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Car rental insurance - follow up

Posted by on

This is a follow-up to my now closed post "car rental insurance" of may 2023

Rented the car for 16 days last July. Booked from the US using AutoEurope and picked up the car at EuropeCar in Lisbon. Very glad I went with a zero deductible CDW with 3rd party coverage, as the opportunity for a vacation ruining car incident was much higher than at home. My peace of mind alone was worth the extra euros.

Some challenges:
Using a gas station for the 1st time where you pump gas first, then drive forward to a pay kiosk. Thanks to the anonymous local who helped me out. Navigating roundabouts where the signs marking them were unclear. Using navigation on the phone was essential, but I needed to look at the on-screen map to see which exit to take rather than follow the voice navigation of "take the 2nd exit, 3rd exit, etc". Setting up the map route before you start driving, since there may be no safe place to pull off. I was glad I had a gizmo to stick the phone on the dash.

The charges for the road tax and toll transponder rental showed up right after returning the car - no surprises. The dozens of
fees for the tolls appeared later as two different charges, the last charge showing up SIX MONTHS LATER. The fees were reasonable with nothing amiss, but no idea how a fully electronic system could take this long to post them.

Posted by
6569 posts

The issue with exits out of a roundabout isn’t unique to Portugal. Sometimes Google maps will count a service road and other times it won’t. That’s where having a 2nd person comes in handy. I’ve never had an issue pumping the gas. I did have one experience near Fátima where I didn’t know the station was cash only until after I started pumping. At least I had cash.

Glad you had an overall good experience renting.

Posted by
1201 posts

Once you listen to the in Google Maps a few times, you will get it. Better to keep your eyes off the phone screen and your eyes on the road. There are usually signs which explain the exits as you approach the roundabout.

My pet peeve is when the driver signals improperly when approaching and driving the roundabout. Some drivers turn on their right hand signal before the enter the roundabout and then proceed to drive around the roundabout to the second or third exit which causes a lot of confusion for other drivers. In my opinion, you should only put on the right hand signal when you are about to exit the roundabout which is okay if you intend to take the first exit. However, if you intend to drive around the roundabout to the second, third, or possibly 4th exit before exiting, you should actually turn on your left hand signal to let other drivers know that you are continuing around the roundabout. And you should only then turn on the right signal as you approach your desired exit. That way, other drivers know whether it is safe to pull in front of you in the roundabout.

Posted by
33 posts

Thankfully, the roundabouts I encountered were mostly small with little traffic. Once I had three to deal with in short order which is
where having the phone close to dash level is best. I can process a picture better than those untimely verbal cues. At a glance I could see which exit to take before I even entered each circle. The navigation AI did try to kill us a few times, but that goes with the territory.

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