Tuscan Car Rental on Sunday and honesty

I don't recall many posts about dishonest car rental practices. I've seen more complaints about rental car companies in the States. If you use Autoeurope you'll be working with a reliable company and you can explore available rates online.

A rental rate of 100 Euros a day sounds like a daily rate for a renting on the spot over there.

You're not going to find rental agencies open in small towns on a Sunday. Again, by spending a little time on Autoeurope's site, you can check. But the Rome airport offices should be open.

Actually, Doug, there is a large number of posts about dishonest car rental procedures. I spent many hours yesterday researching the entries on car rental companies & kept a list of those with the most favorable & unfavorable experiences. After so many nightmare situations, I am forewarned & know a bit more of how to be an informed consumer.

Rome would be an option for renting on Sunday but we want to not backtrack when proceeding on to Milan later in the week.

Thanks for your help.

I have rented several times from AutoEurope.com I have never paid 100 Euros a day. More like $400 to $500 for a week. Higher then I pay in the US, but not that bad.

I like AutoEurope because you prepay (which locks you in from continuing dollar slides LOL!) and they have been great to deal with.

I have generally been able to pick up whereever and when I wanted with them. The cars from from major compaines. I have gotten Hertz, Avis and Sixt.

Judy - I have to push back a little here. What were the primary examples of dishonest practices that "many, many" posts reported?

I'm on this site quite a bit and just don't recall many complaints about European car rental agencies that warrant the label "dishonest". Mistakes, yes, from time to time. Most people report positive experiences.

The reason I respond is that sometimes people on this board seem to focus on scaring each other into paralysis. Europe is not a den of thieves.

It has been almost three years since the summer we took the train from Rome to Chiusi to pick up a rental car. That was actually not the original plan- which was to pick it up after taking the train all the way to Siena!

Chiusi is the transer, as you have discovered. It is a tiny little station- it looked like "Fiddler on the Roof"! Few services. The bus pulls up out front and there were a couple taxis. Our train was cancelled and it was four hours until the next one. Some other Americans opted to take the bus to Siena instead. We ended up taking over the rental car from a couple who were trying to drop theirs off- but it was not walking distance from the station.

This was with AutoEurope. There is an American (I think Boston) contact number 24/7; they are always reachable, and have been wonderful for us three times now. You might want to consider a pickup in Siena instead, because service is very limited on the weekends and even worse in the smaller towns.

Thank you Karen. I too was in Chiusi three years ago & stayed at the La Foce Castelluccio...gorgeous! If what I am finding on Rick Steves, as well as Tripadvisor & Slow Travel Italy are correct, there are at least three car rental agencies there. Postings on Slow Travel Italy explain how to get to each one. People do seem to be happy with Auto Europe so I have applied for a car with them. Since they are a consolidator I won't know what company I'm renting from until I confirm with a credit card.(I wanted to see if it increased the rate much to drop off in another community. It doesn't.)
Siena is one of the options that I checked out but we have opted to rent at the Termi on Sunday & return the car in Chiusi on Friday.That way we can visit Orvieto & La Foce on the way north. Slow Travel Italy also gives instructions as to how to get out of Rome after renting at the Termini. Good thing we've lived in several big cities. :>)
Grazi