Michael

I just finalized a rental agreement with Kemwel. Renting from May 28 to June 26, picking up the car in downtown Paris and returning it at CDG will cost me $731 for a VW 4-door Polo, not including an 8 day road tax, and having the CDW carried by my Visa card. The mileage is unlimited. There was a Twingo available for $704--and even that one has AC.

By comparison, the smallest car available from AutoEurope France would have cost $760 (572€) for the same general conditions, and it had 250 km. free mileage per day limit.

AutoEurope US, with unlimited mileage, and again same conditions, would have cost $914.

Economy Car Rentals, which was the cheapest of the 3 for my current Sicily rental and my Turkey rental a couple of years ago, came to more than $1000 for the same criteria.

It pays to shop around.

bobthenavigator

Good price !

Robert2533

It pays to shop around if you know what you're shopping for and can compare apples to apples.

kerouac

Do not hesitate to shop around and use different versions of the various sites. Hint: if you are renting in France, use the AutoEurope site of Spain, Belgium or Germany, which will be much cheaper than the French site!

It is nearly always cheaper to use the site of a country different from the one in which you are renting. I have a rental coming up from Europcar in 10 days, and I went through the German Europcar site for France.

Michael

kerouac,

this might be true for those who cannot have their Visa card carry the CDW, but I just put in the exact same information on Autoeurope Germany and got a price of 664€ or $886. I did not check to see if their was a mileage limit.

kerouac

I didn't go through AutoEurope Germany (as much as I love AutoEurope in many cases), but my company has a contractual discount with Europcar directly, which was a hell of a lot better through the German site than the French site.

thebabycoach

Similar quiery: We are staying in Latin Quarter and need to rent a car for one day. Suggestions as to which company may have a pick-up site in the LQ area so we could pick up and return there.

Thank you

thebabycoach

How do you find AutoEurope Germany - I keep getting to the same site no matter which google response i click??

zoecat

Michael,

Good job with the research. I am curious though- did you look into leasing options? I have never leased but I have heard that for long periods it is sometimes less expensive than a normal rental.

ParisAmsterdam

BabyCoach:

http://www.autoeurope.de/

One day rentals are often tricky... have a look here: http://okigo.fr/

Use Google to translate if necessary.

Rob

StCirq

One-day rentals typically cost the same as a three-day rental, or more. I doubt there are any/many pickup locations in the Quartier Latin - why do you need that?

jpie

Babycoach:

We have used a number of pick ups spots in central Paris. Last time we used Avis here near St. Germain:

Place Saint Sulpice

Parking Saint Suplice, 6th
Paris, 75006 , FR
(33) 01 43 25 55 32
Location Code: PS7
Hours of Operation:
Mon - Sat 8:00 AM - 12:00 PM and 12:00 PM - 8:00 PM

It is quite central in the LQ. However, that said we generally prefer either the Hertz at Gare Montparnasse or under the Louvre simply because you tend to get a better choice of cars at the Gares or larger places like the Louvre. Both are right on main metro lines so very easy to get to and from. But we just kind of shop around based on price.

Here are the Hertz locations:

Carrousel - Louvre

Address:
99 Rue de Rivoli, Musée du Louvre
Paris, France
Phone : 01 47034912
Hours of Operation: Mo-Th 0800-1800, Fr 0800-1900, Sa 0800-1300 1400-1600, Su 0800-1300

Montparnasse - Ave du Maine

Address:
45 Ave du Maine
Paris, France
Phone : 08 20009050
Hours of Operation: Mo-Fr 0700-2200, Sa 0700-2000, Su 0800-2200.

Michael

zoecat,

I have leased cars in the past. But that was for periods of almost two months. The lease front-loads fixed costs, such as insurance, registration, etc. Which means that the base 17 day price is higher than what I am paying for a 30 day rental with the CDW covered by the credit card. You don't need to believe me. Just go to

http://www.renaultusa.com/SelectRe.asp

and check out their prices. Peugeot has a similar pricing structure. However, some have claimed that if an automatic is required, the price differential between a rental and a lease narrows considerably. The comparison is not absolute because the smallest lease may be bigger than the smallest rental available, but I, for one, am satisfied with the smallest rental.

susanna

Thanks for the heads up. I have been looking on the usual sites for a rental forjune 19-july17, about the same length, the best I could do so far was Sixt for about $800.
I have often called the company with a price from another company and they have almost always matched it.
I think I will use your quote and work from there, thanks.

Leasing: I checked it out and it was more, maybe $1200, but it was a better car, being a bad driver, I definatley don't need a nice car!

thebabycoach

What great help - thanks everyone. But I am still not happy. Four of us want to get out of Paris on a one-day road trip in Normandy on Sunday, May 9. Figuring traffic would be easier on a Sunday, I've found that it probably makes sense to get the car at Gare Nord since it is open on Sunday and is on the way out of town.

But price for one day for even economy car is over our range. We could go to CDG airport to pick up car and keep it to take us there the next day, but where to park near Luxumberg Gardens?

I DO appreciate all suggestions.

Michael

If you pick up the car at CDG, you probably will have to pay an extra fee which might be less than a day's rental but may be in the range of 35€.

Christina

It doesn't make any sense to go all the way to CDG to get a car, it will take a lot of time. However, if you don't care about all your time (time is money, as they say), there are some private car parks around the city you'd have to check to see if they had space. This sounds crazy to me, all the time you'd spend doing all that in order to have it to get to the airport, which could be difficult. Also, do you have any idea what parking is going to cost you in Paris? THis might not be so bad if you were staying more on the outskirts, but right in the middle will make parking more difficult to find.

However, if you really want to drive into central Paris, park all night, and drive out to the airport, and take your bags from wherever your hotel is to the car park -- there is a VINCI park at 22 rue Soufflot. It's fee is 25 euro for anything over 3 hours, I think. That's a big parking garage company in Paris. They have another site at St Sulpice and it's 26 euro.

kerouac

...whereas the Vinci car parks at Porte de la Chapelle or Porte d'Orléans are 11€ for 24 hours.

jpie

Street parking in Paris is free on Sundays so maybe going to CDG makes sense. Then you can drive to CDG for your flight the next day.....but be aware that finding a spot Sunday night can be very tricky because lots of folks who live in the neighborhood park their cars all weekend and won't be moving them til Monday morning and also, driving to CDG can be a lot less reliable than the metro and you have to leave extra time to return the car-which may not be worth it.

Have you checked into taking a train somewhere in Normandy and just renting a car for the day? I would be tempted to do that because traffic coming back to Paris on a Sunday night from Normandy can be awful-just are joining the hoards of Parisians coming back from the weekend.

annhig

hi Michael,

there seem to be to be hourly direct trains from Paris st. Lazare to Rouen for up to €20 pp, depending presumably on the type of train. this would probably be much easier than driving all the way from Paris.