TravellerSal

Hello,
We will be hiring a car in Italy and another in France in May/June this year. I am used to driving a car with front and rear cameras plus all the other "fruit", and I don't want to drive on foreign roads without them now. (In Australia we drive on the other side of the road just to complicate matters)
The car hire sites don't give details of the features of the cars - even on the top of the range cars it seems. Can anyone who has rented over the last couple of years in these countries please tell me whether front and rear cameras are now pretty normal in Europe or not. Hire cars used to be as basic as possible, so I'm not sure what is standard these days. Given that automatics are quite rare, I feel the need to get some clarification!
I would be hiring a middle of the range vehicle - unless I am forced to pay more Many thanks.

J62

Rear cameras, yes.
Front cameras (that you can see the feed), no.
Front and rear distance warning, yes. So no more parking by braille.

Look at the examplar models for each range then you can look up the list of standard features for recent model years. No guarantee of course you'll get a particular model or model year.

balthy

Automatics are not rare, yes most cars that I have rented have rear cameras and all sorts of gadgets and controls. The rental company is not going to list features of specific models, in any case you are not guaranteed a specific model within the car group you have booked.

hetismij2

Be prepared for there not being a rear camera though. The car may have a bleep to help with not hitting stuff behind you but it may not have a camera.
Why do you need a front camera?

bilboburgler

you'll find more electric cars than automatics, automatics are roughly 5% of the market in most of western Europe, lower in eastern

Traveler_Nick

Easiest way to get an automatic is to rent a hybrid. Virtually all hybrids are automatic. Supposedly last year the Toyota Yaris was Italy's best selling car. The other option is any of the higher end cars.

I get the impression rear cameras are actually more common than warning beepers are . I know with my current car the rear camera was standard but the rear warning beeper was added cost.

twk

We had a Toyotal Yaris hybrid last May in France (specified the most basic level of automatic on the rental contract with Auto Europe and this is what we got). It had a backup camera and Apple Car Play.

mjs

We have rented three cars within the last two years in Europe. One was an Audi A4 station wagon (estate) in Bilbao. Another was a Corolla Station wagon in Avignon. The third was a RAV 4 hybrid in Bergen. All were automatics and all had rear cameras. None had front cameras.