Help With Car Rental......
 

My husband got a price for a car rental in Italy. We will pick it up at the Rome Fiumicino airport (July) and return it there 5 days later. The total cost he got from Avis with ALL the extra charges (and there are several) comes to $310.60. The car is a Fiat Punto 1.3L. There will be two of us. Please give me your advice on what you think. Rex, I know you seem to know alot about car rentals, so I am hoping you respond. If this is too high does anyone know of other good deals out there.

I think it is high priced and under-powered. Where do you plan to go with it? Maybe you could use a three day rental instead? A five-day rental is probably costing you the same per day as a three rental - - and in fact, the sixth and seventh days would probably be free at this rate.<BR><BR>Did you try www.Autoeurope.com - - or any of the others I usually suggest?<BR><BR>www.kemwel.com<BR>www.its-cars-hotels.com<BR>www.travelocity.com<BR><BR>and there's a new one - - blanking right now - - I will see if I can come up with the name.<BR><BR>Best wishes,<BR><BR>Rex<BR>

There's a 20% surcharge for picking up the car at Fiumicino(airport)-can you pick up the car elsewhere--in town in Rome or another destination? You can usually drop off your car in Italy ina different place from where you picked it up at no extra charge, and there is no 20% surcharge for dropping it off at Fiumicino, only if your rental originates there.

Helen,<BR><BR>We reserved an economy car through AutoEurope for 12 days for not much more ($359 with all the extras except local road tax of 1.65/day which you pay locally) than your 5 day rental. We are picking up at a downtown location which saves on the surcharge but I'm sure you can do better if you try AutoEurope or the others Rex suggested. I've also used Kemwel in the past and been pleased with rates and service of both AutoEurope and Kemwel.

Thanks for the info everyone. I will check those sites out Rex. We are going to drive from Rome to Pisa, Florence and Genoa (area where my grandparents came from). Any other suggestions would be helpful. Thanks again!!

Hi Helen:<BR>I agree with Rex's comments. You will find the Fiat Punto 1.3 very small, underpowered, with no room to securely store luggage. Use Auto Europe; we have several times with great results. They are a rental broker and you may very well end up with a car from Avis at a much lower rate. I recommend a midsize 4 door sedan such as Volks Passat or Renault Laguna, WITH AIR CONDITIONING!You will find Auto Europe's rates very reasonable. If at all possible, do not pick up car at the airport to avoid the surcharge. If you plan to spend some time in Rome before going on your way, you don't want a rental car there. Take public transportation to your hotel and arrange to pick up your car in the city near your hotel on the day of departure. In Italy, you will be REQUIRED to purchase CDW and theft coverage, even with a gold or platinum credit card. Some other thoughts: Request a diesel auto. Fuel is readily available, 25% less than gasoline, and the newer models are all turbo-diesels with great pereformance. Be prepared to pay about 10 cents a mile tolls if you use the autostradas (that's right; 10 US cents), which are the only way to go if you have a lot of driving. We have used the credit card lanes (usually on the far right at the toll stations) with no problems. Saves a lot of time, you get a good exchange rate, and we haven't lost a card yet. One final observation: If you plan to visit Pisa, Florence and Genoa and return to Rome in 5 days, you will be spending most of your time in the car. I suggest you review your itinerary or give yourselves a few more days.<BR><BR>Have a great trip. Italy is a wonderful country. Hope this info helps.<BR><BR>regards, Chet

We are planning a 2 week trip flying in and out of Venice 5/21, staying the last 5 nights in Venice.<BR><BR>Is there a surcharge in Venice for either getting or dropping off a car at the Marco Polo airport vs somewhere near a Cannergio hotel?<BR><BR>Ideally, we would like to pick up the car at the airport as we leave town that day. We would like to return the car before our final 5 night stay in Venice since we will not need a car in Venice. Our hotel is in the Cannaregio neighborhood.

top

We just got a quote back from auto Europe for a 9 day rental of an Alfa Romeo 156 of 540.93. We pick up and drop off at Pisa airport. There is just two of us, is this car too big to maneuver tuscan city streets? They also have the ALfa 147 for a bit less, is that more manageable? Feedback is appreciated, thanks.

Hi Helen. We just rented a Fiat Punto for five days in Italy, through Kemwel (the actual rental was from Europcar.)<BR><BR>We'd originally considered picking it up at Fiumicino but, as JD noted, there's an airport surcharge there. (There was also a hefty surcharge for picking it up in Italy and dropping it off in France, so we decided on two separate rentals, one within Italy and one within France.) <BR><BR>The total price Kemwel quoted us was 247 euros. This included all insurance, but excluded local charges, which turned out to be an additional 12 euros/day. (Somehow the total ended up being 353 euros, which seems higher than it should be, even with those additional per-day charges, so I think I need to call Kemwel.) <BR><BR>Anyway, assuming the 353 euros is truly legitimate, we ended up paying about $315 for our five-day rental. (By comparison, our five-day rental in France was only $180. We had insurance coverage through a Visa gold card, and there did not seem to be these "extra charges" tacked on, as there were in Italy.) <BR><BR>While I don't know what size engine our Punto had, I assume it was probably the 1.3L. It was certainly no Mercedes or BMW when it came to pickup, but I thought it was actually quite peppy -- very suitable for passing in almost all occasions -- and had far better pickup than the Renault Clio we wented in France (though the Clio had a better sound system, which made up for that.)<BR><BR>By the way, a note about Kemwel... This was the first time I've rented from them (the previous two being through AutoEurope) and I was a bit displeased with their apparent lack of knowledge about hours in locations. We were scheduled to drop our car off in La Spezia on a Saturday at 4:00 pm. Now, I expect that when a company like Kemwel tells me that, they know -- or should know -- what the actual hours are but, as it turned out, the La Spezia office closed at 12:30 on Saturdays, so dropping it off at 4:00 pm was not even a possibility. In my opinion, Kemwel should have known that and the fact that they didn't makes me seriously reconsider using them again in the future. (Also, instead of giving me the phone number of the Siena Europecar office -- where we picked our car up -- they mysteriously gave me the phone number of the Europcar office in Livorno. Not a big deal but another screw-up, IMO.)

I followed Rex's lead and used Auto Europe for my recent renetal in Italy. I checked all the others. AE met other bids and provided excellent service. I would recommend them. Also picking up from FCO worked well.

If i'm landing at Fiumicino picking up our rental from Auto Europe and driving straight to Frascati. Where would be an alternate place to pick up the car so I don't have a surcharge?<BR>Judy

This post is for Kathy:<BR><BR>There is a surcharge for picking up car at Marco Polo but none for dropping it off there. You can pick up or return most rental cars at Piazzale Roma, which is close to the RR station. There is bus service from Marco Polo to Pz. Roma. Can you change your itinerary to start your trip in Venice and end at the Airport?..You can take public transportation from Marco Polo to your hotel, pick up your car at Pz. Roma on day of departure, and return it at Marco Polo with no surcharges.<BR><BR>Ciao, Chet

Sounds expensive. Last year we took a house in the Garfagnana above Lucca in Tuscany. I think it was $185 for one week for the Punta. Swear I've got shoes bigger than this car and my old Schwinn has more power .... however, we were on tiny roads much of the time and it was sized right on the outside! All but one too large suitcase which I will leave home this time fit in the boot. Put an enormous amount of time and distance on the thing and only had to gas it twice. I mean we were all over the place and at the price of gas, this wasn't such a bad choice. I drive a couple of BMWs at home and grumbled about the lowly vehicle but many cars are simply too large to wheel around small towns and try to find parking.