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Long Term auto rental advice, insurance coverage

Long Term auto rental advice, insurance coverage

Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 09:44 AM
  #21  
 
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The cheapest and smartest way to go is with a lease.

You have not demonstrate the "fact" that it is the cheapest way to go. I have quoted rental costs and lease costs to demonstrate that there is a $900 differential, with the lease being more expensive.

As for insurance coverage, one poster did wreck his car and reported his experience a few years ago. I believe that he was covered by his credit card, and was fully reimbursed. I believe that he admitted that the accident was entirely his fault.
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 09:48 AM
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demonstrate = demonstrated
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Old Feb 23rd, 2015, 10:53 AM
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ladybugtravel,

It probably would be cheaper to rent your car in France than in Switzerland and returning it in France--this would also be true of a lease. Consider arriving and departing from Basel or Geneva and obtaining your car on the French side of either airport. Don't forget to buy a vignette for travel in Switzerland.
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Old Feb 25th, 2015, 08:15 AM
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Michael, you gave one set of numbers that I accept that you found by looking online. So what?

I gave you a link http://www.reidsguides.com/t_au/t_au_leases.html
which indicates the opposite. So what?

Are we to take your word for it but not the word of the person in the link? In the link, the writer even says, "if you’re the type to refuse the CDW and other insurances (an unrealistic scenario in countries where it's required, including Italy and Spain), rentals can be cheaper over a 17-day period (by 30–36%) and even a 30-day period (15%), but a lease clocks in at 10% cheaper on a six-week period."

So he is agreeing with you on periods of up to a month but disagreeing on 6 weeks (or the OP's 7 weeks obviously).

So how is he finding it cheaper for 6 weeks but you cannot? Is he lying about it? Or does he know something your quick check didn't tell you?

In any case, this is now just going in circles.
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Old Feb 25th, 2015, 09:10 AM
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You give me a link, I give you current prices. I'll accept a correction if you give me a web site where I can go through the process of leasing a car (without finalizing, but establishing a real cost) for less than a rental using Autoeurope as the rental agency for a country where the CDW can be carried by the credit card. In case you have not noticed, I rent smaller standard shift cars.

Years ago (around 2003) I did a comparison. I leased a Clio for 56 days, compared it with rental prices, and discovered that I just about broke even. But since then rental prices have gone down (actually they have not gone up) while lease prices have gone up. One example: I still can rent a car for about $20 per day with the CDW covered by my credit card (yesterday Autoeurope advertised a rental in France for $13 per day). I can't do that with a lease, with the cheapest 6 week lease costing $39 per day according to the Renault web site. For my last lease, I paid $175 extra to pick up the car in Munich. Now it costs $210 and up. I stand by my actual figures, pointing out for those checking on the figures that my original quote included the pick-up and return fee (a total of $400+) to a foreign location.

There is one instance in which a lease might make sense, which is the one I did starting in Munich. That's because it was a 6 week lease for a trip that went from Germany to Austria to Italy and then France. It would have been a pain to keep on changing rentals because one cannot take a car without CDW coverage into Italy (that would mean changing cars when going from Austria to Italy); and an Italian rental is more expensive than a French rental even without the cross-border drop-off fee, which would mean another change in cars between Italy and France. But the OP was going to Switzerland, France and Germany, which does not present the same conditions as going to Italy.

In 2013 I considered a lease because I would be driving in Germany, and then in France. But it turned out that it still was cheaper to rent in two different locations and take the plane between the two than leasing a car; and that did not take into account the savings of not having a car in cities like Berlin where it would just stay parked--but accumulating its daily cost nonetheless--for the duration. It was a straight comparison between a lease and the combination of two initial rentals plus the airfare for two.
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