu about 6 months in advance - everything went very smoothly when we arrived in Lille to pick up our car at the Europcar dealer and when we dropped it off in Paris. Highly recommend.

Piling on: nothing but good experiences with AutoEurope on 4-5 occasions. Most recently, made the reservation by phone for Ireland to get understanding/confirmation on insurance technicalities. Most of our rentals thru AE have been with Hertz; that may have contributed to the success.