Car Hire Tuscany 2016

codo

Hi

We are travelling to Tuscany in August next year. We have the option to fly to Perugia, Bologna, Pisa or Rome. We plan on hiring a car for our two weeks but on checking various reviews all I seem to be able to find are stories of scams and car hire firms refusing to accept pre paid excess insurance cover.

I would appreciate if anyone could advise of companies they have used in any of these airports that were hassle free.

Thanks.

richardw

There's a good number of hire firms at Pisa, so I would consider there, use https://www.carrentals.co.uk and the one on travelsupermarket to get an idea of prices.

If it's marginally more expensive to book direct with a well known brand, then go direct to avoid the risk of hassle.

Avoid Firefly in Italy.

There's no need to advise them you have your own excess insurance, just refuse their's.

J_B

Not been for 3/4 years, but used to fly to Pisa * and have used Hertz without problems - last time booked through Holiday Autos IIRC

* - the car rental place is 'off site' but a free bus ride only takes a couple of minutes

Enjoy

codo

Thanks richardw and J B. I was a bit worried about Pisa as I had read reports that last summer some Avis customers with their own excess insurance were forced to take out the company's own excess insurance or else they wouldn't release the car.

eDicky

codo wrote: »

Thanks richardw and J B. I was a bit worried about Pisa as I had read reports that last summer some Avis customers with their own excess insurance were forced to take out the company's own excess insurance or else they wouldn't release the car.

Reports of an instance of truly compulsory excess insurance purchase would be surprising. More likely customers were unwilling or unable to provide the pre-authorisation of a large excess amount on a credit card as the alternative to purchasing the extra insurance from Avis.

There should be no question of any hire company 'refusing to accept' a separately purchased excess insurance cover because it is none of their business whether you have your own separately purchased cover or not, as long as you can guarantee the excess to the hire company with your card, and as RichardW says there is no need to even mention it. Simply decline their offer of excess cover, say you understand the consequences and hand over your card - no further discussion. Just make sure that every single item of existing damage to the car, however minor, is noted and signed for before you drive away.

codo

eDicky wrote: »

Reports of an instance of truly compulsory excess insurance purchase would be surprising. More likely customers were unwilling or unable to provide the pre-authorisation of a large excess amount on a credit card as the alternative to purchasing the extra insurance from Avis.

Thanks eDicky, I though the same but reviews I read were from customers who had a credit card with excess amount available. We have hired cars in France and once in Milan for a number of years and alway use our own excess insurance. Was hoping what I read was a few isolated incidents.

richardw

I don't generally engage too much with the person at the car hire desk, I do hello, no thanks, thanks and goodbye. If you clearly give the impression that you are an experienced car hirer and know how to avoid their up sell, you'll be fine.

dondo

We are off to Tuscany next year flying into Pisa. Read up quite a bit on good/bad hire car companies and general consensus is:

1) Avoid Firefly, Goldcar (though quite a few others don't get best reviews but these were particularly bad)

2) Europcar (who we booked with) and Hertz get good reviews

codo

Thanks Dondo, we will definitely stay away Firefly and Goldcar and will book with the likes of Europcar, Hertz or Avis.

Claremac

We used Europcar from Bologna this year, We flew in to the airport, stayed overnight at a hotel and picked up the car from the in-town rental place which was in the next street at midday the following day for our drive to Florence (being careful of the ZTL which I hope you know about?). No issues at all, didn't try to upsell and added me as extra driver for no charge even though we were supposed to be paying for it. It probably helped that it was noon, there as a queue of about 5 people and they shut at 1pm!
Went though Quidco for cashback although we haven't had it yet.

Obviously_the_best

If you end up flying into Pisa, Sixt were good to us. My family that came with us used Sicily by car who were also good.

http://www.autoeuropa.it/newae/booking/en/index.aspx#
https://www.sixt.co.uk/car-hire/italy/pisa/pisa-airport/