Renting automatic car in France. Yikes!
 

Just checked rates. That was an unpleasant surprise. I'll be flying to Marseille for a week in October. Best rate is $400 for a Citroen CI. Looks fine for urban driving but I'll be in the country. I just found out
that Priceline doesn't take bids for France.
Anyone have any ideas. Hoping a maximum of $400 for something Ford Escort size or bigger.

I think you mean the Citroen C1. It's small, but it's fine for country driving too unless you're going to spend most of the time on the autoroute.

It's hard to find affordable small automatic cars for rental that's larger than a Smart. And the C1 is larger than a Smart.

I'm surprised you found a price quote that <i><u><b>low</b></u>!</i>

Automatic transmission cars are uncommon in Europe (in rental car inventory, at least) and simple supply/demand makes them often 50-100% higher priced than cars with standard transmission.

And you should be aware that a car rental agency may <i>promise</i> you an automatic... and you get there, and they don't have a single one on the lot. It isn't even always their fault - - maybe another renter extended their rental... or a nearby location badly needed the <u>one</u> they have, the day before. But often, they just don't care about the &quot;promise&quot;... automatic transmission cars are almost &quot;on request&quot; onbly, if you read the fine print. Not <u>promised</u>.

Lesson to be learned? Arrange to have someone help you learn standard transmission driving before you go; it will save you as much as half... and avoid the anxiety of having to &quot;teach yourself&quot; in the parking lot of the rental lcaion (if they even <i>have</i> a parking lot!)

Best wishes,

Rex

High prices in Europe because of very weak US dollar.

Fortunately we can drive both stick shift and automatic.

IMO, we prefer manual (stick shift) in UK to automatic - more power!

I think inventory may be better for the larger/luxury classes with automatic. I agree with rex, especially with compact cars. They may not have an automatic when you arrive even if you've prebooked.

&quot;<i>High prices in Europe because of very weak US dollar.</i>&quot;

The rates for any car will work out a bit more due to the worsening exchange rate. But that has absolutely nothing to to w/ why automatics cost more than standard drive cars.

Just know that if one cannot/will not drive a stick you will have to pay a lot more.

The rate you have been quoted so far is surprisingly low-----no matter the value of the dollar.

Automatic is always more, and you might even come out ahead by reserving a little larger car. We always use to rent stick shift,,,but the past few years we've done the automatic(one less thing to worry about). Just factor it into the cost of your trip.(:&gt;) It's whatever you are more comfortable with.
Did you try Autoeurope?(brokers for several majors rental agencies) and I guess you've tried Hertz, Avis etc. AAA gives a nice discount, as does AARP(over age 50_)(but you probably don't quality for that!)
As someone else mentioned: it's probably a little more difficult to find a SMALL and AUTOMATIC.!
France might be a little higher than some other countries....though we've rented about 4 times at Charles DeGaulle,,,but I remember one year we chose to rent in eneva(cheaper), though it was a French trip in central, southeast France.
Am sure you asked for exactly one week and not 2 hrs over...(the 8th day adds quite a bit. I also think 5 days qualifies for a weekly rate!

oops! I guess you know I meant to type &quot;GENEVA,, not &quot;eneva&quot;!

That actually is a good rate for an automatic for week.

I don't understand all these reports of not getting automatic when you rent one. We've never had a problem in dozens of trips.

That said - we rent either at the airport or in a center city location of a large city - and we always use a major supplier (we've found Hertz or Avis generally give the best rates for the type of car we want once you add in the drop-off charges - we almost always leave the car in another country).

And although we have gotten cars with problems (non-working headlight etc) but we examine the car and they have always replaced it on the spot - once brining it to the hotel for us when we didn't want to delay our dinner for it to be cleaned and fueled. (We were leaving early the next am - so picked up at 7pm.).

Have you tried prepaying to guarantee the automatic? We've always gotten an automatic although not always the model we asked for. As for the $400, Boise ID charged me that for 4 days one time when I flew down for a funeral! We spent 2 weeks in Ireland one time w/a $600 rental for a BMW plus paid their mandatory collision ins.

I think $400 is a bargain for an automatic!

As for the guarantee, it depends on where you're picking up the car. Big city? No problem..there are plenty of cars circulating in and out of all types. Small town? No guarantees at all.

Since you're not traveling until October why not take some lessons in the meantime on driving stick? If you do get your automatic, great, but if you don't, then you'll be able to handle it.

Hi NYT,

&gt;I don't understand all these reports of not getting automatic when you rent one. We've never had a problem in dozens of trips....we almost always leave the car in another country)..... once bringing it to the hotel for us when we didn't want to delay our dinner &lt;

What size Benz do you get? :)

((I))

Hi Cel,

www.autoeurope.com has a VW Golf AT/AC in Marseilles for one week in Oct for $318.

((I))

In the big cities, there is generally no problem getting an automatic. It's the medium and small cities that you have to worry about.

Those of you who always want to use the strategy &quot;take the train out of Paris and pick up the car in a smaller town&quot; may have to bite the bullet if you want an automatic.

Isn't the problem here that driving licences are issued to people that can't drive a proper car?

I would have jumped at $400 last October when we were in the Cote.
To get an automatic, Avis (my husband gets discounts, etc. and points) he would have had to put our $2,500.
We would have slept in that car.
Instead we got a nice LaGuna, but it would roll down the hills when he had to stop...he couldn't quite maintain that delicate balance

celfan, have you tried searching different suppliers to see if you can get a bigger car with automatic transmission? I might start by calling www.autoeurope.com, which you may know about, as they're a broker that has contracts with different rental companies. If they can't find you the car you want, then you may still find the car you want by calling individual car companies directly, or checking their websites. Dealing with the companies directly may mean your rate goes up even more -- just part of the premium one pays for trying to rent an automatic in Europe, I guess.

There's also the car-switching thing. I once thought I was getting a compact car in Nice, but ended up with some sort of minivan-like Volkswagen that was kind of a pain to drive around. I would think that, when dealing with a reputable company in a larger city, one would be more likely to be upgraded as I was, rather than being downgraded or not given a car at all.

I've gotten used to the idea of higher rates and unexpected car substitutions, although I still think that the &quot;I'm better then you because I can drive a stick and you can't&quot; sentiment, like others that are based on the idea that &quot;I'm better than you,&quot; is not a constructive one when introduced into forums like these where people are looking for helpful advice.

Actually that is quite an interesting point though - if you live here (UK)you can only have a full license if you pass in a manual car. If you pass in an automatic you get a restricted license and can only ever drive automatics, unless you go on to take the test again in a manual of course. Yet a visitor who may only have driven an automatic is allowed to hire and drive a manual...

Nona1, there are Belgians with perfectly valid licenses who never had to take any kind of practical driving test, manual or automatic.

I can drive a standard and enjoy doing so.

But in the US you'll probably find a standard shift on fewer than 5% of vehicles. Naturally, most drivers never learn to use one = I didn't have much opportunity to until I'd been driving for at least ten years.

There are some plusses to a standard transmission, but in the long run an automatic is more dependable and cheaper to own. And that's from the Car Guys on NPR!

Wow - remind me never to drive in Belgium!

Oh and I've nothing against automatics, we are a 2 car household; one manual one automatic.

Just struck me that there is one rule for Brits and another rule for foreign visitors, and for once the visitors win out!

If you have ever driven in Belgium it is obvious that some folks have never taken a test ;).
In the Netherlands you also get a note on the licence if you took the test on an automatic, and aren't allowed to drive anything but an automatic.

I'm sure that it is true that automatic cars are generally the larger ones but they certainly are available. With careful shopping bargains can be found with automatics too.

Don't be discouraged from renting an automatic. We always get one. There are frequently additional advantages. The automatics are usually equipped with air conditioning, remote locks and an alarm. We rent from Hertz or Europcar - they have them.

Ira -

We've only rented a Benz once - and were very disappointed. It must be a different engine than in the US - since it had practically no pick up (and I'm used to driving a sub-compact coupe).

We do rent larger cars - both to be sure we have decent speed and pick up - which many smaller cars don;t have - and since the beau is 6'3&quot; - and doesn;t wanted to be pretzelized for the whole trip.

I'm suppose to get a compact or economy automatic at Nice airport this Sunday. Pre-paid $341 for 5-day rental about a month or two ago through kemwel.com, which is another front-end for Autoeurope.

Yeah I've been able to get automatics in Nice and Tours before.

So if they don't have an automatic in the class you already paid for, what are they going to do, extort you for more money to move up to a larger car with auto? Or would they free-upgrade like they would in the US?

The C1 is a nice little car as rkkwan implies. Great in the city and easy to park, quite good on country roads, not really meant for high speed cruising. It has more room for folks than you might think in seeing its small size but not much luggage room. The C1 is one of the few cars where the gasoline engine is nearly as good as the diesel version as far a mileage is concerned. Both are exceptional. It has some nice standard safety features such as stability control.

A few times a year, we drive our Belgian car back to the UK (we don't have a car in the UK) and most drivers give us a wide berth :-)

The time when I was unexpectedly upgraded from a compact to a minivan-like beast, Europcar didn't ask me to pay any additional money. I would have challenged them if they had.

f you're getting less than great acceleratio with the Benz, it likely was a diesel.

... like 75% of the cars in France and Belgium. Diesel.

Hi SC,

&gt;So if they don't have an automatic in the class you already paid for, what are they going to do, ....&lt;

One very good reason for renting through AE and its affiliates is that when that happens YOU call the 24-hr service line and let AE negotiate with (ie yell at) the rental counter clerk.

((I))

I don't understand all these reports, either. I've rented automatics in Provence twice in the last five years or so, and got an automatic with no problem whatsoever, and it was about the size of a compact car. I got it from Autoeurope without any trouble and it didn't cost that much more than a manual.

Driving lessons (if you can actually find a place that will teach you) would cost a lot more than paying for a car that you can drive well (even if you take lessons, you won't have much experience, and I don't personally think that is a good idea for drivers in a strange car and strange country to also be driving a way they just learned).

I think it cost me about $15 a day more than a manual. The first one I had (about the size of a Corolla) was an Alfa Romeo (I really liked that one as you had to shift it yourself, but there was no clutch, we don't have those kind of transmissions in the US) and the second some of French car, probably Citroen C3, which is a little bigger than I usually drive.

Car rental costs have gone up a lot in France, at least when I've checked, for both manuals and automatics. Both rentals I had were from Europcar, ultimately, but through Autoeurope -- one in Marseille and the other in Montpellier.

I think the OP needs to decide if they want a small car or a big car, and stop complaining about a reasonable rate. Car rentals cost $35-45 a day where I live in the US, also. I just checked Autoeurope and in October at Marseille airport, they have an VW Golf automatic at $477 a week, but the manuals are around $349 for a Peugeot 207 and $358 for a Citroen C3. SO that's less than $20 a day difference in cost.

Christina - the point isn't whether it is cheaper for a US tourist to take driving lessons or nor.

The point is that looks like a lot of you come over never having driven a proper car in your lives and hire one (if you are daft enough) and are therefore a **** danger on the roads.

What gives you right to do that?

Well I guess the answer is that hire legislation lets you. And to be fair very few of you do.

But if I was PM of any of the European countries I'd make absolutely sure that when letting a US visitor drive off in a proper car they had the documentation to prove that they were fit to do so.

5 per cent apparently know how to drive a proper car. Time for some legilation then. Or it one rule for the US and one rule for the rest of us like so much else?

&gt;...one rule for the US and one rule for the rest of us like so much else?&lt;

Darn right!

Well, there are a lot of opinions here. Mine is that being safe is your number one priority. My husband and I are old enough that we grew up shifting, but we no longer shift. We can and would if that was our only choice. However, in another country where we are unfamiliar with roads and direction, there is enough to think about. Whatever the choice, just be careful and watch out. Happy travels!

Funny, I picked up a car last night for one of my usual weekend rentals in Paris, and they gave me a Smart automatic because an automatic was all they had left among their small cars.