kwren

We reserved a small station wagon at Orly from Europcar via Auto Europe. Once we identified ourselves, we were told they did not have the car we reserved, so they would upgrade us to a BMW station wagon. Imagine our joy - it sounded like a dream come true...until we saw the car, that is.

We were told that there was a small dent in the back bumper, but being good Fodorites, we carefully inspected the rest of the car. Good thing - every panel of the exterior had scratches and dents, there was a huge greasy spot in the trunk as if someone had melted the synthetic carpet, turning it into an oily substance, there were holes in the floors as if mats had been attached and removed, the seats were terribly stained and the windshields and windows were filthy and greasy on both the inside and outside surfaces. What a mess! The car did run well though and as there was no other choice, we took it and did fine with it.

So here's my question - has anyone else received a filthy and banged-up car from a rental agency and should we have tried to do something about it at that time? We did insist that the employee record all the problems, but she ran out of room! Just curious if we should stay away from Europcar in the future.

We also rented a car in Salzburg from Avis through Auto Europe and it was in pristine condition, running perfectly.

Underhill

The cars we've rented over the years from autoeurope/europecar has been in pristine condition. Yours sounds like a strange situation--did you get in touch with autoeurope on your return?

ira

Hi K,

Call AutoEurope and tell them what happened.

We have never gotten anything but cars in A1 condition.

Our last one, at Bordeaux airport had only 2000 km on it.

kwren

My coming home present Monday was a houseful of dead phones! Still working to resove that, but since reading both your posts, I did call Auto Europe on my cell phone and the man was very sympathetic and offered me an additional 5% discount on my next rental (no expiration date which is good - I don't get to Europe often :'().

I'm glad to hear this is an anomaly - I guess I'll give them another try when next in Europe. If anyone else has gotten a bad car from them, I'd appreciate the input.

kwren

I meant to thank both Ira and Underhill for encouraging me to call!!! It pays to ask.

Christina

I've only had cars in pristine condition from Europcar, also. I suspect those rental agencies in France are like in the US -- franchises, or at least a lot just depends on the manager/owner of one particular location.

kwren

I suspect you are right about that Christina.

Something seemed decidedly fishy though - they said they needed a few minutes to clean up the car - I would hate to see what it looked like before they "cleaned it up"