I am renting for 16 days in May. Pickup Malpensa, drop off Pisa airport. I found the best rates for an automatic on Auto Europa - Sicily by Car - way cheaper than any of the US sites. http://www.autoeuropa.it/en/prenotazioni/index.asp
Pick up at mxp is at desk in terminal 1; drop off at Pisa is at the terminal. I have a confirmation that includes CDW and theft protection, but I think the deductibles are high. To keep my reservation, they want a 20% deposit in euros by credit credit that can be cancelled up to 7 days before departure.

Has anyone used Sicily by Car through Auto Europa? Am I missing anything?

Have you tried economycarrentals.com? It offers rentals with no deductible and I found them cheaper than AutoEurope.com or Kemwel.com where their "basic" rates are not available.

I agree with Economy Car Rentals. I recently compared rates between ECR and AutoEurope and found that ECR was about half the price of AutoEurope with no excess and full insurance. I've been a long time renter with AutoEurope but I'm convinced that ECR is the better options, at least in Italy.

We rented a car via AAA office here in US for 2 week trip to Italy last fall.
AAA ended up being better bargain than online as some insurance costs were included. And they explained all of the costs.
AAA rented via Auto Europa.
Was the best value of our entire trip.

Auto Europa is cheaper than economycarrentals.com and AAA (comes up with Hertz and Budget).

Has anyone used the Italian site Auto Europa?

I recall seeing a thread about a year ago with major complaints against www.autoeuropa.com. The name ends with an A. Not to be confused with the highly regarded www.autoeurope.com, with an E.

Looking at both company websites they both show the same stylistic AE red dot logo. Perhaps they are part of the same company. I don't know.

Here's the thread with the complaints about AutoEuropa (aka Sicily by Car), rented through the US broker AutoEurope.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...al--beware.cfm

<i>Auto Europa is cheaper than economycarrentals.com and AAA (comes up with Hertz and Budget).</i>

But the original posting indicates a high deductible, which is not the case with economycarrentals.com.

J62,

The car was probably not rented through AutoEurope because it has a three day minimum rental. Unless the OP on the other thread was willing to pay for two extra days of rental, there was no broker. You're statement here about the OP renting via AutoEurope was not substantiated in the original thread.

j62 - read that thread and it seems like Auto Europa was the culprit, not Auto Europe.

Auto Europe's rates are 50% higher than booking with Avis directly. I think I used Auto Europe a few years a go without a problem, but their rates are sky high now.

I didn't re-read the entire thread. My main point (and the main takeway of that mis-titled, long thread for me) was that there are 2 companies with very similar names. Make sure you are clear about which company you are talking about.

Auto Europe will beat other prices if you call them and share the details. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples.

Thanks for all the help. I think I got it now. Avis had better rates, but higher deductibles than Auto Europe - so, yes, I was not comparing apples to apples. And Auto Europa had very high deductibles but the lowest rates and I guess not a good rep for customer service. So, I will go with Auto Europe, but they are asking me to give them cc info to prepay. I don't recall doing this a few years back. Has that been everyone's experience with AE?

IIRC AutoEurope asks you to prepay, they send you a voucher which you hand over to Avis, Hertz, or whomever they have arranged the car through.

In the past you could cancel without any penalty at any time, as long as you never used the voucher to pick up a car.Be sure to check out the cancellation policy.

You don't have to prepay with AutoEurope but that's the only way to guarantee the price they quoted you. If you don't prepay you will be given the current rate when you pick up the car.

Just got an email from AE saying that unless I prepay, I will have a voucher which is a quote, but not a confirmed reservation. The res can be cancelled without penalty up to 3 days before pickup date. Within 3 days, there is a $75 fee. The res is with Hertz btw.

Another piece to this, I have a res with Hertz (directly) which is several hundred dollars less than the Hertz with AE. But, the Hertz res doesn't list what the deductibles are. Another apples to apples dilemma. One should be a detective or an attorney to rent a car in Europe!

I am currently looking for quotes for a hire in Sardinia during July. AutoEurope (used previously) are the cheapest but have higher excesses on their CDW.

Oh God!

I have justed looked at the AutoEuropa website. Thought I recognised the name.

We rented from them in Sicily. Nightmare.

A dangerous car (brakes), totally off hand staff, and a fuel surcharge of a full tank becuase the tank was around e5 short of full. It was Sunday and we couldn't find a petrol station that was open. There were other issues which I can't recall.

We said never again. Along with Thrifty.

Never had a problem with AutoEurope although they are only brokers.

Are excesses what I refer to as the deductible?