Italy Car Rental?

shuffles03

Hi,

Heading off on my honeymoon at the start of August and we've decided to rent a car for the duration. We'll be travelling from Rome > Tuscany > Amalfi Coast > Rome.

Never rented a car before. We were thinking of using Hertz, signing up to their gold account and then booking that way?

Has anyone any experience with Hertz or is there a better alternative? It's working out at around €650 for 16 days for a Fiat 500.

Greg81

Try www.arguscarhire.com They are broker. USed them Before many times.

You can also try www.europcar.com got better prices than Hertz in March when I rented car in Italy.

Hertz is good but quite expensive.

dieseldog

Take loads of photo's of the car before you drive it! My friend recently got stung for €1000 for damage that was on the car when he got it and couldn't prove it.

keithclancy

dieseldog wrote: »

Take loads of photo's of the car before you drive it! My friend recently got stung for €1000 for damage that was on the car when he got it and couldn't prove it.

Or make sure the sheet is marked correctly before you leave the rental depot

shuffles03

Quick question in terms of getting the best price, pre-book before we go on holiday or book on arrival? Different people have different views apparently. Also, Europecar, Avis etc cost around €700-800 for 14 days but Argus Car Hire only costs €400?? Is there a trick somewhere? i.e. if we were to book with Argus would we be slapped with an extra charge upon arrival?

keithclancy

shuffles03 wrote: »

Quick question in terms of getting the best price, pre-book before we go on holiday or book on arrival? Different people have different views apparently. Also, Europecar, Avis etc cost around €700-800 for 14 days but Argus Car Hire only costs €400?? Is there a trick somewhere? i.e. if we were to book with Argus would we be slapped with an extra charge upon arrival?

No Trick,

Autoeurope, Argus and Carhire3000 almost always have a way cheaper price than booking directly.

Your car hire with Argus should have everything mandatory to put you on the road without extra charges, but you will have to leave a deposit for the own risk part of your rental.

shuffles03

Seems a lot better than booking direct. What would a rough deposit guideline be?

Edit: I've just Googled Argus and a lot of people appear to be dissatisfied. Security deposits of €600, trouble trying to get the €600 back, hidden charges including high fuel costs that are dearer than normal. Basically, the general tone seems to be that if it's a cheap deal, be prepared for a lot of heartache.

Bogger77

I've used Sixt for a Verona to Pisa one way hire, was cheaper than Hertz for similar class car.

jhegarty

Be very careful with the residents only zones that many cities have in Italy. It's an easy way to run up a big bill.

keithclancy

shuffles03 wrote: »

Seems a lot better than booking direct. What would a rough deposit guideline be?

Edit: I've just Googled Argus and a lot of people appear to be dissatisfied. Security deposits of €600, trouble trying to get the €600 back, hidden charges including high fuel costs that are dearer than normal. Basically, the general tone seems to be that if it's a cheap deal, be prepared for a lot of heartache.

There is no difference renting with Hertz (for example) and renting with Hertz via Argus.

You deal with Hertz in both cases (Or with any other rental company for that matter)

Saying that, remember that people usually only go online to post negative reviews and not positive ones.

You pay the deposit to Hertz, the fuel rate is set by Hertz, the only thing Argus give you is a Rental voucher, after that point Argus don't do anything anymore, unless you took their excess insurance and had an accident.

I've used Carhire3000, Autoeurope and Argus and never had problems.

kevin7

I'd like to book a car next month in Ciampino airport, and a price from Firefly car rental looks good. This is via the Ryanair website.

However....I dont think they are in the terminal building..it seems they are 4km away and there is a shuttle bus.

This seems like a lot of extra hassle, which I'd rather avoid.

Which car hire companies are actually in the airport building, anyone?


https://global.fireflycarrental.com/Car-Hire-Rome-Ciampino.html :

"The Firefly location is approximately 4 km away from the airport. Upon arrival, customers have to exit from terminal hall doors, proceed until the first car parking on the right, just beside the bus stop, and wait there for the Firefly minivan. Attention! Do not take the standard "Rent a Car" Shuttle. However Customer have to dial Firefly Rome Ciampino Desk: +39.347.7957694 for on demand pick-up."

shuffles03

Thanks for all the replies. It's been a great help! Just one more quick question (I'm trying to get my head around all the fees as I've never done this before):

I just rang Hertz and enquired about their pricing. The system says that 14 days rental would cost us €583. I asked if there would be any additional charges upon collection. I was told that there is a damage waiver and a theft waiver. The D.M costs €1,100 and the T.W. costs €1,800. They said they would put a block for the higher amount €1,800) on the card as well. Alternatively, I was told I could avail of additional cover for €24 per day + vat. By doing this, I wouldn't have to pay the €1,800 deposit.

Is this correct?

Seems really steep.

Also rang Argus. The cost for a similar car is €345.55. I would also have o pay €1,500 deposit upon arrival. If I want to skip the deposit, I can pay for full cover at €24 per day incl vat which works out at €350. The total from Argus would be €695.55 when all is said and done. There's also a fuel charge too which apparently is higher than paying at the pump. Not sure how that works through in terms of payment.

Does all of that sound correct? Based on the above info, would I be right in saying that Argus is the way to go? It's considerable cheaper. Am I missing anything? It's our honeymoon so don't want anything horrific to happen.

Thanks again for all the help so far.

keithclancy

kevin7 wrote: »

I'd like to book a car next month in Ciampino airport, and a price from Firefly car rental looks good. This is via the Ryanair website.

However....I dont think they are in the terminal building..it seems they are 4km away and there is a shuttle bus.

This seems like a lot of extra hassle, which I'd rather avoid.

Which car hire companies are actually in the airport building, anyone?


https://global.fireflycarrental.com/Car-Hire-Rome-Ciampino.html :

"The Firefly location is approximately 4 km away from the airport. Upon arrival, customers have to exit from terminal hall doors, proceed until the first car parking on the right, just beside the bus stop, and wait there for the Firefly minivan. Attention! Do not take the standard "Rent a Car" Shuttle. However Customer have to dial Firefly Rome Ciampino Desk: +39.347.7957694 for on demand pick-up."

https://www.adr.it/pax-cia-noleggio-auto

These are at the airport, however they still require a Shuttle bus just like Dublin Airport.

4km wouldn't really bother me to be honest if I was getting a shuttle bus anyway.

k123456

Id be careful using low cost car hire cos, they are adept enforcing you into extra insurance charges, excessive fuel charges

Firefly one of the worst

If you can get a comparable price, I'd favour Hertz

Ways to get a decent hertz price

AA members get 10% off
book hertz using Ryanair or Aer Lingus sites, usually chaeaper
ring their reservations centre in Swords, sometimes thye will price match low cost companies

In general consider taking out an car hire excess insurance policy before you travel

irelandrover

kevin7 wrote: »

I'd like to book a car next month in Ciampino airport, and a price from Firefly car rental looks good. This is via the Ryanair website.

However....I dont think they are in the terminal building..it seems they are 4km away and there is a shuttle bus.

This seems like a lot of extra hassle, which I'd rather avoid.

Which car hire companies are actually in the airport building, anyone?


https://global.fireflycarrental.com/Car-Hire-Rome-Ciampino.html :

"The Firefly location is approximately 4 km away from the airport. Upon arrival, customers have to exit from terminal hall doors, proceed until the first car parking on the right, just beside the bus stop, and wait there for the Firefly minivan. Attention! Do not take the standard "Rent a Car" Shuttle. However Customer have to dial Firefly Rome Ciampino Desk: +39.347.7957694 for on demand pick-up."

I used Firefly before. I wouldnt use them again. Car was in really poor condition and struggled up hills in a lot of cases. It needed oil just as i returned it and after reading reviews it seems the same happens for a lot of people.

I took out the full insurance so had no issues on return but almost everyone else in the office was arguing about damage on the car. Again after reading the reviews it seems that everyone that doesnt take out insurance is charged for damage. Normally I would say that only bad reviews are online but after seeing the amount of people in the office arguing i would believe it.

kevin7

Thanks for the replies. After a bit of looking around about a week ago, I booked something through rentalcars.com. The car hire company is Goldcar.

I hope I won't be back on here posting any bad news stories of being fleeced for fuel, insurance, dodgy damge claims, etc!

rentalcars were quick to telephone me the next day to "warn" me to buy their excess cover, which I declined. It was GBP£70 for 10 days which, while cheaper than what the car hire companies themselves would look for, still isn't good value. He then reduced the offer to £50, which I declined. I haven't bought the cover yet, but carhireexcess.com offer it for €3 per day. Given that my annual insurance on my car costs me about €400 per year - thats a little over €1 per day, and it actually provides full insurance, I think these excess cover prices are astronomically high. However, €3 per day will have to do to cover the risk of not having to lose out on €2000, which is what the excess amount is on this rental.

rubberdungeon

I saw this mentioned earlier but now that you have your car booked, you should spend some time reading up on it.

In many of Italy's historic city centres, restrictions and prohibited entry has been introduced.

In such areas, only residents and people with special permission may enter by car. The sign is a white square with a red circle and the words 'Zona Traffico Limitato - ZTL' .

Signs for restricted zones usually start at the beginning of the city's main roads where the distance to the zone is indicated.

You should avoid driving into environmental zones as you may run the risk of being caught on camera and then you will unexpectedly receive a fine at your home address.

If you have booked a hotel in a city, it may be located in an environmental zone. Your hotel may provide private parking but not always. If not, you can inform the hotel of your vehicle registration plate and in turn they can inform the municipality that you are guests there. This should however, be done in advance as it cannot be done after you have received a ticket.

This is well worth spending time investigating before you travel as it is easy enough to miss the signs.