tom_mn

I know there are positive experiences on this forum renting cars using AutoEurope, so wondered if anyone has tried them in Mexico with good results? AutoEurope is offering excellent rates in Mexico, at least a third off what the big companies offer directly. Prepaying with AutoEurope also avoids a currency scam every company uses in Mexico: they do not allow online reservations in pesos, only US dollars, and then they claim at rental time that they can only rent in pesos, converting to pesos at a poor rate they determine resulting in about a 10% markup (like DCC). Even trying to get at the reservations pages navigating in Spanish on the Mexican car rental websites (xxxxx.com.mx) will only give US $ rates. Another scam in place is they only will waive CDW insurance charges and let you use your credit card insurance if you agree to a timeshare presentation. Maybe this kind of thing could be avoided by prepaying, which AutoEurope offers.

So any good Mexican AutoEurope experiences out there?

J62

I've used AutoEurope in the US, but not Mexico.

I don't follow your point about every company that rents cars in Mexico charges in $US. I looked on the hertz mexico website and had no problem booking a car in pesos.

tom_mn

I'll try hertz.com.mx again. It's possible I was rolled back to a Spanish version of the US site.

Incidentally did not get a response on the Mexico website to AutoEurope question so trying here.

Odin

I have used AutoEurope for car rental in Mexico.

Why are you trying to use the AE Mexico site? Is not better to use the AE US site in your case? If you book on the AE Mexico site or any other booking site and the prices are in pesos, you will still be charged in USD which is the currency of your credit card, right?

There is always some sort of charge in converting from one currency to your own one for credit card purposes but if you want to call it a scam then fine. It is not always a DCC conversion.

Why not call AE customer services, I always get a quick response if I need to call them for anything.

I used AE in Mexico for car rental pickup in Playa del Carmen and drop off at Cancun airport. The rental was from Europcar. I booked it on the AE GB site. As non Americans, we pay for CDW as our credit cards do not cover it and I would double check in your case that you are covered by your credit card for rentals outside the US.

We needed the one way rental plus the rental agency needed to be open 24/7 for the drop back at Cancun as our flight to MIA left very early, something like 6am. AE quoted us the one way dropoff fee and this was paid direct to Europcar. Everything went to plan, so very happy with AE & Europcar Mexico.

tom_mn

Hi Odin. Thanks for posting the positive experience.

I'm not trying to use a foreign AE site.

When I rented a car in the UK on enterprise.com it made the reservation in pounds. When I rented a car in France on budget.com the reservation was in euros. But none of the .com sites will produce a Mexican reservation in anything but dollars. So what happens is when you show up they convert the reservation on the spot to pesos at a bad rate. It's not a bank or credit card conversion that I'm talking about. So yes it is a scam.

tom_mn

Also: yes US MasterCard or Visa will cover rentals in Mexico at zero deductible/excess. But an AE reservation comes with CDW automatically, at least I see no way to decline it. So that might invalidate the credit card CDW. So planning on buying the $25 policy from Amex.

For Cancun in December, an 8 day rental of a Jetta on hertz.com is $1000 with no deductible insurance (and not counting the peso conversion markup) whereas AutoEurope can hook me up with a Jetta for $440 at Europcar. Add the $25 for the Amex insurance and still way ahead.

Christina

I think you are mistaken about the currency thing. I just checked www.avis.com for CUN and you clearly can choose the currency you want the quote in. It defaults to USD but all you have to do is change the "currency" tag on the upper RHS to pesos to get it in MXN. And the difference is the interbank exchange rate. It's the same thing for Budget.com, you can choose MXN.

It does appear you can't change the USD quote for Hertz.com and Enterprise.com, though. And they don't even seem to have a Mexico-specific website that I can find. Even if I ask for the Entrerprise site in Spanish, it will only give quotes in USD, CAD or euro, which is odd. Perhaps even Mexicans can't get a quote in MXN, though, who knows.

If you go to www.expedia.mx you can get any car quote in MXN, though. I find it interesting they don't have Enterprise, however, but many other companies. They do have Hertz. Have no idea if their quotes are marked up or not or what happens if you go to book and have an American credit card.

tom_mn

Thanks Christina for the research. As you can see it is all opaque and hard to know quite what is going on. I'm definitely going to go with AutoEurope (for the first time) and prepay in dollars now. What's adding to my stress is the rental starts Christmas Eve and the offices away from the airport close at noon that day (I think). So it has to work out and for us to be on our way out if town.