Car Rental in France

Susan,
Just curious....Where are you getting so many terrible reviews? What websites? What are the most common complaints? Other than complaints about the limited hours when rental locations are open, I haven't read any bad reviews lately. And the open hours are easily found, so there shouldn't be any surprises there. Re the insurance, can you give some m ore specific examples?
We always rent a car in France and haven't had any problems, but it has been a couple of years, so maybe my experience is out of date.

P.S. Do you mean Mantes-la-Jolie?

We took the train from Paris to Rennes two years ago. We picked up a rental car from Enterprise in Rennes at the train station. There were lots of different rental agencies at the station. The young man who helped us was very nice, asked for ID and our international driver’s permit, and had the added pressure of us needing to find an urgent care medical facility. So as he walked us over to our car he also tried to come up with suggestions even though urgent care wasn’t a familiar concept. He explained some of the car features as we sat in the car. Then we were on our way. Like everywhere in France the turns are very tight in the parking facilities. We returned the car in Lille then went on to Belgium.

Susan
We have a few experiences renting cars in Europe. In Sept last year we rented a car in Nice from Sixt thru our Citi CC. Pickup went okay except they required an additional deposit of $250 when we pick up the car. We drove out into the kill towns above Nice. In route we had a flat tire and discovered there was no spare or jack. (found out late that seems to be standard practice). Due to the poor Cell service, we were unable to connect with their road service number, and we were 10 miles to the closest city. We had to abandon the car and hitch hike to town thanks to a friendly French man. It ruined that day and cost twice the rental fee in taxi fees. Sixt took no responsibility nor refunded the $250. We wrote it off to "things happen".
In Italy last year our son got a ticket notice from the rental company months after returning and even though they speak Italian they could not determine why. A battle not worth fighting. Two years ago, same thing happened to us in Palermo. Again, we paid the fee and moved on. We have no actual accident experience
I don’t mean to scare you off rent ng cars in Europe but understand solving issues can be difficult. My recommendation is: Tavel, enjoy, make sound choices, be safe, be prepared, usually the cost a small portion to the great experience.

Auto Europe does still offer Full insurance/no Deductible
It is offered a step or two into the booking process

In Italy last year our son got a ticket notice from the rental company
months after returning

Rental car companies cannot and do not issue tickets. They can and do charge a fee to send the driver info to the authorities when a violation is incurred.
If your son never actually ever received notification of that violation he should consider himself lucky- for now- it can take up to a year to get that

I use Enterprise all the time (through work) and they're easy to deal with. Less shenanigans that with SIXT, in particular. They have clear, defined tolerances for damage (size of scratches). If it stresses you out, you can always purchase excess cover at the counter, but it's expensive, and many int'l credit cards cover you already (check this).

We are renting from a local supermarket (Super U). E450/m with 1000 K included. E150 for each 1000K after that. No pressure on insurance. French drivers are pretty careful.

DP,
I can't answer for Italy, but it is standard for a ticket to arrive often several months after the infraction. And yes, the rental agency notifies you that they have provided your name to the authorities. Since the car will show it registered to the rental company, the authorities don't know who is driving. The rental companies charge you a fee for this. They are not billing you for the ticket. That comes from the carabinieri, police, gendarmerie, or whatever the authority is. In 2017 we received one about 5 months after our return from France. It was a speeding ticket from the autoroute (camera) and yes we did deserve it. It is easy to slip over the speed limit when tootling along on the autoroute, just as it can be easy to exceed the speed limit on an interstate here without thinking. In France, however, there is no tolerance for, say, 5-10 miles over the posted limit. Is it possibe that your son briefy went over the limit perhaps? It is so easy to do, but alas, those pesky cameras are ubiquitous and relentless, as we learned. I must add, however, that the process regarding a citation was included in the info from the rental company.
Lately I have read in a couple of newspaper travel sections that Hertz has been claiming cars haven't been returned (in error) resulting in some renters getting arrested. This is here in the US. Just fyi.
Also to add. We have used Avis, Enterprise and Hertz in France. All with no problems. All booked through Auto Europe and no problem with them either. Not to say problems don't occur, but we haven't had any in France or elsewhere (Ireland, Spain, Hawaii, multiple US states). I wish the same for everyone.

I rented with Enterprise in Rennes and drop-off in Caen in 2024 without an issue. But more often, I have rented from Hertz with pick-ups or drop-offs in Caen, Bayeux, Cherbourg and CDG. No issues on any of these rentals other than rental office hours.

In October I rented from Sixt in Lyon (Part-Dieu station) and had no problems … apart from getting a bit lost while trying to find the return (GPS misled me). I too got a speeding ticket - in Nantua, I think - which I’m still awaiting; Sixt was very quick to collect their €30 admin fee though. The guy at the rental counter was very nice and even recommended a scenic viewpoint on the way to Annecy.

I rented a car from the train station in Rennes about a month ago through Hertz via AutoEurope. I paid for zero liability, which was available during the booking process (I booked on autoeurope.eu), because it was my first time renting a car in Europe and I wanted total peace of mind.

It was an excellent experience from start to finish. The first agent was very helpful and funny - she told me that even if I returned with only one car door, I could still just drop the car off and walk away! She also upgraded us for free to a larger vehicle when she saw that the car we had booked was not going to fit our tall family very well. The agent who met us in the parking garage when we returned the car was equally as pleasant and helpful. Honestly, the only challenge was driving in and out of the very tight multi story parking garage.......but I was prepared for that after reading several comments on this forum so I found it kind of fun!

I have rented cars from Sixt several times all over Europe, including a few times in France. I always get the zero deductible (“zero excess”) for peace of mind. I’ve had no problems whatsoever. Even though I have full coverage, I make sure that any damage (scratches) are documented with the rental office before I depart, and I take lots of photos of the car when I return it, also a photo of the gas gauge showing that It was returned with a full tank.

We have rented cars three times in France and not had any problems with any of the rentals. I think people post reviews mainly when they have bad experiences.

1. Avis pickup at Orly airport, returned at Calais ferry port.
2. Europcar arranged through Autoeurope. Pickup Geneva airport, French side, returned Sarlat.
3. Avis arranged through Autoeurope. Pickup Toulouse airport, returned Rennes airport.

Susan,
I am still curious as to where the terrible reviews are from. Can you clarify?
As mentioned above, people more often post bad reviews but seldom bother with good ones. I try to consider the source, just as in lodging recommendations. I trust Booking.com more than TripAdvisor because Booking.com only posts reviews of people who have stayed in a place. TA doesn't require that. (Unless their policy has recently changed.)

We did not see the zero excess choice when booking online through AutoEurope (France, Europcar). The site did have a higher coverage option, but it still included only the "refundable" deductible (we would need to pay for damages up to 1800Euro, and submit with paperwork for refund from AutoEurope on return). We wanted the zero excess option - not a refundable option. We could have easily missed that choice online, so I called AutoEurope, and was told we could only purchase the zero excess option by phone.

I've used Autoeurope to rent from Hertz, Europcar, and Avis and have always been satisfied. I always take all insurances, with zero deductible. I've noticed the .com version of Autoeurope offers the zero deductible more often than the .eu version but I'm not sure that's universal. By the way it's perfectly legal and acceptable to compare the 2 websites and rent from whichever offers the best deal at the time (sometimes they offer different promotions, bundles etc).

Roger, we are renting from Sixt in October. We have never rented nor driven in Europe before, so a bit scary for us who drive on the left.

We have booked a car with the top level insurance, I thought that that meant we didn't need to take photos and all that, hence why we chose it.

Is it still necessary to do all that?