jent103

I booked a car rental in Italy with Europcar via Kemwel, picking up at the Pisa airport. I emailed Kemwel about a GPS rental, and from what I can tell, it would cost $40 just to ship and - since we leave next Saturday - may not get here in time anyway. (I had thought their GPS rental would be an add-on that we would pick up with the car - count this as the thing I've learned today!) In the States, I just use my phone; I'll have a small international data plan added to my phone for the trip, but would rather not spend the data to use it as a GPS. Is it an easy/likely thing to request a GPS rental at the time of car pickup? I tried to see if the Europcar web site would let me go ahead and add one to the rental, but it doesn't even recognize my reservation number (which is another thing I'm not sure whether I should be concerned about!). Of course we can use paper maps as well, but it certainly would be nice to have the GPS for backup driving around Tuscany.

Thanks in advance for your voices of experience!

Sher

I inquired about the rental which they say is "free". The $40 is for shipping, as you say and also includes the return shipping. I believe you can also purchase insurance for $1 day if I remember correctly.

It will not arrive until two days before your trip. You don't say how long you will be gone so if it is the cost of the insurance each day for the duration of your trip. Add another $%14 on and you would have invested about $54.

A GPS is a handy back up in Italy. Can you bunp up your data plan for less than $40-$54 for the trip?

Would you want to take a chance that the car rental company will have one available?

I would start by calling Kemwel to ask about a GPS rental as an add on at time of pick up because that is an extra you are able to order when you request a car.

Dukey1

We did just that at the Munich airport Europcar counter several years ago. Simply told them we wanted a unit and they provided it. I paid for the unit rental separately using my credit card. Couldn't have been easier. These days I simply use my phone since my T-Mobile plans includes both unlimited text and data when I travel internationally.

hetismij2

Can you not download maps to your phone so you can use the GPS function without needing data?

jent103

hetismij2, that would be awesome - I've never used that feature and had forgotten about it, actually. The GPS will still find you without using data as well, correct? It would take some advance planning, but I'm generally pretty good about that, last-minute GPS questions aside!

Dukey, thanks for sharing that experience! That's reassuring. You don't happen to remember how much the GPS cost per day, do you?

Sher, we'll be gone 13 days total, but only renting the car for six days. The email confused me because it sounded like we'd be paying something for the days we'd have the GPS but were not renting the car, and with the shipping fee, it sounded like it very possibly wasn't worth that expense. Given all that and the time crunch, I haven't bothered to actually call them. I'm on Verizon, which charges $25/month for 100MB of international data, so relying on the phone for data is not very cost-effective either.

kja

Another option would be to buy your own GPS. If you have amazon prime (or get it!), you can get a unit in just a couple of days....

bilboburgler

Weird, nearly every European car rental I've used in the past 10 years has GPS in box to be handed out. Never heard of it being shipped around. I'd give them a call and confirm that is what is happening

ParisAmsterdam

Yes... the GPS function of the phone is independant of data. Where data gets used is for the maps. Try MapsWithme.... predownload the maps and you're good to go.

I've lent my TomTom with European maps to a BIL and SIL for their last 2 trips... both times the rental car came with built in GPS at no charge. One was a Peugeot in Scotland, last week it was a Ford Focus in Provence. Go figure.

topeater

We recently rented one for the car we picked up in Florence. We used AutoEurope. The thing was so out of date that is was completely useless. We ended up using our phones. I would add my time to my phone and skip renting GPS.

jent103

Thanks, everyone! We could order a GPS here, very true (the shipping from Kemwel would probably cover at least half of it!), but I'd rather not buy one more thing that I'll only need for six days. bilbo, that's what the email said, but I agree it sounds like a really strange way to do things!

Thanks for the additional experiences, and ParisAmsterdam, thanks for the app recommendation - I'll definitely check it out! I think we'll probably download some maps ahead of time, hope the car comes with the GPS, and use our phones as a last resort.