Hi Everybody.

Please advise on the reputation of Avis in France. Their prices are a lot cheaper (when combined with train fare) than the rest, but i'm not sure.

Avis has a contract with the SNCF as their official car rental agency, which explains why they are cheaper in combination with a train ticket.

Have you compared the rates to the ones proposed by www.autoeurope.com ?

I would go with price but read the contact carefully.

Have you looked at advance train fares purchased separately and getting rental quote from Autoeurope?

http://www.autoeurope.com
https://www.trainline.eu/

Are you American? If so, go with Avis. Basically, the American rental chains may try to work with you later if something fouls up during your rental abroad. This is simply business sense - the US is the largest car rental market in the world and companies depend upon their suckers, er customers. European local agencies are far less likely to try to make amends.

Avis is one of the 4 majors in France.
You will have to sign contracts you don't understand necessarily understand if you go direct : you'll get your papers in French.
(But who cares, since this is a english forum...)
For that reason too Autoeurope seems the preferred rental company for US tourists in Europe.

I prefer Autoeurope and I am not an American tourist. The reason I prefer them is down to the price as they are a wholesaler (they are not a rental company). The contract I receive comes from the rental company itself and often it is translated on the reverse page into English.

AVIS is in the trains stations itself - others are around the periphery - no big deal I guess but a tad more convenient?

<i>Basically, the American rental chains may try to work with you later if something fouls up during your rental abroad.</i>

Not necessarily, "may" is the operative word. Even within the European market a company may have its own agencies and concessionaires. That happened to me with Europcar, and the problem was not straightened out until I called the local rental office, Autoeurope and the Paris office could not help me.

I think that Autoeurope or Kemwel is the way to go for U.S. residents.

<i>AVIS is in the trains stations itself</i>

All train stations?

I've used Autoeurope and Kemwel and the contract is still obviously in French that I get when I pick up the car. YOu can't just get a car with no paperwork. I can read French, though, so doesn't bother me, I use Autoeurope because of good prices. And also, I like that they are a trusted middleman in case something goes wrong with the charges, etc.

I've only rented from Europcar, though, but I still got a contract that I had to sign the same as anyone else would renting in France. I don't recall if it were translated into English since I read French, perhaps so.

The translation into English is on the back of the rental contract.

'Basically, the American rental chains may try to work with you later if something fouls up during your rental abroad.'

Avis budget declares a turnover of 8,5 billions dollars in 2015. You think 500$ a year makes a difference ?

Anybody thinking a company will go out of its depth to help somebody because he could rent a car sometimes in the future in the US is leaving in a fairy ('bisounours') country. Companies help their clients because it is what they are paid to do, and because it is the way to conduct business but if one really believes that they do it to get about 400$ of rental per year in the odd subsequent years then he is fooling himself.

BTW, they make a net result of 4% of the turnover. Not bad, I guess.

AVIS is in the trains stations itself

All train stations?>

Of course not but any train station but any main station or regional station- I had a list once and there were dozens and dozens -that said I do not know the current status.

Avis <b>did</b> have a train station monopoly about 20 years ago, but it was quickly challenged and broken by the competitors after just a year or two. So now every big train station has Avis, Hertz, Europcar, Enterprise and often one or two others (Sixt, Thrifty...) all grouped together inside the station just like in airports. Smaller stations don't always have room for this and then the agencies are across the street.

In much smaller stations, Avis is sometimes the only company represented due to the obligations of its contract, and it generally operates at a loss in these places with an employee, often from a nearby service station, who will show up only if there are reservations. But any town worthy of the name will also have Europcar and Hertz somewhere in town.

I have used Avis at least 7 or 8 times for car rentals in France, and have never had a bad experience with them. Each time I rented the car for 10 days to 2 weeks.
I had a slight accident (my fault, denting and scraping side of car) on one of these trips about 8 years ago. They debited my credit card for the repairs of around $1800. About six weeks later, while I was trying to get reimbursed by the insurance company I had used for travel, suddenly appeared a check in the mail from Avis for $1800, no explanation! So from then on, only Avis for me!

This happened to me with Europcar, although the amount was only 740 euros.