lhopp

Hi everyone. We are in the process of booking our 10-day rental car for South of France trip in September (pick up/drop off Nice airport).

We called Avis to get a price quote, and received quote of $472 USD, + $13.25 per day CDW, totaling about $605 USD (may be able to forego CDW--have to read fine print on credit card coverage first!) This is for compact car, unlimited mileage.

Then we looked on Avis website for a quote, and that price, for economy car, unlimited mileage, full CDW for $360 USD. That is a huge price difference!!

We've booked rental cars for Europe 3 times prior to this trip, and have always called vs. booking on line--wondering why such a huge price difference between the two?

Betsy

Just guessing, but there are probably differences somewhere--insurance deductible (are both zero deductible?) or something. Be sure you're comparing apples to apples. A lot of travelers on this board (myself included) swear by AutoEurope, a broker located in the US. Check out their website at www.autoeurope.com and then phone them for a quote. I like the security of dealing with a US company. If any problems with your rental occur, you can dial a toll-free US number 24/7 instead of talking with someone whose primary language is probably not English.

vedette

An economy car and a compact car are not the same thing, so that may be part of it.

mclaurie

Agree with Betsy and Vedette. Go to AutoEurope and check their price and make sure it's apples to apples. Both automatic?

lhopp

Thanks, I'm sorry--I made an error.
Both prices were for an economy car.

We are on the phone with Auto Europe right now...we've seen many positive comments about them on this board.

lhopp

Not automatic, both prices manual transmission.

Michael

Try CRX (http://www.carrentalexpress.com/international/france/). Autoeurope would not match their price when we rented an economy from Bordeaux.

ira

Just checked the CRX site for a compact car for 2 weeks in Sept out of Bordeaux - they want in E what AutoEurope-UK is charging me in USD.

Patrick

I'd be real curious what reason AutoEurope gave you that they would not match the price of CRX. Sounds very odd to me.

Michael

Patrick, it seems to depend on who's on the phone. The same was true for my rental in Hungary, although there they alleged a higher inusrance fee for taking the car into Romania.