I'm still wrestling with the car rental issue. Budget is giving a better price, but the deductibles are higher. Autoeurope has a higher rate but lower deductibles. Am I reading their website correctly that you pay for the car when you reserve it??? I've never run into this before. (It says full refunds available up until time of rental). They appear to have a west side office on Circonvallazione Gianicolense, not far from Trastevere (where we're staying), which seems like a better idea than backtracking to FCO to pick up a car. I guess I'm nervous because of all the postings I've seen on various sites about people being charged for nonexistent damages long after their return home. That's why I initially thought it would be better to deal with a company based in the U.S. Has anyone had any trouble with extra charges after the fact??
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA
34 posts
where will you be driving too after Rome? I ask because Rome is an extremely difficult city to drive in - we had a tough time. I might suggest training to a smaller city and renting the car there or at least at the Roma airport.
As for Auto Europe we rented from them with no problem!
Posted by
Portland
3637 posts
You can have your cake and eat it, too. Call AE and tell them what you found at Budget. They will meet that price. Yes, you do prepay. (I figure that protects us against any further deterioration of the dollar.) We have rented from AE many times without problems, except once. The problems, if any, come come from the actual rental company. AE doesn't have their own cars; they are brokers for other companies. There is an AE office in Maine, as you will see if you look for the phone # on their website. The only time we had a problem was when a stone flew up from the road and cracked the windshield. Avis charged our AMEX card $450 (in 2001!) for it. They also appended another $150 charge the reason for which was printed in Spanish, which we couldn't decipher. We had the damage insurance via the cc and let them take care of it. (My suspicion is that AMEX didn't pay $450 for a compact car windshield.) Oh, and the $150 charge also disappeared.
Posted by
DeWitt, MI, USA
199 posts
Jean, you might also try Avis. In September we stayed in a hotel on Via Cavour, then picked up our car 1/4 mile from our hotel. It worked great. We actually had a lower price from a "lesser" brand, but chose Avis. With the potential complications of renting in a country whose language we don't know, renting from such a known quantity as Avis was reassuring.
Posted by
Boulder, CO, USA
2 posts
Ditto on avoiding a car in Rome. Are you going to relax? If so, you sure don't want to be trying to drive around or even into Rome. Besides, the driver gets to do no sight seeing except trying to figure out where to go and avoiding crazy drivers.
Posted by
OP
Arlington
127 posts
Thanks for all the input. No, we don't intend to drive IN Rome....just drive OUT of Rome (north)& back to FCO at the end of our trip. I was hoping that getting from this Circonvallazione Gianicolense (south of Trastevere) back to the west side ring road wouldn't be too harrowing...& it would save us the cost of a shuttle ride (for 7 ppl)back to FCO to pick up the cars. As per one of the posts, I did check into renting in Orvieto...but we still have to return to FCO, & getting 7 ppl TO Orvieto negates the savings in rental costs.
Posted by
Berkeley, California, US
655 posts
Auto Europe, absolutely! This is my sixth trip to Europe (Italy and France) and I have used Auto Europe each time. They are absolutely great! I have changed my reservation numerous times on each trip. Each time Auto Europe came through like a champ. As for driving out of Rome, I am also trying to figure out how to get out of Rome. My husband and I will be staying at a convent near Circus Maximus and picking up the car near the main train station. We will then drive back to the convent to pick up our bags and then I have to figure out how to actually get out of Rome and into Umbria. Has anyone done this? Any suggestions?
Posted by
OP
Arlington
127 posts
After reading these posts, I might advise you to pick up your car somewhere other than the train station, which is in the middle of town, I think (?) Most companies have multiple locations. I would think the best thing would be to rent as close to 'out of town' as possible, then hit the ring road & head north on the A-1 into Umbria.