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Car Rentals Italy - prices all over the place

Part 1. We're renting a car for 10 days in November (pick up and drop off Rome). Through Chase, I found some prices that seemed too good to be true - like $6.00 per day. Apparently, I was right. When I read the reviews for SurPrice and a couple of other companies I'd never heard of, I was shocked. We're going to bite the bullet and pay (a lot) more to rent from a well known brand. Has anyone rented from one of the cheapo rental companies? If so, how was the experience?

Part 2 We need to rent an automatic. There seem to be mainly all electric in that category. We have zero experience with electric vehicles, and are a little hesitant to have our first experience with one in a foreign land. Are charging stations everywhere? Should we take the plunge or should we go with what we know?

Posted by
66 posts

We always use AutoEurope for our car rentals in Europe a consolidator based in Maine so you get many car rental companies to choose from. I will check prices till I get a price that is reasonable and then book because you can cancel for free if the price drops and rebook. I've never had a problem renting a car but the nice thing about AutoEurope is that they have a 24-7 phone line so if there is a problem, you can call and talk to someone in English who will help deal with any problem that may crop up. Great company in my opinion.

autoeurope.com or autoeurope.eu

Posted by
3293 posts

Another vote for AutoEurope. I’ve used them over 10 times and have always been satisfied. Realize most credit card auto insurance does not cover Italy; I always pay for $0 deductible insurance in Italy. You’ll also need to get an International Driver Permit from AAA.

Posted by
1227 posts

I would not choose a rental car for my first experience with an electric vehicle; finding charging stations is not a trivial task when traveling in unfamiliar places, and nor is predicting the time required to secure the requisite amount of charge. Does no one in your group have any ability to drive a manual transmission?

Posted by
7229 posts

Another vote for AutoEurope

As far as the cheap lesser known agencies TBH I wouldn’t rent from them here in US so I am sure not renting from them in Italy
YMMV

Posted by
71 posts

We both are able to drive a manual transmission and this isn’t our first time driving in Europe. We’re more comfortable driving an automatic.

Posted by
16133 posts

Use AutoEurope.

It might be a bit too early for booking in November. I just rented an SUV for two weeks from now and the price wasn’t more than it was two months ago (and it’s high season now). I rent from AutoEurope once or twice a year when I go to Italy but I never booked over two months earlier. Actually the cheapest deals they got me was always when I rented for the next day (when I had to go on emergency trips).

I always select manual transmission because I prefer it, but they also have automatic transmission for all categories from compact and above (no automatic for economy cars). Manual transmission is a bit cheaper to rent so if you want to save and know how ro drive the stick, go for manual.