sundriedtopepo

I have customarily used Autoeurope for rental cars in Spain and Italy because I find they have the best rates. However, having just booked a rental for our upcoming trip in France, I came across something I haven't seen before. Charges which are usually added in to the final quote on company's own websites are now being charged separately on AutoEurope.

For example, Environmental Fee of Euro 8/day up to max 48 for all automatic vehicles.
Railstation surcharge, Euro 40.80 per rental, VAT included.
Road fee Euro 3.30 per day, max 33

All these fees are to be paid locally, and are not added in to the final amount I prepaid to AutoEurope.

I know, I should have looked farther to find all the small print. But as I said above, I did not find this when I double checked on Hertz's, for example, own website.

So adding in all these charges, I am paying at least as much as I would have by booking directly with a rental company. So much for my savings.

So, this is not really a question, more a heads up for others renting vehicles in Europe.

Sarastro

All of the fees you mentioned are charged at drop off. This is not a change as this has always been the case with Autoeurope rentals.

Without access to the specific quote you received from Hertz, it would not be possible to say that Hertz doesn´t have the same fee structure. Hertz always charges a one way fee for drop offs in France which is why I do not recommend them. Many of the contracts also have mileages charges.

The biggest advantage with Autoeurope is that they are always available to help you with any problem, no matter what that may be and they are available with English speaking agents 24/7.

Michael

These are customary fees. Even if the rental agency is not in the RR station, the fee will usually be leveled in smaller cities and towns such as Brive-la-Gaillarde. The rentals will usually be from Europcar and in the past, one way fees were not imposed by that agency whereas Hertz, in my experience, imposed a one-way fee that was higher than the RR station fee. I say in the past because this summer I rented a car through Autoeurope with Europcar as the rental agency in Denmark, and a one-way fee was imposed. These add-on fees may vary from country to country.

sundriedtopepo

Michael, yes, I realize that those are customary fees, but when I was researching, I found that those fees are added in when one receives the final price from a rental car agency.

What I didn't realize is that with AutoEurope they are not included in the quote, but have to be paid locally.

In other words, my quotes from the rental car agencies were not apples to apples with AutoEurope.

In fact, I don't recall ever having to pay a local environmental fee for an automatic transmission even with AutoEurope in Spain or Italy.

Michael

<i>In fact, I don't recall ever having to pay a local environmental fee for an automatic transmission even with AutoEurope in Spain or Italy.</i>

It may be a French thing, currently misguided if U.S. EPA efficiency postings are to be believed, where automatics are often more efficient than manuals.

Those extra fees were always listed in the contract agreement from Autoeurope. It may be that companies like Hertz or Avis incorporated them in the daily rate.

sundriedtopepo

It may be a French thing, as I checked my records from Italy in 2016, and neither had an environmental charge for an automatic.

And both rentals in 2016 through AutoEurope had included the pickup/drop charge at the airport/train station, up front, no local charge.

Sarastro

Most of these fees are easily avoided if you simply rent a manual transmission and avoid train station or airport pickups.

StuDudley

>>Most of these fees are easily avoided if you simply rent a manual transmission and avoid train station or airport pickups.<,

And places like Nice which charged me a "resort fee" when I picked up the car from a downtown office (nowhere close to the train station).

Stu Dudley

kja

I always book my rentals through gemut.com, which works with AutoEurope -- and ALL of my gemut estimates have included ALL fees, local, add-on, whatever.... They are very conscientious about that.

tom_mn

AutoEurope is small part of the European travel scene. Recently reserved an Avis rental Trondheim to Oslo and the Avis website charged a $110 drop fee. An Avis rental on AutoEurope charged an $850 drop fee for the same itinerary. AutoEurope didn't get my business.

miket123

I have found Auto Europe to be exceptionally honest about fees. I never had any surprises at the counter.

When I rented a car in France those fees were present, disclosed on their website with the quote before I rented the car from them.

It always pays to check more than one seller. In my case I went and got quotes from Hertz and Avis and they were several hundred dollars more than the full price from Auto Europe (including the counter fees). That may not always be true, so check around and take the best offer.

Christina

I had the same experience recently, several misc. fees were NOT included in the AUtoeurope quote but were in the quote from the actual Hertz website. Autoeurope did not have a cheaper price, I got a cheaper price from Hertz by using my AAA discount (10 pct) which Autoeurope doesn't recognize and their rate was not cheaper than the std Hertz rate to begin with.

This is the terminology on Autoeurope's website for a manual compact rental from Hertz:
<<RENTAL DOES NOT INCLUDE
... info on insurance, then
Railstation Surcharge: EUR 41.76, VAT included, paid locally.
Road Tax: EUR 3.60, per day (maximum EUR 28.80), VAT included, paid locally.>>

By contrast, Hertz' terms DID include these items, this is a quote from my Hertz contract:
<<Included
Location Service Charge EUR
Vehicle Licensing Fee and Road Tax EUR
Unlimited Free Kilometers Included>>

Aside from that, Autoeurope has a cancellation period of 48 hours in advance or you get charged a $75 fee, even if you cancel a day in advance. Hertz directly doesn't have any criteria on time period beforehand, you just have to cancel before the pickup time if you want to cancel, and if you don't, you get charged a 65 euro admin fee (for not cancelling). Now the amts are the same, just the time period, although that isn't an issue for most people as most don't want to cancel.

But my point is, Autoeurope's terms are not advantageous and their rate was not cheaper, at least in this case. And their rate terms are standard on their website, for which fees are not included in the quote, I found the same terms on an Europcar choice (not including rail station surcharge nor road tax).

miket123

out of curiosity I just priced a compact rental w/ manual transmission from Rennes train station and returned there from 9/1/17 thru 9/7 on both the Hertz and Auto Europe sites. This is similar to a trip I did.

At Auto Europe is is $156 to get the car from Hertz and clicking on the info for "Basic Rate" it says it does not include a railstation charge of 41.76E or the daily road tax of 3.6E which add another $79 for a total of $235.

On the Hertz website it is 215.28E ($253) for what looks like the same rental with the tax and pickup charge included.

Where the rates really diverge is if you want insurance. On the Auto Europe website you can choose their inclusive package with deductible of 1,500E for $218 plus the extra $79 as above for a total of $298, or a no-deductible rate at $262 plus the extra $79 which adds up to $341.

Hertz offers the collision damage waiver with 1,500E deductible at the counter for a daily price of 25E and do not offer a weekly rate (total rental is $459). They offer super cover with no deductible for 120E per week (total rental is $395)

So to me it looks like Auto Europe is less in all cases. Your mileage may vary; get the quotes and compare for your trip.

miket123

^^^ I should add that the Hertz rate for insurance if booked thru the Hertz site may be even worse that I wrote above. The Hertz info for the Super Cover says "If you opted for, or if your rate includes Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Protection (TP), you may also wish to purchase an additional protection, "Super Cover" (known as "Pack Confort") to waive your already limited liability in case of damage to, or theft of the Hertz vehicle"

I went thru the rental on the Hertz site to the point where you'd put in credit card info and not once could I find a page that said the CDW and TP was included. If, as I fear, you first need to buy that coverage in order to buy the Super Cover then you'd pay an extra $273 on top of the $395 I calculated above.

The Auto Europe No-Deductible rate page specifically states "Theft Protection (TP) with zero deductible" and "Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) including damage to wheels, glass, underside and roof of vehicle with zero deductible"


So one week with complete insurance coverage, rented on the Hertz site, may cost $668. The same Hertz car, rented thru AutoEurope, with the same insurance, would be $341.

sundriedtopepo

I have excellent coverage from my travel Visa so don't need to buy any of that expensive insurance. I have previously had the dubious pleasure of having a car damaged in a parking lot in Spain and the Visa insurance covered every cent.

Nevertheless the car I just rented for 15 days cost $669 CAD and now plus 40.80 euro x 2 plus 48 euro plus 33 euro.

That's additional local charges of approx $240 CAD no bargain in my books.

Sarastro

<i>I have excellent coverage from my travel Visa so don't need to buy any of that expensive insurance.</i>

How many claims have you actually made on your Visa coverage? Excellent is not an adjective I would use to describe Visa coverage.

American Express insurance is very good and a relative bargain at $25 per rental.