We just turned our Europcar rental (rented through Kemwel) in at the Dublin airport -- got charged 35 euro for a missing hubcap. We're pretty sure it was missing when we rented it, but it was raining hard and we were probably not as careful to check as we should have been.

We took the standard CDW and bought the excess coverage through Insurance4Carhire -- I'll let you know if we get our 35E back.

It was also a bit more expensive for the over-70 driver than I had understood from Kemwel -- I am going to call them Monday and see what they say. I know I should have called them right then, but it really wasn't enough higher to make a real fuss about.

Aside from those small problems, we had no issues with them.

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I booked through Kemwel looking for an automatic and they turned up Mercedes A180 or equivalent.

They gave me a C220 or C230 CDI diesel. Was fairly new, very shiny.

But it picked up a lot of grime in my one week with it.

Here's something that may be an issue for some people:

Europcar apparently has gone back to putting identification on its cars in France. Two weeks ago I had a Peugeot 207 with a big green Europcar sticker on it, and this weekend I have a Toyota Aygo with a big green Europcar sticker on it.

Personally, I have never had a problem with an identifiable rental car in any country, but I did read all of the articles about rental car problems (particularly in Florida) and the reasons that all of the companies removed the identification.

In any case, I can identify all of the Europcar (or other rental company) cars in France in a heartbeat (perhaps because I used to work for Avis), so I would presume that any professional thief can do the same, whether or not there is a sticker on the car.

Never a problem with my Europcar rentals, which I have always gotten through Auto Europe. As a matter of course, I always photograph the car from all angles at the very start of the rental, and again when turning in. Modern digital cameras makes this especially easy, of course.

Europcar is a great company to deal with, there are no hidden expenses, atleast from my experience. we rented with them during a trip to Germany, we used our american driver's licenses and insurance and it was pretty inexpensive.

I, too, like Europcar and have used them several times. They have more locations in Europe than anybody, which is good if something goes wrong and you need to swap cars. However, I book through gemut.com. They usually have the lowest price, especially in Germany, but if not they will match if I find a lower quote. I like dealing with the same people year after year. A couple of times I've been overcharged by the rental company but I just call gemut and they handle it. There's a lot of good rental advice at their website.

Europcar is not a broker...but a rental company like Hertz, National, Avis etc. AutoEurope, offices in Maine, and very good ,use Europcar sometimes OR the others, whichever is better in the area you want. (OR which company you want)
We had no problem with Europcar when we used them.
Dealing with AutoEurope is easy and they have good customer service.
One big hint which we have found successful...PREPAY the car and have the voucher in hand when you walk up to the desk. They CANNOT charge you more....but there may be a couple of small taxes which they can't do ahead of time,,but at least you know about it.