I go with the best price and pickup location. Why don't you either call AutoEurope or go on their web site and see what type of pricing you can get from them. Don't forget to check for the same class of car that your TA has quoted you for and same pickup location.

I almost always use AutoEurope and have never had a problem.

AutoEurope will match any competitor's price, and their customer service is exemplary. I'd always choose AutoEurope.

If prices and conditions are similar I think renting from a company that has its own offices throughout Europe, like Hertz does is better than going thru a middleman like AutoEurope does - I think AutoEurope has no offices themselves in Europe but works thru European car rental firms similar to Hertz.

If something goes wrong better IMO to be able to go into the car rental company's offices and deal with it - that is if price is the same - AutoEurope and other middlemen often seem to offer better deals - but if all is the same IMO deal with a company that actually has car rental offices in Europe where you are going.

AutoEurope is a consolidator. You may pay less and still get your car from Hertz.

You may pay less and still get your car from Hertz.>

But if you have problems Hertz will deal with it or do you have to call AutoEurope in the U.S.? Curious - if Hertz considers you like their own client then great - if not and price is the same then why go thru a middleman - price is the key - if AutoEurope is cheaper go with them - if not go with Hertz IMO.

My experience with a possible one-way rental from Hertz (pick up in Bordeaux, return in Limoges) is that it charges a one-way fee. On the other hand, I would have avoided the RR station pick-up fee; but the one-way fee was twice the pick-up fee.

We always do Hertz - but were have a corporate discount program with them. But I prefer to deal with a US-based company (which I have found are better at customer service) and has offices in the most places.

But it really matters on where you want to pick and drop the car at times you need.

Autoeurope are an agent. ( good one at that)

You will never hire the car from them. I have used them for years and they frequently produce the best deals but this may be just because of my profile. British user logging on from the UK. Insurance structures are totally different when accessing sites from different world locations.

Hertz ARE the car hire company. In theory AE should pass my business to them but they never have, AVIS neither. I queried AE about this last year and they said these two companies mainly offload any deals to corporate clients and do not encourage business through agents.

Whenever, I have obtained quotes from Hertz the cost has been up to twice that of AE. I have the impression Hertz and AVIS do not want my one off business.

"I queried AE about this last year and they said these two companies mainly offload any deals to corporate clients and do not encourage business through agents."

That's interesting Dickie_Gr. Maybe it depends on the country. The last two times I've used autoEurope in the UK they've placed me w/ Hertz.

I've been placed with Hertz through AE almost every time I've rented in Italy.

AE are a consolidator. I have used them several times this year alone, at LAX, Nice, Marseilles, Copenhagen and couple weeks ago in Johannesburg. In Joburg & Nice I had a Hertz car.

I've not had any issues with AE so cannot assess their customer service. However I did query an amount on my credit card and because customer service is based in the US and operates on US time zones, it's frustrating that you cannot contact them until our afternoon.

The only small issue I had with AE is the rental in Copenhagen. It states that the rates are not for Danish citizens (on the AE UK site). My other half is a Danish citizen but not resident in DK, they could not answer whether the rate would apply or not so we just took a chance and all was OK.

>>>But if you have problems Hertz will deal with it<<<

Maybe, maybe not. Some Hertz locations are corporate while others are franchises. You will not get the same responses from a franchisee as you will from a corporate location.

FYI - Hertz in Europe practices DCC. It's written in their contract so you have no choice in the matter. The only way to avoid it is to pay in advance.

Janis

Have must have rented AE 10 times over the past 5 years.

Always been placed with Thrifty, Budget or local operators like Sicily Autonoleggio..

Alamo are always silly cheap for us in the States.

However, we only ever enter deals with no excess. Not an insured excess but NO excess. I cannot be bothered with the pantomime of photographing a car on return. Autoeurope always seem to have good compact no excess deals for UK customers. There have been scams reported with insured excess deals. The hire companies know your excess is insured and so make false claims against you knowing you will claim the excess charged against your insurance. Just leaves the hirer with piles of paper on their return home.

The inequities in rages are the reason why I feel it is always difficult to give advice about car hire. It is difficult to generalise across borders.

And it is ABSURD for you to "generalize" about car rental companies and insurance.

I've rented a number of times with AutoEurope or Kemwel over the years. Only once did I have a slight problem. The car rental company did not honor my free upgrade and I wasn't that attached to it to call AE and get them to honor it. The car was still an excellent deal and it was small so parking it was easy.

A while back I did a little poll on fodors asking if ppl often got the car in the photo. Seems most ppl usung hertz got the type/brand listed.

Here's a link to the afre mentioned thread about getting the car that was listed.


http://www.fodors.com/community/fodorite-lounge/do-you-ever-get-the-rental-car-you-thought-you-would-get.cfm

Having lived in France and traveled extensively in Europe, I'd go with Europcar. You'll love the Dordogne!

Dukey

I made the point that you can't generalise.

How can that be a generalisation?

Kybourbon, what is DCC that you referred to ? And thank you the rest of you.....the Hertz quote seems reasonable.....we will be picking car up in Brive, staying in Sarlat for the 5 days, then drop off in Toulouse. Not sure how insurance works.......any other things we need to be aware of when renting?
Thanks again!

travelcat48: DCC is Dynamic Currency Conversion.

They charge you in your home currency when it would be to your advantage to use the currency of the country you are visiting.

Say something costs €100 but they charge you in $. You lose twice - they use an inflated (bad) exchange rate, and your credit card charges you a 'foreign conversion' fee even though they didn't have to 'convert' anything.

Always pay in the local currency -- never fall for "We can run this in US$ for you - as a service/courtesy"

AE is a broker who has contracts with different rental companies in various contries---like Hertz, Avis, and Europcar. They will put you with the best option for you, which will vary by model and by country. So, the above generalities are not valid. Their customer service is legendary, and they will match any other valid quote. That said, my best quotes in the past year have all been from their sister company----Kemwel.

Sorry to slightly sidetrack - do most car companies charge you for a full tank of fuel and expect you to bring it back empty? Its just when I am on a short break I find they charge you an extortionate price for the fuel and they then get it back half full - seems like a rip off.

If people are rattling on about my generalisations regarding AE referrals of my business. It isn't a generalisation it is an observed fact. They have never contracted my business out to Hertz or Avis.

An AE employee told me that Hertz are not competitive with quotes to UK customers on European rentals.

I have no idea or interest why, I do know that after much research they, and Argus Hire, consistently provide the best deals and I have rarely had an issue with the service.

Clearly, you can't generalise as AE will offer the best deal possible and there preferred partner will change hourly.

>>Sorry to slightly sidetrack - do most car companies charge you for a full tank of fuel and expect you to bring it back empty? Its just when I am on a short break I find they charge you an extortionate price for the fuel and they then get it back half full - seems like a rip off.<<

My experience is that they don't charge you at all for fuel if you bring it back full (which is what it is when you collect the car). If you fail to top up the tank on return, then they will charge you for the refuel, plus maybe a service charge. Either way, it's always more than what you pay if you top up yourself.

BTW, I always use Auto Europe for hires over 3 days (normally in Italy). I find Hertz expensive, plus they have a link up with Ryanair, so when I land from a Ryanair flight there's always a huge queue for cars at the Hertz desk.

Through AutoEurope I've had Avis and Europcar mostly.

As another U.K. poster, my experience is the same as Dickie's. I have booked through both AutoEurope and other consolidators for cars in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal. The actual supplier has usually been a local company and not one of the major U.S.-owned companies like Hertz or Avis. When I have compared prices, the major international companies are invariably substantially more expensive.

I have always booked through the website and not by phone. When I did phone a company once, I was surprised to be told "Press 1 to speak in English; Press 2 for German". I have no idea where the companies are actually based.

My choice is for the best vehicle insurance that is available, bought from the consolidator. The cars are picked up and returned to the same place, which is usually the airport. There seems little advantage in getting a taxi into town, to an office with restricted hours, in order to make some small saving. That is particularly true when returning the car and time is short.

All prices quoted by U.K. consolidators are complete and include all taxes and charges. There is sometimes a charge for an additional driver, which can make a big difference between companies. The other variable is whether the depot is off airport and how good the connecting transport is. That is something that is difficult to predict.

Dickie is correct that you simply cannot generalise about the deals available in different countries.

"Hertz have a link up with Ryanair."

That explains a lot.

The reason why we were quite happy not to be referred to Hertz was the size of their queues. I always thought it odd that so many people wanted to pay so much.

My experience is that they don't charge you at all for fuel if you bring it back full (which is what it is when you collect the car). If you fail to top up the tank on return, then they will charge you for the refuel, plus maybe a service charge. Either way, it's always more than what you pay if you top up yourself.>>

a new quirk experienced on a recent trip to the Netherlands was that when we returned the car [with a full tank] they wanted the receipt from the petrol station where we had just filled up. After we had argued the toss about whether we'd been told about this when we picked up the car [me saying no, them saying yes in the manner of a UK pantomime] I eventually handed it over, but not before they had told me why they wanted it - which was to check that we hadn't put in the wrong sort of fuel.

i forbore to tell them that a) we'd driven it in so presumably we hadn't as it was still going and b) this was not the only time we'd put petrol into it during our trip so presumably they ought to ask for all our petrol receipts.

anyone else come across this?

PS - this was a small car hire company based "at" Schipol, the "at" turning out to be a 20 min bus-ride away. this was not made clear when we rented and as we had my 80 year old mother in tow, was not very convenient, to say the least. yet another thing to check for!

Ann

Over the years I have had every Pantomime in the book.

In Sardinia I had them trying to charge me 130 e for a car seat for week, that on a 120e car hire. In the end after much "bog offing" the clerk stuck 30 e cash in his pocket and that was that. Again in Sardinia we returned the car with sand on the carpets, the island does have the best beaches in Europe and our son was then 3. They tried to charge us 100e for cleaning the car, again after telling them to bog off many times, I have the carpets a quick shake and the 100e bill was removed.

Since those stressed out times, we always take a zero access deal with a return the car empty deal. That way as long as the car is full at the start it is difficult to get into trouble.

Last year in Mallorca we were given the car empty of fuel!!!

Particularly with the open credit card swipe, we feel very exposed and may as well wear please abuse us T shirts when signing up for anything but a zero excess deal.

Have to say our best car hire experiences have always been in the US.

Never trusted those shady Italians.

"they wanted the receipt from the petrol station where we had just filled up."
Yes I have experienced this twice. Both times in South Africa, most recently in Joburg (Hertz) this Xmas and last year in Cape Town (Europcar). Not only did they want receipts, but they told us which petrol stations to fill up at ie the ones right at the airport.

"My experience is that they don't charge you at all for fuel if you bring it back full" - I've had car rentals where you bring the car back empty, so it depends, best to check when picking up the car as to what they want. More often though, the car should be brought back full.

"they wanted the receipt from the petrol station where we had just filled up."
Yes I have experienced this twice. Both times in South Africa, most recently in Joburg (Hertz) this Xmas and last year in Cape Town (Europcar). Not only did they want receipts, but they told us which petrol stations to fill up at ie the ones right at the airport."


Had they problems with people putting something in the car besides gas to save money? Why would they want this? I've never rented a car in S. Africa.

They do that in some places in the US, it's to prove you actually bought gas. Maybe some people do put something else in, but I think it's also to prove you just filled up within a short distance of where you turned it in as some gas gauges can be off by a gallon or more (meaning the full marker isn't that accurate).

They do that in some places in the US, it's to prove you actually bought gas. Maybe some people do put something else in, but I think it's also to prove you just filled up within a short distance of where you turned it in as some gas gauges can be off by a gallon or more (meaning the full marker isn't that accurate).>>

They definitely told me that it was to check that we'd put the right fuel into the car.