Hi, though I have been to France many times I have never rented a car. Can anyone tell me which of these companies has a better reputation in France? Any personal experience? I knwo Avis si Fine in US but not sure about France. The reason from my question is that Avis is offering a much lower rate $217 for 4 days vs $275 sub-compact, manual, no a/c
Thans for your help!

Biketour

Try Holiday Autos!

he's talking reputability - do you mean Holiday Autos is more reputable than either Europecar or AVIS? Or is Holiday Autos just a middle man and you don't know what company you will really be picking your car up at?

Sorry Bob! Silly me!
Holiday Autos are usually always cheaper and are good to deal with ,but you may get a car from Alamo or whoever, right enough.

Avis is a major car rental company in Europe, as is Europcar. The difference in the rates may be that Europcar has included the CDW, because they are a European based company, or Avis is just offering you a better rate.

I wasn't aware that Avis or Europcar even offered a rental without A/C. The Avis compact class car, a Renault Megane or similar, includes A/C, as does their Economy class cars.

I've rented from Avis in several European countries, including France, and never had the slightest hint of a problem. I spend a lot of time comparing rates, and Avis has always been cheaper - I'd assumed it was because I was being given my company's discount rate even though it's a personal rental, but maybe they're just cheaper.

Hi B,

Take a look at www.autoeurope.com and www.novacarhire.com.

They are both brokers.

AE uses Europcar a lot and Nova uses Avis a lot.

AE will usually beat any other quote.

The Europcar representative in Limoges claimed that all their cars now had AC.

We used Europecar in France (Sarlat) to get a big seven seater. It was very easy, no problems, and was only 35 euros a day. After a whole week, the car only took 40 euros of gas to fill it up.

Hidden on their site, Europecar also has Kangoos which are considered "commercial vehicles" and are therefore cheaper. They are actually just a passanger car that can seat 5, but are still spacious enough for some bags, etc.

Thank you all for the great responses. Re: A/c - I was just going off of what it said in the reservation - of course I would be happy to have a/c.

Also, the holiday Autos US site has had a bug in the program for almost 2 weeks now - (when you try to select a day in October it doesn't let you choose a day - I have tried from 3 different computers - a lot of peope seem to recommend them. I guess I'll stick with Avis and let everyone know how it went.

Biketour

Drive carefully and enjoy your holiday, bicycletour!

I used to work at Avis in France (not for long) and we were very happy because it was the most expensive and we had the highest salaries compared to Europcar, Hertz, Budget, etc. We spent a lot of time comparing such things on long slow nights working until midnight at Gare de Lyon.
More seriously, NOBODY rents directly from any of these companies unless they want to pay the highest price. I always go through www.autoeurope.com, which generally gives me cars through Europcar or National, but it could be any of the others, as conditions change all the time.