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Car rental in Italy AGAIN! Question about Economy Car Rentals..

Car rental in Italy AGAIN! Question about Economy Car Rentals..

Old Mar 8th, 2011, 02:08 AM
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Car rental in Italy AGAIN! Question about Economy Car Rentals..

I would like to rent an automatic for one week, with pickup and return at Bari airport. I have begun the routine, finding, as usual, that AutoEurope's Italian site offers lower prices than their US-based site. Before I go ahead and attempt to rent the car at the Italian rate, I wanted to ask about Economy Car Rentals.

I looked at their site and found much lower prices than either of the AE sites. They state that insurance and fees are included, but there is also a long insert discussing the purchased of additional insurances that includes this section:

<Items and Services included in the rates :
- Unlimited mileage.
- VAT.
- All local taxes.
- ASC: Airport Service Charge where applicable.
- 24 hour roadside assistance in case of accident/damage to the car.
- Delivery and drop off at airports & rental stations during normal working hours.

Insurances included in the rates :
- Third party bodily injuries per accident, up to 20000000 Euro.
- Third party property damages per accident (excluding rented car), up to 20000000 Euro.
- Fire insurance with no excess.
- CDW (Collision Damage Waiver).
- FDW (Full Damage Waiver) refundable from EconomyCarRentals.com.
- Theft insurance (of ALL the car) with no excess refundable from EconomyCarRentals.com.

Optional Insurances :
At this destination, for theft/ damages caused by you, the car rental company might charge you up to the excess amount: 850 - 3300 Euro, depending on your selected car group.
You might be offered extra insurances to cover the excess amounts. It is not necessary to purchase such extra insurances, as EconomyCarRentals.com will refund the charges for damage excess. For your convenience you may, of course, choose to purchase extra insurances locally, to avoid any excess payments to the car rental company at your destination.
Insurances purchased locally are not refundable from EconomyCarRentals.com.

In order to refund any excess, we need you to strictly follow the instructions below :...>


I have read quite a few positive comments about this company on this forum. But when I look further, I find that almost all of those positive comments have been made by persons with only one or two posts to their name, always touting this company.

I would love to read more information, or hear comments, as this company is new to me and my radar is already up...
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 02:24 AM
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I also will mention that I have found very good prices on the www.avis.uk site.

Are there any US residents who have used this site?


Related threads:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...s-resident.cfm

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...c-question.cfm



I would like to save some money since the price I have just paid for my airline tickets is the highest I've EVER experienced for coach travel to Europe. I am still in shock.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 03:23 AM
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Always do best with www.tigercarrental.com in Italy

go a BUNCH econos fro under 150-200 euro/week all in.

Always pick up and drop off at the same airport to save.

If I will be mostly in big cities I train cheaply

to avoid big city parking charges.

When I rent a road trip rurally and try to stay off

the autostrada and outside big city centres especially

Naples they are truly the most insane drivers in europe

but not the middle east Cairo wins there...

Folks drive bumper to bumper AT NIGHT with no head lights!
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 03:31 AM
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I am also renting a car in Italy next month (Sicily). We are using AVIS, and for the first time, we are renting a vehicle (minivan) with limited mileage. The limit is 1000 kms; after that it is 30 (US) cents/mile. The price is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper than for unlimited. We calculated that even if we go over double the limit (2K trip) we will still pay less than the same unlimited version. We did looked at economyrentals.com but there was no availability of minivan out of Palermo for our time frame.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 03:40 AM
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QWO: I appreciate your help, here and on other threads. I need an automatic, however, with pick up and return at the airport in Bari.

Good to know about Tiger, as their prices appear to be better than those I mentioned. But their least expensive automatic appears to be a BMW--for about the same price as the AE US site wants for a Nissan. If they had a US phone number, I would call to see if they have other models not listed on their site, as is often the case with various brokers.

I will keep them in mind for future, though.




Viajero: Coincidence here, as I used Avis in Sicily as well, a few years back. No problems..
I want to know if anyone from the US has used Avis' UK site, www.avis.co.uk, since prices there are less than they are at www.Avis.com.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 03:41 AM
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A couple of comments: I never travel without travel insurance; at $50/pp it pays itself many times over if needed. There is included a rental car damage protector, emergency medical, hospitalization, and trip delays/cancellations due to accidents/theft/weather, natural disasters. I use Access America (two recent claims related to this winter weather were addressed expeditiously).

As far as airline flight prices, I started hearing of potential hikes in Mid-Jan (before the Egypt unrest they are blaming this one on!). We bought just in time; the price doubled since!
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 05:18 AM
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ekscrunchy, we have used economycarrentals in several different countries and will be using them again this May in Spain.

But we did not use them in Italy last year or in Ireland because in both those country we could not get the 2nd driver fee waived so that advantage over other rental companies was eliminated. I think also in Italy the basic coverage option is not availabe, the cdw is included.

We have never had a problem with any of our rentals through Economycarrentals--most of our contracts were placed with National cars, as will be the case this May in Spain.

After looking at many of the rental possibilities we used Kemwel last May in Italy but we were not requesting an automatic. We usually rent the smallest manual car available. Deborah
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 06:39 AM
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We've had good experiences with Economycarrentals, but I'm surprised they have an automatic available. I've only seen standard transmission cars.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 06:58 AM
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Hi ek, forgive me that I'm not going to participate in another round of car rental discussions - but I conclude from this thread that you're going to Puglia again? If so, my second question (sorry for being so curious) is whether you're still interested that I squeeze more informations from that person from Naples about the Cilento and the AC - have you decided against that vacation now or are you going to do both?
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 07:09 AM
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I have reserved a car through AutoEurope out of Palermo for later this month but have been wondering about Economy Car Rentals too. If you google they seem to get some bad reviews but then once you start looking all brokers and agencies do.

I think I need to go back to kindergarten to learn more about the excess, no excess, low excess, etc.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 07:29 AM
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Franco: Yes! Cilento is on for September, so if all goes well I will have two trips to southern Italy this year. I do apologize for introducing this MEGO topic again! Is there anything more boring than car rentals? Well, perhaps trip insurance and airline ticket prices fit that bill!

Viajero: You were VERY smart to have booked your flights early! The tickets that I just bought cost me twice as much as the ones for our Puglia trip last fall. It is a good thing that I bought them without consulting my travel partner, because he told me that if I had asked him beforehand, he would have suggested canceling Italy and going to the Grand Canyon!

Leely2: Maybe the two of us can get a good rate on the kindergarten.

Thanks to everyone who responded here...I will just have to bite the bullet with the car rental. I will probably return with questions about the details....

Franco, you are excused from answering since you were so incredibly helpful last year!
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 07:55 AM
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ekscrunchy. I have used Economy Car rentals before and suggested the company to my friends. I have been posting here a long time. I too would be a little concerned about suspicious posts from people who just pop up out of the woodwork.

The company has very good prices. We were placed with Budget. My friend is renting in May from them and is being placed with Thrifty.
I always rent an automatic. I think the real proof is when you have a problem with the car to test how well you are treated by not only the car company but by the rental agent. I didn't have any problems with my car rental and so I cannot say for certain that everything will be perfect.

As long as you understand that with Economy Car Rentals the insurance is provided and paid for by them inclusive with the rental rate. So therefore, if you have an accident, Thrifty or Budget or what ever company you actually receive the car from is going to charge your credit card for the excess. Then ECR is going to reimburse your card for those damages if you are not negligent.

They have a US number and in fact I spoke with them just last week about a car rental I need for August in Italy (an automatic) but the prices for when I need the car are not loaded yet.
I did price a car for my brother and I found that it is $1000 less that AE. In order for AE to meet the price you must find the exact same car for a lesser amount.

This is just a suggestion but if I were you and I was considering renting from one of the alternate Auto Europe sites I would pick one in English. I think the voucher would be in Italian if you picked that site and I wouldn't want a voucher I couldn't read
. But you may read Italian and so that would not be a problem for you but in my search I found that the alternate sites from Auto Europe had comparable prices for cars as the Italian site. Like Auto Europe.co.uk. You would just pay in GBP.
Good luck.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 08:09 AM
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Sher: Heartfelt thanks for such a detailed response. From what you write, it sounds as if ECR offers the option of "reimbursement of the deductible" also offered by AE and discussed in this long thread. I think that I understand that, more or less.


http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...c-question.cfm

So I will keep ECR in the mix, based on what you write, when I compare prices from the various sites.

Surprisingly, based on a quick look, AvisUK, seems to have the lowest prices of those I checked so far (381 euro for a week for the cheapest automatic) as long as I do not mind paying now... I have to check their cancellation policy.



But more important than saving a few dollars on the rental is the response if something goes wrong...
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 08:36 AM
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I think you might have more recourse if something goes wrong if you are renting from a corporate location than from an independent location. Avis doesn't seem to list this as Hertz does next to each location. I would call Avis and see which locations you are considering are corporate and see if it works out for you to select those locations from Avisuk.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 09:25 AM
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KY: I never even knew that there was a difference. Do you mean that some are owned by the rental company and others are local franchises??

Are you suggesting taking this step with these companies but not with AutoEurope because if something goes wrong, I would deal with AE or another broker?

Thanks so much for your input! I did not try Hertz but will add them to the list....
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 09:58 AM
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ekscrunchy. I have to tell you that I found several sites in the UK, Auto Europe included to have pretty good prices with straight forward language.

I don't know when you need the car but I did try Hertz for Italy and their prices were not good. Also, there were none with inclusive insurance when I looked. I find it difficult to use a credit card for insurance or excess coverage in Italy. And I am not one to rent a car and take a chance.

Since I am not a wait around kind of person I did book with AE and they placed me with Thrifty. I am hoping that something will come up less expensive in the meantime. But AE made me pay up front. I can always cancel if I find something else.

Unfortunately, you just do not know what will happen when something goes wrong UNLESS something does.
Good luck.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 10:06 AM
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I agree with you. I would rather pay a bit more and be reasonably sure that I am protected if something happens...I guess AE does give that assurance, right?

I need the car the first week in May, for one week, in and out of Bari airport. Must be an automatic.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 10:32 AM
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Several of these rental car companies are US businesses. They have corporate locations and franchise locations. When you do a search on Hertz for locations (not searching a rental), it will tell you if it's corporate.
Example:

Conca D'Oro - Via Val d'Ala
EOAG: ROMC68
Address: Via Val D'Ala 32
Rome
Italy
Phone : 06 88643013
Hours of Operation: Mo-Fr 0800-1300 1400-1900, Sa 0800-1300, Su closed
Location Type: Independent Licensee

Montemario - Hotel Cavalieri The Waldorf Astoria
EOAG: ROMC71
Address: Via Cadlolo 101
Rome
Italy
Phone : 06 35343758
Hours of Operation: Mo-Fr 0800-1300 1400-1900, Sa 0800-1300, Su closed
Location Type: Corporate

I always try to deal with corporate for US businesses since I assume they have to follow US consumer laws and you can deal with it at the US corporate level if there is a problem. I don't think it's as easy to deal with an Italian franchisee.

I haven't used Avis in Europe, but when I'm booking Hertz (even through AutoEurope), I try to choose corporate by researching the locations before booking.
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Old Mar 8th, 2011, 01:14 PM
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Check hertz.co.uk too. Their prepay rates are very low.
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Old Sep 9th, 2014, 01:45 PM
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Hi,
I had a really bad experience with Economy Car Rentals who booked me with a company that did not let me travel from Italy to Croatia even though I indicated I needed a cross border card. They charged 1.5 times the legal deposit in Italy and refused to refund my deposit. I think any positive reviews are by the company themselves. They are crooks.
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