Hi. Could someone please advise on the most reliable car rental company at Avignon TGV station? There are 2 on site: Thrifty car rental and Europcar France.

Thanks in advance

I would book through Autoeurope. They are always available to assist you if rental company reliability becomes a concern. You´ll also save money.

InMyExperience -- car rentals at provincial TGV station may be very different from renting at an airport or in the US.

Desks may close for a two hour lunch (as trains continue to arrive and the crowd of renters grows larger and less patient) or close entirely on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Not suggesting this will happen in Avignon, but having a US-based broker like Autoeurope as Sasastro suggests, is wise, as is patience.

The following companies have an agency at Avignon TGV: Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Sixt, Enterprise, Thrifty. Companies like Budget, Alamo, National, Dollar, etc., are all represented by one of the other agencies.

Best is to go through AutoEurope, which works with all of these companies. It will display the offer of each company and you can choose among them.

The agencies at Avignon TGV do not close for lunch. They open early, close late and are open 7 days a week.

For our trip in April of 2015 (pickup at Avignon TGV and dropoff at Marseille airport), we did exactly as kerouac suggests. We went through AutoEurope and chose to use Europcar from the different options offered. The Europcar office was right next to the terminal and the agent was very efficient. Picking up the car and getting out to the highway was quick and easy.

I also used Autoeurope and rented from Hertz at Avignon TGV. All offices are located right outside the station.

I feel out of place, expressing an opinion about something in France contrary to Kerouac's, but.....

We booked thru Gemut.com, a very reliable agency with whom we have long dealt. Whichever company they reserved our car with, (and this may have been a Friday or Saturday) it seemed like they had 2 staff and 12 customers, and we arrived at lunchtime. No big problem, but then we are type B....the delay might have driven a type A person nuts.

Also used Autoeurope/Hertz. Its about a 2 minute walk to the rental car offices.

I've heard great things about Gemut, but does it have the 24/7 English free hotline that AutoEurope has if you have a problem? I don't need that anymore, but I bet it's a big plus for American and other renters who don't speak the local language fluently enough to deal with technical issues.

I doubt if Gemut is doing anything different than any other company that is set up to be a car rental aggregator (Autoeurope, Kemwel, etc), so don't see what difference it makes unless somehow you are greatly different rates on them. I think for anyone, it can be useful to book through a company in your own country for questions/problems (not the care rental company, the people you book with).

I've only used Europcar in France, including at Avignon, they were fine. All major companies are about the same to me.

I've been very pleased with Gemut (they're based in Oregon).
So, yeah, if one had trouble renting a car at 8AM French time, they'd still be asleep. But then, how often is that going to happen? Too, if one had trouble at 10PM Frnch time, they'd still be available.
Being that they also arrange hotel/b&b for customers, it's a comfort to have someone familiar with both.

<i>But then, how often is that going to happen?</i>

How many travel forums do you follow? Car rental problems occur with great regularity. Much of the frustration that people write about could have been avoided with a call to someone who could immediately help them, be it a pickup, a mechanical problem during the rental, or an extra charge at drop off.

It is unlikely that anyone will consistently find better pricing than what Autoeurope offers, but the real AE advantage is their 24 hour, toll-free hot line.

Thank you everyone!

Ou alors vous vous mettez au Français ;-)

<<So, yeah, if one had trouble renting a car at 8AM French time, they'd still be asleep. But then, how often is that going to happen? Too, if one had trouble at 10PM Frnch time, they'd still be available. >>

It's going to happen more often than not. Most people will have problems during the morning/daytime when Gemut is asleep. Problems at 10PM French time I should think would be rare.