Auto europe -efficient, competitive car hire in Europe! (Auto Europe)

Member Name: karlsm93

Product:	Auto Europe
Date:	21/04/09 (292 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: efficient service, good competitive pricing, refund excess!

Disadvantages: Will not cover you to take car on a car ferry - not an option in norway!

I like to be organised when going on holiday, and need to have everything booked in advance if I am to rest easy in my bed. This includes car hire.

When my husband and I booked to go to Norway last summer, we knew we needed to hire a car if we wanted to see some of the best sights. Having paid on average £100 a night for accommodation (some excellent, some resembling hostels), we knew car hire would be expensive, like everything else Norwegian.

In the months before our holiday, I roamed the internet looking for reliable car rentals in Norway, looking at all the usual suspects such as budget, national etc. etc. One circumstance that made this all the harder was that we wished to return the car at the end of our trip to a different location, than we would pick it up in. This immediately ruled using some companies out, due to price and availability. I was starting to despair, since everything else was practically booked.

Then I came across a review somewhere on the vast internet, recommending auto europe.

Now it is worth noting, and this is something I never came across when renting in the US or Canada. Auto europe was the only car hire website (that I know about) that offer a refundable excess, which you can claim back should there be an accident, by sending the accident report form, a police report and proof of payment to Auto europe. Thankfully we never needed to have this excess refunded. On some other car rental websites, the excesses being quoted on a 'small economy car' were in the realms of £6000. In order words, if you have an accident, you are practically paying for a new car. I know that those particular insurers may very well offer to reduce this excess at the pick up desk at the time, but with no available information or prices regarding this possibility I was certainly not going to chance it. In fact, auto europe claim on their website 'What we Quote is what you pay', and in our experience this has been very true.

It is worth mentioning however, that because we had a different drop off than pick up location, we had to pay a fee, which auto europe e mailed us with after we had paid the main car rental fee. I was somewhat uneasy that this was going to be a rather substantial amount, but in the end it turned out to be approx £100 (including VAT), not the worst, when we were dropping it off at practically the other end of the country.

Some of the other benefits of hiring a rental car though auto europe, are:
*unlimited mileage (unless you are driving through some parts of Australia or in a luxury vehicle)
*24 hours, 7 days a week customer service (which thankfully we never had to use)
*Liability Insurance (protecting you against claims made by third parties that you may have hit)
*Collision Damage Waiver
*Vehicle theft Waiver
*Best Price Guarantee (they will guarantee to beat a lower price if all the criteria are the same)
*No cancellation charges (as long as you advise them 48 hours before the start of the care rental date)

When booking through auto europe, we did not know who are actual rental would be with, and after payment, we received a voucher through e mail with all the rental details, and informing us that our car rental was through hertz. Knowing hertz to be a fairly trustworthy company we were very pleased.

We paid the basic car rental in advance, but we were told to pay the drop off fee to the local rental supplier. In all of our limited correspondance with auto europe through e mail, we were impressed by how efficiently they dealt with our queries. One particular query that we had, was in the small print, that advised 'cars are not permitted to be taken on ferries or to an island location without prior authorization from Auto Europe'. Now, due to the Norwegian landscape, a car ferry was in some cases, the only viable way to get to a particular location. We emailed auto europe about this, who promptly, but politely, told us, that we wouldn't be covered to be on a ferry. So we concluded, that if a ferry was to sink, we, along with the car would probably sink too, and no longer an issue!

The only minor complaint that I would have, although this is probably down to hertz, rather than auto europe, was that we booked on the assumption that we would be getting a volkswagen polo or similar. Now, I know from experience that you usually do not get exactly what you ask for, but in our case, we got a rather small suzuki, which we were disappointed with, but it got us from A to B (just!!)

All in all, I was very impressed with the effiency of auto europe, with their refund excess policy, and their pricing. Everything was as they promised, the rental voucher was emailed, everything was on the system at Hertz, there were no extra hidden charges, and the whole process was smooth sailing, and due to this, I would have no hesitation in recommending them if travelling around Europe (I'm not so sure about their competitiveness further afield), especially if like us, you like knowing the exact price you will be charged before purchasing. A great company to rent a car through!

Summary: A great car hire company, would use again without a doubt.