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Is it advisable to rent a car from Italian companies?

We are staying in Tuscany for 6 days and having a very hard time finding any automatic car cheaper than $200 a day from one of the major international companies, even through Auto Europe. Through DiscoverCars.com we found several Italian companies offering rates at almost half as little (Sicily by Car, Nolegiari, etc). We are a little bit leery though of using non-international brands, especially since all these companies don't have the best online reviews (but in fairness neither do the major brands).

Would greatly appreciate any input or advice.

Posted by
5 posts

Have you tried Expedia? There are cars from Budget, Alamo and Avis that are pretty good price.

Posted by
30 posts

I've always used Kemwel which is affiliated with AutoEurope. you will pay more for the automatic transmission, but it shouldn't be that much more. I just checked a 6 day rental out of Florence airport and Hertz/Budget were coming in around $400 USD for April.

The dates and pickup/dropoff points will certainly impact the quotes though. When and where exactly are you planning on picking up/returning the rental?

Posted by
16133 posts

Automatic cars come at a premium also because they don't have economy cars with auto transmission in Europe much, so you need to rent compact or larger.

When you enter the pickup location in the AutoEurope websites (www.autoeurope.com, www.autoeurope.eu, www.kemwel.com), make sure you enter FLORENCE ALL LOCATIONS.

$200/day seems a bit too high. I rented with Hertz through Auto Europe a Jeep Compass SUV (automatic, although later I asked for a manual which I prefer) at the last minute (literally) due to a family emergency and spent less than $1000 for 15 days, which I thought was high anyway, so I wonder why you can't find anything under $200/day. Are you going after Juy 1, when prices suddenly increase?

PS: Sicily by Car is good.

Posted by
40 posts

Roberto, yes if we are going at all it will have to be July. The upside is as far as we can see we can get the experience of swimming in Mediterranean in the summer, which I never had.

Posted by
154 posts

We had a positive experience with Sicily by Car and are using them again this fall.

When we were in the Netherlands last year we rented from SIXT, which was a positive experience as well.

For the trip in September, while we both can drive a standard shift vehicle, we rented an automatic just for ease and the price per day is no where near 200€.

Posted by
16133 posts

If it’s July or August then I can’t help. I always make it a point to start my rental on or before June 30 for that reason.

Posted by
16133 posts

I checked www.AutoEurope.com and tested one week rental in Florence and these were the results for the cheapest compact car (virtually only compact cars and above come with auto transmission in the European market).

Pick up on June 30
COMPACT with manual transmission: $532/week
COMPACT with auto transmission: $666/week

Pick up on July 1
COMPACT with manual transmission: $634/week
COMPACT with auto transmission: $796/week (but actually MIDSIZE is $25 cheaper)

The cheapest deals above are all with Europcar. I also selected the NO DEDUCTIBLE insurance coverage option.

I haven't tried with the other AutoEurope websites (.eu or kemwel).

So, if you can, rent a manual car. Also if you can change your travel dates, leave a few days earlier so that you pick up your rental before July 1. I noticed over the years that on July 1 (and after) rental costs skyrocket every year, I guess more demand after July 1.