Renting a car in Europe - any current suggestions?

I am going to Italy in a few weeks and have looked at AutoEurope but was wondering whether anyone has any particular advice since it has been many years since I have booked a car in Europe.

Unfortunately I don’t drive stick and so need an auto…holding a convertible for $1550 for the 10 days (Audi A3 equiv) which wasn’t too bad unless of course it is too small a car for two people and a couple suitcases and a couple carry-ons and I need to go bigger.

AutoEurope also seems to offer free GPS which seems like a nice deal (probably have to pay for shipping). Anyone use that GPS?

Also, anyone use AutoEurope’s MiFi device ($5 per day for data for up to 8 devices) which runs on 3G? Curious as to speed…

Thanks,
Dan

Learn to drive stick. $1550 for 10 days is stupid expensive. I rented a brand new Alfa Gulietta out of Rome for 10 days for 500 Euro. Great car.

George

After renting a car in Italy last year, my suggestion would be to get as small of a car as will fit the number of passengers and luggage. Many of the road were very small and the turns quite tight. That said, the views were incredible and worth the occasional stress of driving.

Don’t speed on the autostrada.

You will get a ticket, guaranteed.

Did you look at Sixt? Not sure if they are in Italy but I’ve had good experiences with them in Germany, Austria, and Denmark recently. Last time had an Audi A3 hatchback rented from Sixt and it was a pretty nice car, plenty of room for 2 with luggage and a case of wine and had some good oomph on the autobahn.

Had good luck with Europcar in France. Not sure if they’re in Italy. And my car was automatic, though I didn’t specifically aim for that.

Not in my experience, as recent as June. Have they installed radar like in France?

Disagree re smallest car although agree you dont want a big car. Audi A3 is perfect size and a very nice car - impossible not to speed in it!

Not sure if a few weeks is enough to learn stick, but basically you can spend 500 on car rental, spend another 500 on driving lessons at home for manual transmission, and bank 500. Auto for some reason costs multiples more in Europe to rent.

Plus an A3 in stick is a pretty fun ride!

Good point. I generally agree but figured an Audi A3 conv sized car is about as small as I feel I could go to fit luggage comfortably. In fact, I will need to check the size of the trunk and back seat online to see if it will even work.

Thanks for the heads up. I guess things are different then the last time I was there years ago when it was the opportunity to drive around 80-90mph on basically empty roads. Will be very tough to hold back. Are there a lot of speed cameras? Should I being my radar detector with me?

You seem to know the A3 - does it have room for luggage in the trunk and back seat?

Also, is it worth paying extra for the $0 deductible insurance since my insurance doesn’t cover me in Italy … Will have to check with Amex.

Brig might have more experience than I do, but we drove all over Northern Italy two years ago and found that traffic was regularly moving at 85-90 miles an hour, with frequent BMWs hurtling past us going at least 110. We maintained about 90 most of the time in our little Fiat and never had any trouble.

Now, in the historic zones of the cities is another matter entirely. When we got back to the United States, we were greeted by six separate pieces of mail from Hertz informing us that our credit card had been charged for tickets involving driving in no-traffic zones in Florence. Over the following month, we received 4 more such notices. It ended up costing us almost $1000 to (1) get to our hotel, and (2) return our car at the Hertz return facility. In both cases, we were told at the time by our respective destinations that our license plate had been provided to the local police so that we would not receive any tickets. Never again.

Wow, what a scam on the tickets by the local cities meant to charge big fees to unsuspecting tourists, knowing full well they will automatically hit cc’s after the tourist gets home. Are there big signs warning you? How can you ever be sure your license plate was provided? I guess I will need to get something in writing from my hotel saying that they provided to the police.

Southern Italy has electronic monitoring on the autostrada. Got zapped. Recent Northern Italy trip I didn’t pay attention because I was following the limit. Yes, many drove faster but I was assuming they had local knowledge and I didn’t know if or when I might roll into one. Never drove in France, yet.

And yes, the tickets in some of the cities is a scam. Some cities do nothing, like Naples, where people drive on train tracks and traffic lights are recommendations. Others hit you on special times when there is no driving in a designated area. Those are impossible to know.

I have rented from Europecar many times and they’ve been good. Locations for pickup and dropoff were always centrally located and the cars were spotless.

If driving between countries, sometimes you’ll need a sticker. When you pick up the car, share your route with the agency and ask if there are any issues to be aware of. Europecar was always cool about this.

As for stick vs automatic. I’ve only rented stick and it makes sense since the cars are typically small 4 cylinder engines and the steep winding roads really test the cars. With an a3 I’m assuming horsepower won’t be a problem.

Been to La Morra? You’ve seen this street next to the church at the top. No problem! [cheers.gif]

We’ve rented many times at AutoEurope. Even with my corporate and other credit card discounts at Avis and Hertz, my personal rentals come out cheaper at Autoeurope. Plus, I’ve no problem with driving small European hatchbacks that they rent out. They get me to where I’m going , they’re tossable and easy to park almost anywhere. Never had major problems, but make sure to thoroughly inspect cars before leaving rental parking and having them note down every dings and scratches … play it safe so that there no surprises.

Never rented an automatic, but heard about the obscene markup on rental.

We’ve also rented their GPS (in Italy) on a couple of occasions. Well worth it, imho. But have recently brought our own from US and worked just as well.

Unless you purchase supplemental insurance from Amex it will not cover you should you hit someone else. They do offer a program for $19.95 per rental that basically gives you full insurance.

George

We just rented a car in Italy last month. The turbo diesel A3 was perfect for Italy size wise, fun to drive and great gas mileage.

The trunk is tight… you probably can fit 2 or 3 standard issue rollaboards, but if you have bigger luggage than that you;re in trouble. If you;re not using the back seat, you can fit plenty of luggage back there. We had to play luggage tetris, and it wasn’t fun for our back seat passengers, but we had 4 adults, 2 rollaboards, 2 large check-in piueces of luggage and a wine check all in our A3.

In Northern Italy the standard practice was to run around 20 km/h above the speed limit.

That price you were quoted looks brutal to me - we were at E355 including all taxes and fees for 9 days from Hertz. I did use my corporate rate, and it was a manual. Have you tried plugging in one of the Airline discount codes (here’s a list of the United ones, but most of the airlines have discount codes: http://www.united.com/web/en-US/apps/mileageplus/promotions/car.aspx).

I talked with Amex and they provide no coverage in Italy (one of six excluded countries). Now I am checking with Chubb to see if I get any carryover coverage with rental cars.