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Post by Roadrunner on Nov 9, 2021 14:36:59 GMT
I expect there are some on here with some recent experience. The last time I hired a car in Italy was in 2005, but we are possibly going to Tuscany in April next year and I am researching the options. Any advice?
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 9, 2021 15:46:14 GMT
I nearly always use Avis. In fact I just booked a car with Avis at Bologna airport about half an hour ago.
I have also used Hertz with mixed results - they've been the best and worst experiences.
Absolutely ensure you rent from the airport rather than anywhere else.
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Post by Martin on Nov 9, 2021 16:28:02 GMT
Sixt usually have more interesting cars and they are also usually a decent spec rather than rental car basic.
The last one I hired was an X3 in Croatia and it had quite a long list of extras.
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 9, 2021 17:26:32 GMT
Sixt’s insurance options are so shite I avoid them.
Europcar is my favoured company and I, as i assume like others that rent a lot or run fleets that rent a lot, the repeated use of one company leads to decent upgrades.
The best deals for irregular users are via airlines. The EasyJet car rental prices via Europcar are always cheap and Avis the same via BA. You don’t need to fly with either but you will benefit from their large customer rates. The others to run with are big factoring companies like rentalcars.com, arguscarhire.com and their ilk. Same rental companies and sometimes better deals with any of them.
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Post by Martin on Nov 9, 2021 17:48:57 GMT
Sixt’s insurance options are so shite I avoid them. Europcar is my favoured company and I, as i assume like others that rent a lot or run fleets that rent a lot, the repeated use of one company leads to decent upgrades. The best deals for irregular users are via airlines. The EasyJet car rental prices via Europcar are always cheap and Avis the same via BA. You don’t need to fly with either but you will benefit from their large customer rates. The others to run with are big factoring companies like rentalcars.com, arguscarhire.com and their ilk. Same rental companies and sometimes better deals with any of them. Does that matter if you've got your own excess cover? Europcar charged me for damage that was on the car when I collected it, so I'll never use them again on principle. The thing had been in a hailstorm and I think a demolition derby, it was a right mess and the guy at pickup marked the paperwork with every panel damaged. They didn't say anything when I dropped it off, but charged me a couple of hundred Euros. I tried to get it back but they were impossible to deal with so I ended up claiming it back through my excess insurance which was nice and easy. So I didn't lose out, but I won't use them again. |
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 9, 2021 18:07:59 GMT
Sixt’s insurance options are so shite I avoid them. Europcar is my favoured company and I, as i assume like others that rent a lot or run fleets that rent a lot, the repeated use of one company leads to decent upgrades. The best deals for irregular users are via airlines. The EasyJet car rental prices via Europcar are always cheap and Avis the same via BA. You don’t need to fly with either but you will benefit from their large customer rates. The others to run with are big factoring companies like rentalcars.com, arguscarhire.com and their ilk. Same rental companies and sometimes better deals with any of them. charged me for damage that was on the car when I collected it, so I'll never use them again on principle. The thing had been in a hailstorm and I think a demolition derby, it was a right mess and the guy at pickup marked the paperwork with every panel damaged. They didn't say anything when I dropped it off, but charged me a couple of hundred Euros. I tried to get it back but they were impossible to deal with so I ended up claiming it back through my excess insurance which was nice and easy. So I didn't lose out, but I won't use them again. 1. Yes because their base offering is not excess-based, so you get a headline price which matches or beats Europcar but it's unlimited and your excess insurance will argue that you didn't have an excess, rather a total liability. The first price point for extra (i.e. excess-based insurance) is what you get included with Europcar. 2. I find that the rental station you use is massively variable with Europcar so I don't disagree with your stance. In Nice and in Marseille they're shite: never offer me an upgrade, charged me for an upgrade (which I then got back) and have a poor choice of base cars. In Vienna it couldn't be more opposite. Same staff for over a decade; know me by name; give me double upgrades without asking and just accept the key without looking at the car. We're putting Roadrunner right off, here  |
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Post by Roadrunner on Nov 9, 2021 18:16:52 GMT
We shall probably be flying BA from LHR to Pisa, so I might just go for a combined flight and car deal.
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Post by Roadrunner on Nov 9, 2021 18:20:52 GMT
I did look up the cost to hire a Maserati Lavante through a specialist and very quickly changed my mind. Over £3,000 for the week was somewhat over budget...
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Post by ChrisM on Nov 9, 2021 18:25:11 GMT
I did look up the cost to hire a Maserati Lavante through a specialist and very quickly changed my mind. Over £3,000 for the week was somewhat over budget... So you don't have a leaning for it, then ?? |
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Post by Martin on Nov 9, 2021 19:28:23 GMT
We shall probably be flying BA from LHR to Pisa, so I might just go for a combined flight and car deal. If you do, then you'll get ATOL protection as it's a package deal. I've done exactly that with BA for my next holiday. The best car they offered was a 'Sportage or similar', but it was a couple of hundred £ less than doing it separately and we won't be using it much. |
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Post by Martin on Nov 9, 2021 19:34:37 GMT
I did look up the cost to hire a Maserati Lavante through a specialist and very quickly changed my mind. Over £3,000 for the week was somewhat over budget... We've rebooked for the US next year and the cost of hire cars has gone through the roof. A luxury truck was around £1000-1100 for 2 weeks and the best rate I can find at the moment is £2,800! |
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 9, 2021 20:36:15 GMT
We shall probably be flying BA from LHR to Pisa, so I might just go for a combined flight and car deal. Know that if you do that, do as follows: 1. pick option for flight only and NOT flight+car; 2. select flights and go for the cheapo "hand luggage-only" economy option; 3. It will then ask if you want to add a car before you pay; 4. Adding the car gets you....a free 23kg baggage allowance per passenger... That way you get full baggage allowance without paying for a full economy ticket. You also get a free second driver. |
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Post by PG on Nov 11, 2021 9:06:27 GMT
We hired once in Pisa 20 years ago during the summer holidays. Hopefully things have improved since then! It was one of the large companies, can't remember which. To collect your car you had to leave the rest of your family or car sharers and luggage at the airport and be taken in a bus (about 10 minutes away) to the rental fleet parking. Which was not parking so much as a huge field where all the hire cars were lined up. The only way to find your car was to walk about looking for the number plate and plipping the unlock on the key to spot the indicators flashing. And then you had to get back to the airport to collect everyone. Without a map or sat nav. Crazy.
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Post by Martin on Nov 11, 2021 9:10:34 GMT
We shall probably be flying BA from LHR to Pisa, so I might just go for a combined flight and car deal. Know that if you do that, do as follows: 1. pick option for flight only and NOT flight+car; 2. select flights and go for the cheapo "hand luggage-only" economy option; 3. It will then ask if you want to add a car before you pay; 4. Adding the car gets you....a free 23kg baggage allowance per passenger... That way you get full baggage allowance without paying for a full economy ticket. You also get a free second driver. Point 1 and 3 are what I did with BA and I was really surprised at the price of the hire car so added it in which isn’t something I’d normally do as I usually get better deals booking separately. PG - most airport have either purpose built hire car collection areas including a Leno g garage or at least section of short term parking. I can remember the last time I had to get in a bus to collect a hire car from an off airport location. |
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Post by johnc on Nov 11, 2021 10:44:56 GMT
I did look up the cost to hire a Maserati Lavante through a specialist and very quickly changed my mind. Over £3,000 for the week was somewhat over budget... We've rebooked for the US next year and the cost of hire cars has gone through the roof. A luxury truck was around £1000-1100 for 2 weeks and the best rate I can find at the moment is £2,800! We're rebooked for Florida in May 2022 flying with Virgin, so I just took the car hire, hotel and everything with them. We are getting a full sized SUV. All in with every insurance the car is just under £800 for 18 days but it will likely be Korean or American. I am not really bothered to be honest as long as the aircon and satnav works although we do have a decent trip from Orlando across to Naples for the chill out part of the holiday. |
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Post by Martin on Nov 11, 2021 10:55:17 GMT
We've rebooked for the US next year and the cost of hire cars has gone through the roof. A luxury truck was around £1000-1100 for 2 weeks and the best rate I can find at the moment is £2,800! We're rebooked for Florida in May 2022 flying with Virgin, so I just took the car hire, hotel and everything with them. We are getting a full sized SUV. All in with every insurance the car is just under £800 for 18 days but it will likely be Korean or American. I am not really bothered to be honest as long as the aircon and satnav works although we do have a decent trip from Orlando across to Naples for the chill out part of the holiday. That’s more like it. We’ve got flights with BA at the moment, as they were released before Virgin and I wanted to get some in the bag. It’s through the agent we always use and he can move the deposit to another airline right up until we pay the balance which is 6 weeks before departure. I’ll ask him to look at combining the car to see what he can do. My preference would be for American as I always like something you can’t get at home. The choices in the group is booked last time were Escalade, Navigator, X7 or GLS. I’d ask them to change the car if they gave me one of the latter 2, even if they are better in a lot of ways. |
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Post by Bob Sacamano v2.0 on Nov 11, 2021 16:33:44 GMT
Unless we're going great distances I always just get a Panda in Italy. I love them and there's nothing better than hammering through Italian streets and roads in a little 1 litre Panda, thrashing it's arse off, and not worrying about width when squeezing through traffic lined or narrow openings.
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Post by PG on Nov 12, 2021 10:01:09 GMT
Know that if you do that, do as follows: . PG - most airport have either purpose built hire car collection areas including a Leno g garage or at least section of short term parking. I can remember the last time I had to get in a bus to collect a hire car from an off airport location. Agreed - a lot do. This was Pisa, 20 years ago. Things were clearly rather less organised. Many time now, as you say, it's just a short walk. All the times I've been to LAX, as recently as 2016, I had to get a bus to the car hire place - even using Hertz Gold. |
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 12, 2021 11:47:22 GMT
Clearly none of you go to Nice!
The hire centre is a short walk from the Terminal. But I’ve never landed at that Terminal, whether from London, Vienna, Munich - you name it. I always leave the family, go get the car then collect them from kiss and fly at the terminal we arrived at. Even worse taking it back!
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 15, 2021 10:55:13 GMT
Unless we're going great distances I always just get a Panda in Italy. I love them and there's nothing better than hammering through Italian streets and roads in a little 1 litre Panda, thrashing it's arse off, and not worrying about width when squeezing through traffic lined or narrow openings. I usually go for the Class C "Clio or similar" option, just because (as I did last week), we usually fly to Bologna and from there to my wife's home town is 180kms, almost all of which is motorway - do-able in a Panda but not ideal. |
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Post by PG on Nov 15, 2021 18:19:35 GMT
Unless we're going great distances I always just get a Panda in Italy. I love them and there's nothing better than hammering through Italian streets and roads in a little 1 litre Panda, thrashing it's arse off, and not worrying about width when squeezing through traffic lined or narrow openings. It is always quite amazing just how fast you can get a 1 litre eco-box to go if you don't own it.  |
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Post by Alex on Nov 15, 2021 22:08:11 GMT
There's not much on the road that's faster than an Italian hire car!
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 16, 2021 21:44:44 GMT
Well you say that but last week I had to keep remembering that because my rented Clio had Italian plates I couldn’t simply drive around imperiously dismissive of the possibility of speed cameras as I do when in my own British-registered car…
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Post by johnc on Nov 17, 2021 11:21:52 GMT
Well you say that but last week I had to keep remembering that because my rented Clio had Italian plates I couldn’t simply drive around imperiously dismissive of the possibility of speed cameras as I do when in my own British-registered car… Are the Italians generous enough to ignore the speeding of UK registered cars (unlike the French who only want to target UK cars) |
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Post by Big Blue on Nov 17, 2021 11:29:59 GMT
Are the Italians generous enough to ignore the speeding of UK registered cars (unlike the French who only want to target UK cars) Judging by the number of tickets my mother and I get in French registered cars I think you may be mistaking wonton speeding by tourists with general speeding by locals. |
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Post by racingteatray on Nov 17, 2021 17:28:08 GMT
Well you say that but last week I had to keep remembering that because my rented Clio had Italian plates I couldn’t simply drive around imperiously dismissive of the possibility of speed cameras as I do when in my own British-registered car… Are the Italians generous enough to ignore the speeding of UK registered cars (unlike the French who only want to target UK cars) Not if they actually stop you in person, but to date I've never had a fine arrive from a fixed camera, whether here or in France. I think I'm right in saying that post-Brexit, the UK and EU police forces do not swap driver details. The only country I drive like a nun in is Switzerland. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2021 18:12:27 GMT
Wow, Nuns "Drive it like they stole it"?
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Post by bryan on Nov 20, 2021 18:33:34 GMT
Thinking of Robbie Coltrane in Nun's on the Run......think it was a Toyota pick up he was throwing around?
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Post by alf on Dec 7, 2021 9:14:30 GMT
I'm always worried about other people's tales of being fined for damage that they didn't inflict - and of course it's entirely possible some will genuinely be picked up on hire cars. But I never go for any extra insurance and so far, in what must be scores of rentals, I've been lucky. The one time it nearly went pear-shaped was in Barcelona with Avis (I use their "preferred" scheme as you need no qualifying rentals), the car had plenty of unmarked damage on it that was so obvious I assumed they knew, took photos, and off we went. Tina was coming back earlier than me and had a hell of a job dropping that off, but managed.
Europcar was my most recent, in Tenerife in October, it was a 50k km Clio with loads of long fine scratches on it which I carefully photographed all over, in the dark, because again nothing was on the paperwork and at 10pm with kids in tow its not ideal trying to get the paperwork sorted. On return she took one look at it, and the mileage, shrugged her shoulders and said she'd refund me the deposit as it was the same as when it left. So good service. I've always been lucky, with various companies, so far......
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Post by Martin on Apr 12, 2022 10:23:15 GMT
It's worth checking rates. I don't know why I thought about it, but I looked this morning and the same provider I booked with about 6 weeks ago for £2650 is now nearly £650 cheaper. So I've cancelled (for free) and booked again. On a roll I looked at T5 short term car parking and that was £35 cheaper, so I did the same, so close to £700 saved in 30mins.
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