Car hire in Germany/Italy
 

We (6 of us)are flying into Munich next May and are needing to hire a minibus for a trip of 10 days and then driving into Italy and leaving the minibus at Milan (Linate). We have been quoted around 2,200 euros for the hire, which is very excessive, from Hertz. Is there another reliable hire company that can do this sort of rental at a lower price. Train travel is not an option.

Have you tried AutoEurope? I used AutoEurope recently and I was very pleased.

I think you will find that picking up a car in one country and dropping it in another adds a significant surcharge to the cost of the rental.

Based on the fact that you say "car hire" instead of "car rental," I am assuming you are not American. Therefore I did a search on Auto Europe UK and I found the following:

10-day rental in May 2006, picking up the car in Munich, returning to Linate airport in Milan, total price for minivan rental is 588 GBP.

www.auto-europe.co.uk/car.cfm

My apologies if I am mistaken about your nationality. They have a US site also.

It's the drop charge that is raising the price so much. If you can drop it anyplace in Germany your rates would ne much less.