Thanks for the comments. If EuropeCar comes through it will actually be an A3 covertible so less space but only two people and so good to know the backseat is big enough for people let alone suitcases.
As for price, I will see if there are any discount codes. Maybe I’ll try my corporate rate but it has never been as cheap as other discounts that I could find. I think there is a 2x-3x cost increase for automatic cars in Europe and so I am stuck. E355 for an A3 seems like an incredible deal even compared to the manual car offers that I’ve seen.
Looks like Thrifty through AAA gets the rate down to under $900, but very hard to tell if it is apples to apples based on all of the add on charges, one way charges, insurance coverage that is included, etc.
I highly recommend GPS (that either comes with the vehicle, or that you bring yourself). I’ve been able to drive successfully in England, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain without it. But it is so much easier with it.
I don’t know if this does not apply to automatic cars (as I’ve never rented one in Europe), but I’ve never been charged any “one-way charges” when renting and dropping off the vehicle in the same countty. Are you dropping off outside of Italy? If so, then a large one-way drop-off charge will apply.
I’ve used 'no-name mechanic guy" (Italy), Hertz (Germany), Europcar (France) and will be trying SIXT (Slovenia/Croatia) this time around.
All were A-OK, but I remember the German Hertz guys seemed genuinely befuddled that an American would not want to rent the automatic tx minivanish thing that they upgraded me to. When i requested the manual Audi, I just told him that I wanted something more “sportiv”.
Driving a manual is easy. Put it on your “bucket list”, but unless you are gonna drive one quite a bit before Europe, I’m not sure I would learn on the fly in such an unfamiliar setting.
Thanks for the suggestion! They seem cheaper than AutoEurope, even with the same rental companies providing the cars at the same location. Their rates also seem to include $0 deductible insurance. They also have free GPS and the WiFi unit. Almost seem to be setup the same as AutoEurope but with slighly lower prices.
They have an Audi A1 (or similar) for $700…just don’t know if that is too small…Fiat 500L is a bit bigger for $890 and Volvo wagon for $970 which will obviously be big enough.
Are these prices too good to be true or have you used them and they proved reliable?
I should have mentioned that i booked a standard size car and was “upgraded” to the A3. By upgraded it’s a nice car, but actually smaller than the class booked.
Since I mentioned it above, I figured I would post and close the loop. Just talked with my insurance agent and under my auto polic,y Chubb covers overseas rental cars, and, get this, without any deductible so actually better coverage than for my own car here where we have a $1000 deductible - covers tires, windshield, vandalism, etc. that sometimes the rental coverage does not cover.
Yes but do they cover the repair of the other car if you hit someone?
Also if you are driving in Italy go to AAA and get a international drivers license it’s $25. It could save you some hassle and Euros should you get pulled over.
All it really is, is a document translated in to many languages that tells the police officer your information and that you have a driver’s license in your home country. There is a large fine a police officer could give you if you don’t have one. It is pretty rare but I heard it happens more so in Italy. I have also read some rental car companies require one. Again I think this is very rare but IMO it is not a big deal for me to run to the local AAA office pay $25 and get one. They are good for a year.
Will try and post an article I picked up at work, giving useful hints for car hire. Will be at the weekend at the earliest though. In the meantime, here is a recent discussion on auto europe on the slowtrav site. Might be some useful snippets in there. http://slowtalk.com/groupee/forums/a/tpc/f/862600685/m/844001889001
Italians remain immensely skilled drivers, which can be shocking to us when a small gap is seen by them as clearly and obviously big enough. They can be impatient, but rarely get truly angry, they just want to get there quickly.
Watch out for the ZTL areas in the centro citta /centro storico. Drive through them and it is an almost guaranteed fine that will make it via the rental firm /credit card to you weeks later at home.
Yes, I was told Chubb would cover liability to third parties - I jointly asked about that under both auto coverage and my umbrella liability policy and so I don’t know which policy technically covers it - could be the umbrella liability policy.
Good comment on the IDL - from what I’ve read it is a must in case the rental agency requests it and/or you are pulled over.
Thanks for posting the article and the bb thread. From the sound of the bb thread, it is easy to get screwed. I will have to check everything very carefully. Even then seems like they can come back after you months later…all you can hope for then is that your credit card company will go to bat for you.
Article has some good tips that I will have to look at more closely.
I have paid for an IDL every time we have gone to Europe and it has always been a waste. But I still do it. Every time I give it to the rental place, they hand it back and say they want my actual license. While I did get a ticket for speeding in Belgium, it was done with a camera so the license didn’t matter. Not sure what a cop would say about it.
And we sped like crazy in Italy and rarely even saw cops.
Now parking tickets, we have received a number of those. And Europecar will will forward the tickets to you and if you don’t pay it, they will pay it and ding your card for the ticket plus 40€.
Would those of you who rented a car in Italy do so again even with all the issues of tickets and no driving areas within cities? You guys have me a bit scared here to even think about it. We are going to be in Florence the 3rd week in September and are planning to do a few day trips to Siena, Lucca, Pisa and Livorno. Our thoughts are mainly it gives us more flexibility to stop along the way to these places. We were looking at getting a Fiat 500L since you all do recommend a small car.
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