We are hoping to go to Italy August/September. We have found rental cars to be about double what we are used to paying. It seems that this is a global result of the massive rental car sell-off during the pandemic.

One surprisingly affordable option that Auto Europe is offering is Renault Eurodrive (and two other similar programs with Peugeot and Citroen).

For as few as 14-21 days, in essence, you lease a brand new car, including full insurance, for rates that are significantly less (our experience is less than half) than current rental rates from traditional sources.

The only negatives we see are lots more paperwork, the agencies may not be located right at your chosen airport, there are fewer places to rent and return, and you need to fill up the gas tank yourself at the outset.

I have two questions: (1) Has anyone used such a plan and can share your experience? And (2) What the heck do they do with all these less than new (depreciated) cars for which they "earned" in our case $1,000 or so for a month before they cover Auto Europe commissions, insurance costs, roadside assistance, agent costs, etc., etc..

When the discussion came up a couple of weeks ago, I check rates and the "basic" rates in France for n economy car were about $8 more per day than in previous years; about $22 then vs. $30 now.
The lease rates are not lower than the "basic"rates offered by Autoeurope where the CDW is carried by your credit card. I always do that, and have not had any serious problems even when the car was damaged. Although rental rates may have increased faster than lease rates, I still think that to come out even would take 6 weeks, and because the credit car coverage did not exceed 30 days on one rental, I would split the rental in two and pay less than a lease covering the same period of time.

However, it may be that Italy insists on the inclusion of insurance on the rental contract.

My sister uses this every couple of years when she comes to the UK for a long tiime. She flies into Heathrow and sends her DH to whichever airport it needs picking up from. She is coming from NZ.

What do they do with part used cars? They sell them on. I've bought one from Renault, it just had 1000km on the clock and was marked down by roughly 20%. But it allows French car makers a tax break.