Auto Europs GPS

My sister used the GPS last year. She said it was easy. It was delivered to their home before the trip and returned it in a pre paid package when they returned. I just signed up for one for our trip in the fall.

We have rented from Autoeurope in the past and have always been satisfied. We just made reservations for a car in France this summer through them. They will mail the GPS to your home before you leave, you mail it back in the included mailing package when you return. I just called them the other day after receiving the email promoting a special rate after we finalized and I guess we already got it. Frankly, I can't understand which bit is free and what we paid for what, but we got a GPS from 31 August to 9 September, including the $1.00 daily insurance and mailing for about $50 and that's OK with us. I believe that is a good deal, considering what you can pay for GPS if you opt to include it when you pick up the rental as opposed to this prearranged set up. They are easy to talk to and patient and polite...888 223 5555. What I don't understand is my problem, but $50 is still a bargain I think and I'm leaving it as is. We have two reservations confirmed..one for the car and another for the GPS. These promos, I think, vary by country so YMMV. Safe travels.

My understanding of the free GPS program (from the information they sent me) is that the GPS rental is free only for the time period of your rental of the AutoEurop car. However, you will pay a daily rate for the time period starting from when they mail the GPS to you prior to your trip, until you have returned it via mail, after your trip. You will also pay a $1.00 a day fee for the whole time period (even the period of time of your actual car rental). We will be in Europe for 30 days but only renting a car for 6 days. Thus the "free GPS" program is not cost-effective for us. We'd be paying a daily rate for at least 28 days, and only getting it "free" for 6. Check the fine print on the information they will send you when you apply for the Free GPS Promo.

If you have a smartphone like an iPhone, you already have everything you need to travel. iPhones and Adroids come with mapping apps. I put Google Maps on my iPhone and it is the only thing I used in the 15 days we spent in Italy this March. Folks like to complicate things, but smartphone apps do it all.

On our past 7 trips to Europe, we have always rented cars through Auto Europe or Sixt and only once (three years ago) did the car come without a GPS, even though we didn't book a car with GPS (we usually rent economy or compact size cars). Many many new cars come with GPS as a standard feature these days. I'm not suggesting you rely on this but perhaps you could go with the iPhone suggestion from the previous poster as a backup. We have always gone with a friend's GPS (on which we loaded the European maps - much more cost effective than booking GPS through Auto Europe) as a backup but only needed it the once.

We used Auto Europe two years ago for Italy and last year for England. Both times we had them mail the GPS to our home before we left and we returned it when we got home. It worked great and is cheaper than renting the system when you get to Europe. Both cars, being new, had built-in GPS systems on the dashboard. When we inquired why we needed to rent the portable one, we were told that if you use the GPS system that in built in the car (it is inactivated until you pay) the fee is much higher than toting along the portable one. Maybe some day this fee will be reduced and be ore reasonable so you can have one less item to pack and worry about.