Leasing a car and driving in Greece, Italy and France

I am leasing a car through the Peugot Lease-buy-back program, which I accessed through AutoEurope. It works pretty much the same as a rental, but you do have to have the car for at least 17 days. One advantage I like is that you get to pick out your car and will get the one you want. This is important if you have specific needs, eg., an automatic, or in my case we need extra cargo space as my mom uses a 4-wheel walker. Also, it is significantly less expensive than renting for the same length of time and the cost is all-inclusive, including insurance. The car will also be registered in my name when I pick it up. One thing to consider is whether you can pick up the car in France, and drive it to Italy & Greece, then drop it off in a country other than France [INVALID] be sure to check into this. For rentals it is very expensive to pick-up in one country and drop-off in another, and some rental agencies charge extra for going into Italy, or may not even allow the car to be driven there [INVALID] not sure about Greece. The same restrictions may not apply to a lease-buy-back, but you need to check on that. Driving in France is pretty much like driving in the US. The highways are excellent and the N & D routes are also good roads. However, the French are fast and aggressive drivers. I've driven in France on 3 different trips and will be doing it again in Sept/Oct. I haven't driven in Italy or Greece, so cannot comment on them. Good luck & have a wonderful trip.

Linda, One important thing to remember about driving in Italy and Greece is that you'll require an International Driver's Permit. This must be used in conjunction with your home D.L. and failure to produce in IDP, especially in Italy can result in fines on the spot. These can be obtained easily at any AAA office and are valid for one year. Cheers!

I keep looking at the lease programs and they never make sense. Just now I looked at Peugot buy back through autoeurope: small car, all of october, paris (cdg), $1344. Kayak shows autoeuope will rent me equivalent car, same period, same place, for $808 and hertz for $902. I drive France and Italy all the time, the roads are fine. Greece not as often and the roads are not as good, but acceptable except out in the far sticks. Scratching my head on how you're going to get this car from Italy to Greece. Ferries are not as frequent as you might think, run at odd hours, and take eight hours or so. Plus it's a long hike to Brindisi and a worse one from the Greek ferryports to Athens and such. Driving down through Albania, etc, ain't exactly a neat option. I think I'd make it two separate rentals and buy an airline ticket between Rome and Athens. Maybe even skipping getting a car in Greece depending on what you're up to.

I have done the buy back lease through AutoEurope that Carolyn describes. It is most cost effective if you pick up/drop off the car anywhere in France. There is an additional charge if you do it anywhere else, and locations are more limited. As Carolyn said, if you have very specific needs you are able to get exactly what you order, as opposed to a rental where you get what they give you. I'm not sure if Ed's comparisons included the maximum amount of insurance, but the lease is all inclusive. There are no additional charges and you get a brand new car, not a beat up rental. I have only driven in France so far. We will be in Italy in a couple of weeks, so I guess I will see how that goes when we rent a car in Tuscany. It seems like you might have logistical issues with Greece. You should find out if the car would be allowed there.

Based on Andrea's comments, NO, no extra insurance was included since that's the way I do it. This might not suit others. Additionally, I've never had a problem with a beat up unit .... all have been fairly new with only a couple of thousand miles. This is about average on my typical three one-month European rentals annually. Additionally, I only looked at the cheapest/smallest car in each case, again, since that's what suits my needs most of the time. The point is, you need to compare whole packages based on the way you operate and not just copy what works for somebody else.

How long is this trip? It's quite a hike between Italy and Greece by auto.

Depending on your specifics, a lease can be much cheaper than a rental. I will be doing a lease buy-back next summer. I'm renting a car when leaving Rome and returning it in Paris 18-days later. There is a fee to pick it up outside of France but it still ends up being considerably cheaper than renting. Also, many companies will not allow you to drop off a rental in a different country.

Neither Peugeot nor Renault has any pickup or dropoff locations in Greece. So if you did a lease/buyback, you'd have to start in Italy or France and put a round trip to Greece in the middle. Unless you're extremely adventurous and have tons of time, that would make no sense. Better to keep the Greece segment of your trip entirely separate and do a separate car rental there.