We are paying, through Europcar, $80 more for a 2 day car rental in Spain than for a whole week in France. Is Spain particularly high in general? They are both train station to train station.
We rented once before in France three years ago for three weeks and thought it was very cheap.
Probably the same reason there were times when I had to rent a car in Portland , OR (business trip) I would pay $20 per day one trip and on another it was $50 or more per day
It just how the market reacts to the demand
I think it is the two days. We often find that in the US that a weekly rental is cheaper than a couple of days or a weekend.
France always seems cheaper especially so when comparing to Itsly. We tentcars in Nice when going to Italy.
I've used AutoEurope numerous times but not for such a short rental period. You might be paying a premium for that as well as pickup and dropping off at a RR station. My suggestion would be to call AutoEurope on their toll free line a discus it with one of their reps. I've found them helpful and well informed in the past. Remember that they are a consolidator and a two day rental may not be "normal" got their usually economical pricing. I would also check with other sites (Expedia, Travelocity) and directly with the auto rental companies in the cities where you'll be traveling in Spain.
Costs depend on the country, the daily demand and who knows what else. I needed a car in Spain for only 12 days but that price was higher than for 14 days! So I rented for 14 days and dropped it off two days early - and even received a slight refund for the two days i didn't use. Twice I found the price for a fractional week was higher than for the whole week. So rent for the week and return it early! Go figure.
Be aware when you rent on-line, that there is fine print and what you pay up-front is not the total cost. For example, I rented a Hertz thru AutoEurope for 147.55 USD. They said to be sure to read the contract fine print, which warned me that there could be local fees/taxes of euro 3.60/day for road tax plus a location surcharge of 34.80 euros. Both were supposed to include VAT. Thus the max extra I should have paid was 63.60 euros. However, Hertz then included VAT on top of that and then charged an outrageous euro-to-dollar conversion fee and I ended up paying $83 in addition to the $147.55 that I thought the car would cost me.
I think AutoEurope is a really good company and they have helped me solve problems more than once. But just be warned that you will not know what the fine print is until you have a contract in-hand and even then, it's up to the actual auto vendor (Hertz in this case) to decide what extras you will actually be charged for.
One more word of warning with Hertz. If you plan to use your credit card to cover your comprehensive insurance, it MUST be in the name of the person making the reservation - not in your spouse's name - even if you are married.
