Auto Europe GPS alert

What was the shipping charge for? Wasn't the GPS installed in the vehicle when you got it? If the shipping charge didn't bother you, I would think that the benefits of having the GPS were well worth $1/day. Yes, you should have seen the fine print, but at least it wasn't $10/day.

If you knew how popular GPS systems were to be stolen, you wouldn't mind paying the insurance fee instead of having to pay a replacement fee. They are highly popular to steal. Even that 5 min. run into the grocery store is enough time for them to break your window and steal the GPS. Seriously, this has happened to 2 friends of ours in the most unlikeliest of places, once in a small city - Worms, out on a busy street, and once out in the country at a youth hostel located in a castle up on a mountain, with no other cars in the lot. A $1.00 a day charge is cheap insurance.

My lease was in 2005. Our trip was from the first week in October to the first week in November (maybe that is a good time of year to lease). I leased a diesel Renault Grande Scenic II seven passenger car for five of us and one carry-on each (wife, self and kids 15, 12, and 8). It was perfect for us. If we had been more or larger people or carried more luggage, we would have needed something bigger. For four a lot of cars will work, just make sure to get room for your luggage. For two, a train is probably the cheaper option with some short term car rentals for the hard to reach areas.

I picked up in Amsterdam and dropped off in Rome. A'dam had about a $100 pick-up and Rome had a $250 drop-off charge. Even with those costs included, the lease was about $1,400 for 22 days of a 28 day trip (picked up as we left A'dam and dropped off when we arrived in Rome). The price includes full CDW insurance. The complete budget would have to include (I think) four tanks of diesel, a pass to drive in Austria, tolls in Italy plus parking in Munich, Venice and Florence. If I knew then what I know now, I could have saved a ton by planning around parking (especially in Florence and Venice).

The GPS was a portable Garmin Nuvi. We didn't mount it we used it as a handheld device. The GPS did well on the main roads but got confused on some of the more rural roads we were on in Tuscany and outside of Rome. Bottom line was that I was annoyed at myself for not noticing the charge.

If you are renting for more than two weeks, why aren't you leasing? When we leased it was about half the cost of a rental.

Brad- Can you post more information on your lease. We leased in 2001 and 2003 and loved it. However, this year when I went to lease for a 29 day trip, I was shocked at how much it had gone up. Part of the problem was the increase in leasing outside of France. There was a $200 pick up fee and a $200 drop off fee. (Contrast with $35 in 2001 and $75 in 2003) It just was not cost effective. It came out $1700-2000 for us versus $1250 for renting (including full coverage insurance-we bought the insurance through CSA as part of our travel insurance.) I would much prefer to lease but... We did need a mid size car since there was 4 of us traveling but I even compared compact prices just to see if that was the problem. Also, when we went to the British Isles leasing did not pencil out- Very expensive because of getting the car from France to England and England to Ireland and back. So a lease isn't always the answer.