Car Hire France best company to deal with.

Sheep breeder · 24-06-2025 09:45PM #1

Hi we are travelling to France for 10 days and want to hire a car in the mid range for 4 people have looked at some companies and sky scanner for a deal. Wondering about peoples experiences and which was the easiest to deal with, thanks for any advice.

tabby aspreme · 24-06-2025 10:00PM

Be sure to get car hire excess insurance before you hire a car, it costs €50 for the year, if you check the online reviews for each company you will get an idea of what they are like, Sixt and Hertz are the best I find, but usually the most expensive also.

Hotblack Desiato · 24-06-2025 10:28PM

Take plenty of clear, in-focus photos and videos of the car from all angles before driving it away. Take a photo of the odometer and fuel gauge too

Also if they ask whether you want their "super collision waiver" just say no thanks, don't let on you've taken out your own excess insurance (see previous post) as there have been instances of companies using this as an excuse to charge you for pre-existing damage given that you won't actually be paying for it yourself. You don't want that hassle though, you could be €1500 out of pocket until your insurer reimburses you

Ah - found it

https://www.irishtimes.com/motors/2025/05/21/beware-the-hire-car-honeytraps-this-summer-my-personal-contest-of-wills-came-down-to-a-tiny-scrape-on-the-rear-spoiler/

fits · 25-06-2025 07:34AM

I had a brilliant experience with sixt last year. I’d go with them again. They have a lot of premium cars. We got a brand new car from them and Didn’t have any hard sell on insurance. We had our own excess insurance.
The budget companies had a lot of Dacias etc.

fullstop · 25-06-2025 08:11AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123577410#Comment_123577410

I’d second Sixt. They are very good. I usually rent with Hertz for work (company policy) and they are fine, but their website and app are like something from 2005. They’ve tried to sting me for damage a couple of times as well, which I only got out of from threatening to cause a stink my employer.

As a rule of thumb, I try to avoid going through 3rd parties who use the big companies’ cars as I’ve seen nothing but issues with these types of setups (similar to the newspaper article above). Also, if you’re not familiar with the company, make sure you read the reviews for them at the pickup airport on google.

pacman114 · 25-06-2025 08:18AM

SIXT were excellent to deal with recently for our rental in France. Not the cheapest but car was perfect, had less than 1k on the clock too.

10-10-20 · 25-06-2025 08:36AM

I got screwed by Hertz. Scratch on an alloy which I couldn't have seen as I collected the car while it was raining at night.

Ah yeah, here it is, "My Scratch":

Mine is apparently the white-ish one there on top of the black-ish ones from the previous hires. 😡

And the photos which they sent me (including the one above) had the EXIF data removed from them so I had no way of knowing if they were taken legitimately.

wassie · 25-06-2025 09:08AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123577451#Comment_123577451

Another one with Sixt here - agreed with avoiding 3rd party companies. Not worth the hassle if something goes wrong. Have used them a couple of times in France.

Our last trip was in Spain. My booking was an offer that guaranteed our vehicle. However upon arrival, they gave it away to the couple in front of me. They tried to pass off another vehicle of same class but was a manual instead of automatic. I refused and stood my ground. In the end they gave me an automatic in a higher class car. I find this typical behaviour of hire car companies.

In fairness, I think its simply because they have a fairly dynamic environment in trying to match uneven arrivals with drop-offs. Theres too much chance for things to go wrong and thats when you want to be able to deal with the hire car company directly to sort things out. Use a 3rd party to save a few quid is not worth the risk at the start of a holiday.

I also typically pay the extra "full insurance" as I want the convenience of dumping the car at the airport and never thinking about it again. We know its extortionate, but simply factor this into our holiday budget as another cost of going on holiday abroad.

Hotblack Desiato · 25-06-2025 11:11AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123577492#Comment_123577492

How many times over are they going to get paid for "fixing" the same "damage"? (I'll bet it never does get fixed)

It's fraud, plain and simple.

10-10-20 · 25-06-2025 12:29PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123577858#Comment_123577858

Complete and utter.

fits · 25-06-2025 12:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123577858#Comment_123577858

I’d expect better from hertz.

ollaetta · 27-06-2025 05:05PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123578150#Comment_123578150

It's rare you escape but I was poxed two years ago in Marseille. I had a car from Hertz and on my last day a car park barrier came down on the rear hatch area. The barrier was plastic so the scratch it left was small but visible. I knew by her expression that the lady checking the car back definitely saw it and was expecting the worst. She did think about it but for some reason decided not to record it on her sheet and I escaped.

In general, I've hired cars in France maybe 20/30 times from most of the big companies without any great issues. I avoid the ultra cheapo Goldcar types and always refuse the full insurance hard sell. I find that once I tell them I have my own annual policy for that they generally back off.

Sheep breeder · 28-06-2025 08:13PM

Thanks for the reply’s, we have hired in France for a number of years and unfortunately one year with Hertz we were parked in a farmyard and a truck struck the car and small damage, filled out insurance forms which the French have to carry in the vehicle. Brought the car back and wouldn’t except the damage and insurance copy form stopped 4k on credit card took months to sort out. Hired in Geneva last year to travel in France no problems. But this year flying to Lyon and was looking at prices between the different companies for the same car and a big variation between them. Just trying to find out people’s best options

Hotblack Desiato · 28-06-2025 11:06PM

Hiring a car in Lanzarote is very laid back in my experience, bring it back with four wheels still attached and they're likely to be OK with it 😀

Very cheap too, I suspect the government subsidises it to keep it cheap for tourists. It's a small enough island though so you can't exaclty rack up the mileage on the car.

Hired a few times in Ireland though with various companies, they treat you like a criminal.

Car Hire France best company to deal with.

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