As far as confirming directly with the rental office goes, that may not work either. I rented from a private rental agent and confirmed directly with him at least three times by e-mail that an automatic would be available and even so, on the day we arrived, we were informed that their ONE automatic had been returned broken the night before and couldn't be fixed for three days. Rick Steves recommends learning to drive stick before going to Europe and I wish I had listened. The episode did force me to learn stick, so it had a good outcome. It wasn't all that hard either, even jet-lagged with three juvenile back-seat drivers.

We just used Auto Europe and it was good with the small exception of the drop off spot in Orleans. It was way off in the suburbs far from anything and no cabs. I had heard that you shouldn't count on getting an automatic in europe, they are such a rare commodity there. Therefore I learned to drive stick right before i left and we had no problems -well, except for crazy french drivers :)

Kudos to AutoEurope for their amazing response here on this post. We are renting an automatic from AutoEurope in September, but from what I've read today I know not to take anything for granted. Although the percentages lean toward a good experience, we are nonetheless going to practice our shifting skills before we leave. There's no reason to be left in a lurch...one should be prepared for problems and if things go wrong, deal with it and consider the experience part of the "spirit of adventure."

In response to Helen's query above about our (non-existent, as we it turned out!) reservation with Auto Europe, the reservation was made for us by Karen Brown Travel and the deposit was charged through Auto Europe in Portland, ME. The final bills and dealings in France were from/with Europcar France.

For those of you questioning my comment about my wife and a 5 speed: Well, you were not with her the first time she tried to drive one! Nor the second, nor the third. I was!! Fortunately, so was the transmission. <BR> <BR>Just to set the record straight: <BR>We rented a 5-speed Fiat, exact model now forgotten, from Avis, through Auto Europe, last summer in Interlaken. <BR>My wife drove it up and over the Grimsel Pass, and down, with no problems. Also, she drove a 5-speed Nissan Stanza for 12 years, and only had to have one new clutch, after 75,000 miles. So yes, my wife can slap a 5-speed around and get on with it. She and a fellow faculty member (female), who pushes an Acura Integra (5-speed) to the limit, lead the league in charming cops out of speeding tickets. And the lady who was our maid of honor when we got married 41 years ago drove a fire truck one summer when she was a NPS Ranger at Mesa Verde. <BR>The park was on fire and everybody had to pitch in, but a couple of the male rangers were reluctant to drive it. <BR>So she tackled the job because it had to be done. <BR> <BR>

I know nothing about Auto Europe, but my sister had the reserved-but-nonexistent-automatic trick pulled on her when she was traveling on business for a major corporation. It seems to be almost as standard as European transmissions.

In 10 years of renting through Autoeurope, our only problem was last year when they booked us with Europcar. The voucher from Autoeurope clearly showed we were taking the car into the Czech Republic, but the Europcar clerk in Munich neglected to put it in the rental agreement and so we were delayed at the Czech/Austria border until it was squared away. Moral, request not being booked with Europcar.

To Bob B.- Yeah, I am sure that Air Force Col. Eileen Collins, NASA's first female space shuttle Commander, who by the way, just carried the world's most powerful X-ray telescope safely into orbit, can provide a couple more examples of women's capabilities...

Len, <BR> <BR>We also had excellent service from Auto Europe picking up the requested car in Seville and dropping it in Cordoba a week later without problem. I, too, am hoping that the speedy response you received from the President will resolve the difficulties...keep us posted, Maria

Ellen, don't count on confirming availability of an automatic directly with the rental agent either. Tried that last year. confirmed three times directly with the agent and when we arrived, we were informed that the ONE automatic they had was returned broken the night before and couldn't be fixed for three days. Rick Steves recommends learning to drive stick before going to europe and I wish I had listened to his advice. On the plus side, I did learn to drive stick, and very quickly too (though I would say 5 minutes is a bit of an underestimation) in spite of jet lag and three juvenile "back seat drivers". I promised the rental agent I would not plaster his name all over the travel forums if he would adjust some charges we disagreed on, so I will not tell you where I rented from. Bottom line, learn stick before you go.

Last summer I rented from Auto Europe directly, and they were great! I arrenged for an automatic in the outskirts of London (I've never driven a standard and didn't want to learn in Britain while also learning to drive on the right!). We did have a glitch, but it turned out for the best. We thought we were getting a Renault Cleo or something like that, but when we showed up they said we were booked for a Mercedes, at an extra charge! After a call back to Portland on the 800 line we were offered a Rover 821i for the price we'd agreed upon for the Renault! It was the best car we'd ever driven in our lives (and we found out the US equivalent is an Infinity Q45 with a price tag in the $60,000 range!). My husband spent the whole week saying "this is the souvenir I want to take home" and he wouldn't let me drive at all. I would use Auto Europe again and reccomend it as well.

I have used Auto Europe twice in England and both times was upgraded to a luxury car (which made for a fun time driving through the Cotswolds), because of the limited number of automatic transmissions available from Europe Car. On my last trip, we had to call Auto Europe's 800 number from London to the U.S. because we realized that it would be easier for us to rent the car in downtown London instead of backtracking back to Gatwick. (We spent our first 4 days in London w/o a car.) The agent in the U.S. promptly changed our reservation for no fee and faxed to our hotel in London our new reservation for downtown London. I will definitely use their service again the next time we rent a car in Europe.

Well, you all have convinced me to learn to drive a 5-speed before my next European trip. It is also ironic that yesterday I heard from Hertz about my rental car fiasco. I did get $100 credited back to me, out of the $153 I paid for my rental. So, at least they credited me for my inconvenience! <BR>

I have used AutoEurope twice, the first experience was great, we even got a car with a sunroof as requested. The second time, we had no problem with car but with the costs. There were extra fees at the signing of the contract at the counter than what we were told about. I understand that the rental was through Avis, (AE being the middleman)but some of the costs I had to agree to at signing were well over 50% higher than we were told. I tried to straighten this out and the fact that the car was turned in a few days early. We tried to get some credit for the unused days and informed them about the higher costs. The rep told us that they would credit us for the higher charges and unused days but we never did. After a few calls I gave up. I will say that the biggest issues I have had with AE are with billing and getting a rep on the 800 number who is fully knowledgable about setting up a rental. Overall, they seem to be reliable.

LEARN to drive a stick shift car if you wamt to drive in Europe. Or stop whining.

My comments on this: <BR> <BR>Whilst Manual Gear cars are far more common here there are still a large number of Automatics sold and driven. <BR> <BR>It _is_ a big difference driving a manual (what you guys call a stick shift) and an automatic. As _you_ are the customers I see it as your prerogative to stick with automatic should you wish. <BR> <BR>Mike's comments and Smaker's are juvenile and irrelevant. <BR> <BR>Whether manual is easy or not is not the issue. The issue is getting what you want and what you paid for. <BR> <BR>As someone who drives both alternatively I say go with what you prefer and ignore the ignorants. <BR> <BR>Kavey

Both of us drive standards and automatic transmissions. We use standards in Europe. The only suggestion we have is this--learn where the reverse gear is located and how to use it ! While driving in Italy on the <BR>Amalfi Coast, a huge tour bus came directly at us on a narrow sharp curve--the reverse was only located by pushing down hard on the stick and throwing it to the back right. Luckily we found it, or we would have been flattened. So, whenever we rent an unfamiliar car--we check out that important reverse.

Second the excellent advice on locating reverse----luckily for us we've never made it out of the pick-up location without having to locate reverse---although it has on more than one occasion required a sheepish trip back to the rental desk. Another always check for us is the location of the headlight on/off switch. we realized the importance of this in a tunnel in Italy where all illumination suddenly disappeared----most terrifying 30 seconds of both our lives.

Asking for an automatic in Europe is like asking for eggs for breakfast, american coffee, a good steak, delicious ice cream, a nice public toilet in a southern European country, and an honest cab driver in Istanbul.

We are renting a car this fall through DER. I checked out several car companies and their reservationist asked all the right questions. DER and Auto Europe had exactly the same prices. However, earlier we had been told that for insurance purposes, generally manuals are required for Eastern Europe. Since we were going to Praha and Budapest, and all 4 of us knew how to drive a stick, it was not a problem. Also a stick was cheaper. I booked with DER because they seemed more knowledgeable on the front end. Time will tell well when we get there in September. We did request a diesel, but they indicated that they cannot guarantee since you never know what will be available. And by the way, several year ago both our cars were sticks. When our daughter turned 15 and wanted to learn to drive, drivers education in the US through the public and private high schools only taught automatic. We told her she had to learn the stick if she wanted to use the cars. It was amazing later how impressed the guys were that she could drive the stick since most of the guys could not!!!