Car hire - France

BlazingSaddler

Hi all, could anybody recommend a car hire company to use in France in July for 12 days please? I'm looking for a medium size (Focus kind of size) for 2 adults, 3 kids (1 infant seat, 2 boosters). I have looked at holidayautos.com and rentalcars.com as they seem to be cheaper than booking direct with the usual suspects (Hertz, Thrifty, Dollar etc). When you include the car seats and the liability excess waiver the average seems to be high €500's although a Kia Ceed came up at €449 (not sure on size though). The average cost for 12 days for the insurance liability reduction is about €78. I think I could use carhireexcess.ie where you can get it for €2.99 per day (€36) and it covers upto €5k. I think the car hire companies eliminate potential liability of upto €3k. Any advice or recommendations would be appreciated as the prices seem to vary a lot.

Thanks!

EverythingGood

Centauro.net are great, we've used them in Spain and Portugal, good prices, good cars, no hard sell on insurance etc, great customer service too

cloneslad

I use autoeurope and tend to book with Europcar and I have never had any trouble. I tend to go for 10 days and it's usually between 150-200 for the car in September (Carcassone Airport).

If I booked further in advance than I usually do I'd get i cheaper than that but I usually book in early July.

I can't speak for car seats as I don't need them but for excess cover I purchase the annual excess cover from Axa, I think it costs me about €55 then I just put the hold on my credit card. I think they only put about €250-€300 on the card.

If I book car rental in Ireland, to give myself a change of car for a weekend trip away, I find that Arguscarhire are cheaper than Autoeurope. Again I use my Axa annual cover for this but the hold on my card tends to be about €1,200.

EverythingGood

Also, if you can, bring your own booster seats, they are lightweight and cheap to buy, cheaper than renting.

BlazingSaddler

EverythingGood wrote: »

Centauro.net are great, we've used them in Spain and Portugal, good prices, good cars, no hard sell on insurance etc, great customer service too

Thank you for that, a guy in the office also recommended Centauro. Just checked and a Megane for 12 days including seats and excess cover comes to €480. Their excess cover is €99 which is a bit steep so I could look at the other options for that.

BlazingSaddler

cloneslad wrote: »

I use autoeurope and tend to book with Europcar and I have never had any trouble. I tend to go for 10 days and it's usually between 150-200 for the car in September (Carcassone Airport).

If I booked further in advance than I usually do I'd get i cheaper than that but I usually book in early July.

I can't speak for car seats as I don't need them but for excess cover I purchase the annual excess cover from Axa, I think it costs me about €55 then I just put the hold on my credit card. I think they only put about €250-€300 on the card.

If I book car rental in Ireland, to give myself a change of car for a weekend trip away, I find that Arguscarhire are cheaper than Autoeurope. Again I use my Axa annual cover for this but the hold on my card tends to be about €1,200.

Thank you. autoeurope the best yet (€400 all in) and by far the best website!

Winterlong

I have found Firefly to be the cheapest when travelling to Nice. They are a subsidary of Hertz. Only word of warning is that when you go to collect your car they do the whole insurance and petrol sales thing. Be strong! No expensive extra insurance and you will return the tank full.

Not many locations though, but it may help.

https://global.fireflycarrental.com/