Auto Europe or Hertz?
 

We will be renting a car in Brive in Sept. for 6 days in the Dordogne area, dropping it in Toulouse before flying home. I have always heard reference to using Auto Europe, though our travel agent has given us a quote from Hertz. Anyone have an opinion on which to use, or is it just a consideration of which has the better price?
Thanks.

I go with the best price and pickup location. Why don't you either call AutoEurope or go on their web site and see what type of pricing you can get from them. Don't forget to check for the same class of car that your TA has quoted you for and same pickup location.

I almost always use AutoEurope and have never had a problem.

AutoEurope will match any competitor's price, and their customer service is exemplary. I'd always choose AutoEurope.

If prices and conditions are similar I think renting from a company that has its own offices throughout Europe, like Hertz does is better than going thru a middleman like AutoEurope does - I think AutoEurope has no offices themselves in Europe but works thru European car rental firms similar to Hertz.

If something goes wrong better IMO to be able to go into the car rental company's offices and deal with it - that is if price is the same - AutoEurope and other middlemen often seem to offer better deals - but if all is the same IMO deal with a company that actually has car rental offices in Europe where you are going.

AutoEurope is a consolidator. You may pay less and still get your car from Hertz.

You may pay less and still get your car from Hertz.>

But if you have problems Hertz will deal with it or do you have to call AutoEurope in the U.S.? Curious - if Hertz considers you like their own client then great - if not and price is the same then why go thru a middleman - price is the key - if AutoEurope is cheaper go with them - if not go with Hertz IMO.

My experience with a possible one-way rental from Hertz (pick up in Bordeaux, return in Limoges) is that it charges a one-way fee. On the other hand, I would have avoided the RR station pick-up fee; but the one-way fee was twice the pick-up fee.

We always do Hertz - but were have a corporate discount program with them. But I prefer to deal with a US-based company (which I have found are better at customer service) and has offices in the most places.

But it really matters on where you want to pick and drop the car at times you need.

Autoeurope are an agent. ( good one at that)

You will never hire the car from them. I have used them for years and they frequently produce the best deals but this may be just because of my profile. British user logging on from the UK. Insurance structures are totally different when accessing sites from different world locations.

Hertz ARE the car hire company. In theory AE should pass my business to them but they never have, AVIS neither. I queried AE about this last year and they said these two companies mainly offload any deals to corporate clients and do not encourage business through agents.

Whenever, I have obtained quotes from Hertz the cost has been up to twice that of AE. I have the impression Hertz and AVIS do not want my one off business.

"<i>I queried AE about this last year and they said these two companies mainly offload any deals to corporate clients and do not encourage business through agents.</i>"

That's interesting Dickie_Gr. Maybe it depends on the country. The last two times I've used autoEurope in the UK they've placed me w/ Hertz.

I've been placed with Hertz through AE almost every time I've rented in Italy.

AE are a consolidator. I have used them several times this year alone, at LAX, Nice, Marseilles, Copenhagen and couple weeks ago in Johannesburg. In Joburg & Nice I had a Hertz car.

I've not had any issues with AE so cannot assess their customer service. However I did query an amount on my credit card and because customer service is based in the US and operates on US time zones, it's frustrating that you cannot contact them until our afternoon.

The only small issue I had with AE is the rental in Copenhagen. It states that the rates are not for Danish citizens (on the AE UK site). My other half is a Danish citizen but not resident in DK, they could not answer whether the rate would apply or not so we just took a chance and all was OK.

>>>But if you have problems Hertz will deal with it<<<

Maybe, maybe not. Some Hertz locations are corporate while others are franchises. You will not get the same responses from a franchisee as you will from a corporate location.

FYI - Hertz in Europe practices DCC. It's written in their contract so you have no choice in the matter. The only way to avoid it is to pay in advance.

Janis

Have must have rented AE 10 times over the past 5 years.

Always been placed with Thrifty, Budget or local operators like Sicily Autonoleggio..

Alamo are always silly cheap for us in the States.

However, we only ever enter deals with no excess. Not an insured excess but NO excess. I cannot be bothered with the pantomime of photographing a car on return. Autoeurope always seem to have good compact no excess deals for UK customers. There have been scams reported with insured excess deals. The hire companies know your excess is insured and so make false claims against you knowing you will claim the excess charged against your insurance. Just leaves the hirer with piles of paper on their return home.

The inequities in rages are the reason why I feel it is always difficult to give advice about car hire. It is difficult to generalise across borders.

And it is ABSURD for you to "generalize" about car rental companies and insurance.

I've rented a number of times with AutoEurope or Kemwel over the years. Only once did I have a slight problem. The car rental company did not honor my free upgrade and I wasn't that attached to it to call AE and get them to honor it. The car was still an excellent deal and it was small so parking it was easy.

A while back I did a little poll on fodors asking if ppl often got the car in the photo. Seems most ppl usung hertz got the type/brand listed.

Here's a link to the afre mentioned thread about getting the car that was listed.


http://www.fodors.com/community/fodo...-would-get.cfm

Having lived in France and traveled extensively in Europe, I'd go with Europcar. You'll love the Dordogne!

Dukey

I made the point that you can't generalise.

How can that be a generalisation?

Kybourbon, what is DCC that you referred to ? And thank you the rest of you.....the Hertz quote seems reasonable.....we will be picking car up in Brive, staying in Sarlat for the 5 days, then drop off in Toulouse. Not sure how insurance works.......any other things we need to be aware of when renting?
Thanks again!