Europ Car ?
 

Hello- has anybody experience renting from this company ? Their web site is very easy to use, and rates seem fair for one week in Tuscany . I tried AutoEurope- they never responded to my question.

We just came back from Italy and rented from autoeurope. Give 'em a call. They claim to beat anyone price. 1-800-223-5555.

Ask for a diesel car. Diesel is about $1.00 a gallon cheaper than regular gas (after you do all the conversions) plus the cars get better mileage. ((b))

Hi OK,

I think that Autoeurope often works through EuropCar.

Was it AutoEurope US or UK that you queried?

What was the question?

We've used Europcar directly and through AutoEurope--worked just fine both times.

We've had two rentals with Europcar, both made through the AutoEurope website. There were no problems whatsoever and, when I returned and didn't understand something on the final bill, I called AutoEurope and very quickly received a clear explanation for the charge.

Anselm

AutoEurope is a car rental brokerage company....they use several suppliers and get you the best deal in a particular country....Sometimes it is EuropCar, or Hertz, or Avis, etc....Their phone representatives in Portland, Maine seem to be quite knowledgeable and friendly....AND they have 24 hr.customer service. This number can be called free from Europe IF there is any misunderstanding when arriving...such as trying to charge a much higher fee than your reservation states.
One use to pay a percentage in United STates and then the remainder when arriving in Europe...seemed a little confusing sometimes. Now they will let you PREPAY completely first and have the paid voucher in hand when arriving in Europe. We prefer it that way!(at least they will do this on SOME rentals).
You can always call the companies individually on your own and compare prices....
On a couple of occasions AutoEurope at the pickup site tried to scare us into extra insurance, and what would happen with theft, accident etc.....but just say "NO, THANKS" and they will accept that. All in all it is a good "brokerage company".

Hello Ira-

My question to AutoEurope was what the one way fee would be.

Also through Europcar I can get an exact quote including one way fee and pick up available on Sat in La Spezia, whereas AutoEurope will not allow Sat pick up in La Spezia, at least not on the web site. I have not called that '800' number.

We have been using Europcar for years.
Would not change. Like bud, we use the diesel in our rented Clio.

Ho Okosh we used Europecar through AutoEurope twice...in Italy and UK, and we had no problems. We only payed 219GBP for 14 day rental...nobody could touch that!!! In the UK, our Kia Optimo(darling little car IMO) was brand new and had a CD player and AIR Condtioning!!!! Roomy front seats..tiny back seats but enough for DH and me.:-)

Hi OK,

There are no additional charges for one way.

As to LaSpezia on Sat - you'll have to call.

PS,

That should be as long as you pick up and drop off in Italy.

Just back from France. Had a satisfactory rental from EuropeCar. When I got my original confirmation, I e-mailed back to request a diesel. They responded they couldn't promise one. When I picked up the car, it was diesel. Fuel worked out to be $4.75/U.S. gallon. Would have been 15% more for regular gas, and 30% less mileage per gallon with gas car. I'm happy.

Europcar was the company that we had on our first Germany trip. We rented through AutoEurope. (AE is the rental agency, they then use a car rental co to supply the car)Europcar gave us exactly what we wanted, 4 door with a sunroof. The later two trips, Avis supplied the car and our requests were not fully realized. Of course it could have been dumb luck, I would certainly use EuropCar again.

Okoshi,
Autoeurope is very good, I've used them on numerous occasions...and are good with returning email, not sure why they haven't responded. Recommend you call, perhaps it didn't go through.
Also check with Hertz, beleive it or not last time I was in Italy I got the best rate through them.
Be very careful when comparing car rental rates, some may be quoting basic rental rate while others may be including tax and mandatory insurance.

europcar - only problem that i had was that they charged me for returning the car to a different location (when this was not the case) from where it was rented. i discovered this when i got my statement upon returning home. i called to complain and they refunded the charge with no hassle (except that i had to pay the difference in the credit card's foreign exchange buy/sell rate so their error cost me about £10 i think...oh well). i would not hesitate to use them again, however.

We rented through Europ Car and got nice cars but were billed one year later from Auto Europe, who'd turned over a bogus amount to a collection agency. It took me many, many e-mails to finally have Auto Europe admit the bill was a mistake, but there's a column in this month's "Conde Nast Traveler" saying others got bills from them after returning the car so be careful. Make sure everything is spelled out and you bring your paperwork with you. I'd been alerted to do that and was lucky about that since when I went to pick up the car, Auro Europe in Rome insisted they wouldn't rent to a minor, but my paperwork showed that had been stipulated in advance so they relented.

Europecar is one of the various rental agencies used by autoeurope. We've rented from them quite a few times and been very happy.

Autoeurope might not be able to give you a Saturday delivery because they may be using a rental agency other than Europecar in La Spezia and that agency might not have Saturday hours. This is what I discovered when I specified various pick-up locations in Porto and return locations in Lisbon; some were open and some were not, and they represented different rental agencies.

RE the OP's problem with La Spezia:

From the AE web site
> La Spezia City Office
Viale San Bartolomeo 515
Hours:
* OPEN Mondays-Saturdays 09:00 am-12:30<

From the Europcar website:
>Address :
LA SPEZIA
VIALE SAN BARTOLOMEO 515
19126 LA SPEZIA
ITALY

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
((I))

The only observation I would make is that Autoeurope are very popular with British people as well and because they tend to use only Europcar it can mean that there is sometimes a wait to get your car. Flew to Perpignan last year and the line for the Europcar desk was enormous. It took us over an a hour and a half to reach the front and all that while there was no-one waiting to be served at the Hertz, Avis, etc desks. At the end of this week we are flying to Nice with some friends and they have booked through Autoeurope and been told to collect the car from Europcar. We have booked with Avis direct - so we shall see who gets their car first!

We rented from Europcar last year through AutoEurope. I picked up the car at Brindisi airport, the next day the alternator quit charging. I took the car back to Europcar and they refused to replace it. They told me to drive it until it quit and they would tow me a replacement (I swear that is the exact truth with no exageration).

I called AutoEurope and within ten minutes I had a replacement car. I turned the car in at Perugia and the people were great. Maybe, it's just Brindisi that's the problem but I wouldn't consider using Europcar again unless I rented through AutoEurope. I cannot speak highly enough of them.

Recently, I waited an hour and a half at the Europcar desk at CDG airport. There was no wait at other rental companies. I won't be using them again at CDG.

For those folks unhappy with waits at Europcar:

Are there differences in prices?

Different cars?

((I))

I booked through AutoEurope (who used Europcar) and the price was by far the best, however, I'm not sure the wait was worth it. On top of the long wait in line, they didn't have the auto transmission I requested so I had to wait for one to come in (2 hour total wait - the car was an upgrade though) although I'm sure that can happen elsewhere too.

Just my experience at one airport but I was off the plane quickly and there must've been people waiting behind me for a few hours - the line was LONG! There were only two guys working there and they just couldn't handle it at all.

Again, I have no idea how their service is elsewhere, this was just at CDG. Other car rental desks had little or no wait.

I've also noticed long lines at Europcar's pickup counters on several of my trips to Italy, arriving at Malpensa. I think they do a large volume of business with the brokers like Kemwel and Auto Europe. I know I've been told by Auto Europe reps that Europcar was their "preferred supplier" in Italy.

We've used www.novarentacar.com, www.gemut.com, and www.autoeurope.com and had no problems with any of them. They are all brokers--they don't have cars themselves, but use other companies; e.g., avis, national, alamo, europcar, etc.

Shop around--no one renter has the best price every place, every time.

I booked with europecar for this October in Cologne. Very happy with the service and price. Budman, I did not think about diesel. I will give them a call. I guess in Europe getting
diesel is no problem?

> I guess in Europe getting
diesel is no problem?
No problem at all.
Never had a proplem with Europcar either. If you can get the same car for less money through a broker, I would do it.

Hi - I just rented a Minivan in Italy and checked all the companies - here is the run down. I am renting for 9 days.
Europe by car (Europebycar.com) is by far the cheapest and best value -
Rented a minivan with two car seats, with liability/fire/theft(deduc=1600eur)/collision (ded=1500euro) ins. plus two car seats for 1000 US dollars.
Avis/Hertz/AutoEurope were all around 1500 US dollars, however, the collision and theft deductable were only 300-500 US dollars for Auto Europe. To buy down collision and theft (called super collision insurance) for Europe by car it would increase the total by 99 dollars (collision) and 81$ (for theft)- this would make the deductable zero dollars.
There were no minivans available at Budget, Dollar, or National, even though they have rental places in Italy.
Hope this helps!

I called Europecar and they said Diesel is about the same as regular gas. Is that true in Germany?

about
1.18€ / liter for Diesel
1.38€ / liter gas unleaded

We've used Europcar twice and I would avoid them in the future. Always some questions regarding hidden, or unexplained fees. Twice failed to rent us the car which we had reserved, had to settle for something else. I've used Sixxt without any problems. I've used Hertz many times and still find them to be most reliable and the transactions go most smoothly.

I personally can't recommend Europ Car. We were scrambling around trying to get an automatic rental on a recent trip to Scotland and they Europ (our first port of call) had nothing for us for several days.

What really irritated me however was that when I rang them direct to try and get more options, they had me on hold for ages and then when they did eventually answer nobody seemed able to give me a straight answer!

They told me their system was showing an automatic car as being immediately available while, according to the Europ Car website I was looking at, there clearly was nothing available for several days. So, either I had forgotten how to read English (as they seemed to suggest at one point) or else their system and their customer-facing website somehow were out of sync.

Either way we booked with Argus Car Hire in the end which was very affordable, immediate and, most importantly for my wife, automatic. And guess what? I even rang them (after being so disheartened by Europ Car) and actually got to speak to someone who seemed to know what they were talking about and who confirmed that yes indeed, we have an automatic ready for pick up.

Now, is that too much to ask?

I've never booked through AutoEurope's telephone system, but I've used their website several times and it works great. Pre-pay for the car, if you need to cancel it is quick and painless with a credit back in a day or two.

I have always been very impressed with AutoEurope's customer service, it is simply excellent whenever I called.

http://www.autoeurope.com

Dave

Call back AutoEurope. The times we have rented from them they have given us EuropCar rentals.

There is no other way to go than Autoeurope. They will guarantee the lowest rates. Any price you find as long as it's apples to apples they will beat the price. They just guarantee it. Also if you have any questions you can call them anytime form the states or europe toll free. After the rental if you were over charged locally they will deal with avis, europcar, hertz etc. Also if you do not like Europcar you can tell them that and they will book you with someone else. They are definitely the best way to go. NO cancel fees and you can change your res as much as you want without incurring any fees.

I live in Paris and always go through AutoEurope for local rentals. At the moment, I am getting the cars from National, but have also been supplied through Europcar and Budget at various times this year.

Ive had my fair share of horror stories with booking carhire online in the past **&@#@ but Ive found arguscarhire.com very good pricewise and straightforward to deal with. With my family i have enough to think about without car hire giving me another headache ;-)