We got a car rental from Hertz in CDG, and I was wondering if anyone has had a GPS is their car? We are supposed to have a VW Passat or similar. Two years ago we got a Citroen C5, and there was a GPS inside without asking, so I was not sure if that was common.

I made a mistake, we are supposed to get an Opel Insignia or similar

they may have one in the car, but you likely have to pay to use it. We just rented a car in France and the GPS in the car required a chip that you had to pay €12 a day for...we just brought our own.

I get nearly all of my cars from Europcar and more and more of them have a GPS installed already, even the Smarts, at no extra charge.

I agree...if you want a NeverLost (the Hertz GPS version) you will pay extra for one. It may or may not be built in. Last Summer I rented a car from Hertz in Florence and added a Never Lost. It turned out to be a nice Garmin unit (I purposely left my Magellan at home (it works in Europe but decided just not to fool with it) which was portable and easily understood; it had all the current maps loaded, told us when there were speed cameras coming up, etc., etc (and this is something a paper map does NOT do) and just made the whole trip a lot more enjoyable, especially as we wandered along a LOT of back, BACK roads in Tuscany.

GO for it

Have a look around... TomTom and Garmin both sell units with N. American and European maps on their sites. I bought an older high end TomTom on eBay complete with European maps for $84.

To me, the advantage of taking your own, aside from potentially saving money, is that you can download literally 100s of POIs and plan routes in advance. You can't do that with one that comes in a car.

I would like to point out, though, that the GPS in my last rental car gave me completely wrong directions in Paris, including trying to get me to go the wrong way on a one way street (it must be admitted that the street has changed direction twice in three years). I didn't need to use it, but turned it on just for fun. I really felt sorry for anybody who would have been relying on it.

Wow kerouac thats horrible!!

I agree with looking for your own. When you add up the cost per day its almost the same price to buy and bring your own. Then you can use it again!

Don't count on Hertz just hsppening to a GPS there on the particular day you arrive. If you have to have it, either reserve it along with the car before you leave home or bring your own GPS.

I was really happy to be listening to the GPS, jamikins, because I wanted to hear what it would say about going up the street in a different direction. I was hoping to hear "WRONG WAY! WRONG WAY! STOP IMMEDIATELY!" But in fact, it just said "You have arrived at your destination on the right." Except that since I was facing the other way, my destination was on the left.

In Naples the other day, Hertz routinely had no mainstream cars with GPS. GPS had to be hired, at €25 a day, making the hire about twice the cost of buying it in a supermarket at home.

Policies obviously vary from country to country, and you should check directly with Hertz France