markirk

We are renting a car through auto Europe with pick up at Orly and drop off at CDG 4 days later. Our confirmation says $52. We are assuming that's just the first day, right? We can't find anything that indicates the total cost for the rental car.

janisj

Are you sure you entered the correct dates? That seems very VERY low -- and they would give you voucher covering the entire rental period.

schnauzer

I'd check the voucher very carefully, that price doesn't seem right. I rented recently with Autoeurope in France and it was $55 for one day.

Michael

If you are renting through Autoeurope as the broker a rental agency (Europcar, Hertz, Avis, etc.) will provide the car. Which one is it?

bilboburgler

one day

wesleymarsh

I have never paid $52-a-day for a rental car in Europe, and nor would I. I rent automatics, and if I can't get the price close to $20-a-day, I won't rent a car. I'll reconfigure the trip.

My last trip to France when I did rent a car, the car was a fabulous Hybrid Compact, and the cost was under $22-a-day.

I have seen Manual Compact cars rent for $9-$14 a day. It is quite possible you secured a great deal.

A lot of tourists don't know how to play the car rental game. Prices fluctuate like a roller-coaster ride. If you are patient and tenacious, you can find amazing savings and not be forced to overpay.

StCirq

You should have a comprehensive voucher from AutoEurope with all the details of your rental. It's entirely possible the $52 is for the full rental. Before we moved here and bought a car, we did a succession of AutoEurope rentals, all manuals, all compacts, and I don't think we ever paid more than $16 a day.

Sarastro

<i>I have seen Manual Compact cars rent for $9-$14 a day.</i>
These prices you are quoting, are we to believe that they include road tax, unlimited mileage, location surcharges, environmental fees, are available one-way, and offices are easily assessable from a train station or airport?

Are these contracts available in English?

yestravel

I have a manual, economy car rental currently for 16 days in France rented thru Kemwell, a sister company to Auto Europe. The total price is $181 not including the Road Fee of 3€ per day. It is being picked up in the city and returned to an airport in the same city. Your $52 for 4 days is quite possible. But as noted above you should receive a voucher with all the specifics or you can call Auto Europe.

wesleymarsh

>>are we to believe that they include road tax, unlimited mileage, location surcharges, environmental fees, are available one-way, and offices are easily assessable from a train station or airport?<<

I'll only rent with unlimited mileage, mostly at airports. Airports are the best choice if you MUST receive an automatic. I have dropped at different airports at times. I always do a pre-pay to get the savings.

The "local fees," at least in my experience, are never included in the quote, no matter who you rent from. But Auto Europe does spell these fees out to you in their quotes and their vouchers. They may not always be easy to find or to the penny, but they've never been far off.

The research says to always ask for an English contract, and I do that, hoping one day I'll finally see one.

StCirq confirms that good deals are possible. You really need to know how to play the rental car game to get a reasonable deal. It can often help to start planning months in advance, although many deals can be had within a week or less of your departure date. You really have to stay on top of things. Diligence can pay off by hundreds of dollars.

Christina

I guess this is too obvious, but given the contract is with Autoeurope, wouldn't the logical thing to do be to call up Autoeurope to ask, instead of asking random strangers on the internet what their bill means?

The post doesn't make sense to me as you get detailed breakdowns of the rates before booking on Autoeurope, including the rate per day, the fees, etc and then the total. And of course the dates would show, so you should know exactly what the situation is. But if not, call Autoeurope.

yestravel

It should be noted that airports almost always have an additional (sometimes substantial) pick up fee. We just had this in Australia where the pic up fee was half the total rental.

janisj

When I posted that it seemed very low - it was because of the airport collection and drop off -- I would expect that to be $30-ish range. If the car is a stick I could see a four day rental of $50-$60 just for the rental (not counting Top Cover/excess or Airport fee). Maybe $100-ish for an automatic.

So call AutoEurope and get a clarification -- they give you their toll free #.