rental cars in Italy
 

We are getting ready to rent a car through auto europe and wondering if anyone has driven a Fiat 500 2dr or Peugeot 206 4 dr. We will be driving from Florence airport into Chianti in Tuscany and Umbria for 9 days. Would also appreciate any other ideas on what type of car to rent. We plan to get full ins package after reading about the roads and drivers in Italy. Does this sound like a good idea? Thanks for all imput.

First thing you should know is that those models are merely representative of vehicles in that car class. You could just as well get a Hyundai, Toyota, Ford, VW, or some other brand of car of similar size. It all depends on the inventory on hand.

The Fiat 500 2dr is a very, very small car - I saw one drive down the interstate the this morning and it looked like an ant. Suggest you go to your local Chrysler dealer to see one for yourself.

You haven't given us enough info to recommend what kind of car to rent. Are a you large boned family of 4 with lots of luggage, a petite party of 2 with carryons only?

If you're only driving Tuscany and Umbria then you don't really care about the size, comfort, and horsepower for long distance drives at 100mph.

Thanks for info on Fiat 500. We live in Costa Rica, so it will be hard to go to a dealership to look at the cars in person. :) There will be 2 of us in the car with only carry-on luggage. I am petit, but my husband is over 6 feet, so would not want to be cramped in an ant size car. The Peugeot 206 is a 4 door sedan which looks like it would be more comfortable and I do understand that it is just an example of the mini/economy size cars.
The drivers in Costa Rica are pretty crazy and that is why we were wondering about buying the total ins package even though we are used to defensive driving--but in our own car.

If I recall correctly you really don't have a choice about insurance in Italy, but perhaps others will chime in with more recent experience.

A 6' guy isn't going to be comfortable in a mini like the Cinquecento, unless you cut out the floor boards and make your own sun roof.

You don't have much choice other than to buy insurance in Italy, most of it is mandatory by rental car companies and very few credit card companies will cover you.

How much is your peace of mind worth, insurance-wise? Be aware that those all-inclusive insurance packages often include a deductible and you should research that. You can, however, pay an additional charge to bring that deductible to zero. Only you can decide if that is a rip-off or worth it.

Another thing: make certain when you pick up the car that you make note of any and all dents, scratches, etc., on the form they give you.

And take pictures.

Yes, peace of mind is important to us at this point as we have villa rentals here in Costa Rica and see our guests get into problems at times with certain rental car companies. Here, they pressure you to buy insurance that is not really needed.
Thanks for tips on taking photos. Any suggestions or experience with types of cars you have driven in Italy?

I guess "ant" size is relative. Compared to a large SUV it is very small, compared to other cars in Italy it is smaller than average, but there are plenty smaller. Many Italian families drive Fiat 500s and my 6 foot son is comfortable in one. The Fiat 500 is sold in Costa Rica so you can check one out - take a test drive.

Hmmmm. I have never seen a Fiat 500 in Costa Rica. We live on the coast where one needs a car that can take the bad roads and get up the mountains with 4WD. We drive a 10 yr old Honda CRV which is not too much larger than the ant size. My husband does like the looks of the Fiat 500 for some reason, and I am looking up km per liter or miles per gallon right now.

We just rented a Fiat 500 through AutoEurope (Europcar) in Tuscany, returning to Rome. It was fine. Yes, it's a small car. We could only put one of our roll aboard carryons into the trunk! But the other fit in the back seat. For two people it was fine. My partner did the driving and really liked it -- felt it had more power and felt firmer than his Prius he drives at home!

If your credit card gives you rental car insurance, it will be much better coverage (and for free) than taking any more than the required insurance with the rental. But you must decline all optional insurance for the credit card one to work.

NeoPatrick, what credit card did you use for your Italy rental? Are there any that provide insurance coverage in Italy? I have not heard of any.

Thank you NeoPatrick and sumrcr for your information. I am waiting to see what CC provides insurance coverage in Italy. We do not have an AmEX card.
Has anyone driven a Peugeot 207 4dr in Italy?

I am around 6 ft tall and drove the Fiat 500 for two weeks throughout Tuscany and felt it was fine. I had plenty of leg and head room.

sumrcr. perhaps you misunderstood. I took the REQUIRED insurance in Italy with the rental -- it is REQUIRED in Italy. But then my credit card takes over from there. Buying additional optional insurance from the rental agency is a total waste of money in my book, as it will not provide you with coverage as good as MOST US credit cards, including providing a zero deductible. Actually in this case it was my partner's CapitalOne Visa, but the Citibank MasterCard provides the same coverage.

If you are driving into small towns, a smaller car is more practical on narrow streets and of course, easier to find a place to park. If you require an automatic transmission it will limit your choices and cost much more. A diesel engine will save on fuel costs so you might want to seek out a car that has one.

We've never bothered taking the extra insurance to reduce the various excesses, except once when I knew the place we were staying was up a mountain with a very rough, steep, zigzagging route up. Other times, even after driving through very narrow streets in historic town centres (not recommended), we've never had a problem: we did suffer a couple of scrapes once in Bologna & Padua but never heard anything about it.

As another poster said, there's no point in asking for people's experience of specific makes & models - IME you *invariably* get something different from the ones used as examples.

Since you don't need a lot of space, I'd go for the smallest available which is what we've always done (and DH is 6') - the smaller the better in most of the narrow city streets & country lanes here.

P.S. basingstoke2, just seen your response - diesel is more expensive per litre, but maybe diesel cars run sufficiently economically still to make it cheaper, do they? Although IME you don't get a petrol/diesel option anyway - you basically take what you're given, unless there's a compelling reason why not - and we've never encountered a diesel hire car.

I've never encountered anything OTHER than a diesel car, except when I got the teeniest car imaginable. And there are significant savings in diesel fuel...significant. You can drive forever on a single tank (we were up to over 600 kms in our recent trip to France on the first tank and only put more in so we turned the car in full).

And sans plomb was about 1,545 a liter, and gazole was about 1,380 a liter, so the cost of the fuel was actually cheaper (and always has been IME).

It's not in Italy, StCirq. Or Britain.