Budget car hire in Italy

Roselondon_2

Hi,

We are looking at a holiday in Italy in August. Looking online for car hires, and surprised to find the fees of the same well-known companies we've used in France charge a lot higher than in Italy. That's meaning comparing about £724 for 2 weeks hire (16 per day excess) in Italy with £350 including everything, e.g. excess reduction in France for two weeks.

Not sure if the region matters, we are going to North Italy.

Can someone offer some local tips? Whilst we know it might become more and more difficult to find good deals as time passes by, we still hope to keep it reasonable.

Thanks.

richardw

Where do you want to pick the car up?

shaun_from_Africa

Whichever company you finally go with, make sure that you take out the maximum CDW cover possible or that you have your own policy to cover damage to rental cars.

I've driven in many countries in Europe and the general standard of driving in Italy was by far the worst that I've seen.

Roselondon_2

richardw wrote: »

Where do you want to pick the car up?

We will be landing in Milan. So should hopefully pick it up from airport there.

Roselondon_2

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Whichever company you finally go with, make sure that you take out the maximum CDW cover possible or that you have your own policy to cover damage to rental cars.

I've driven in many countries in Europe and the general standard of driving in Italy was by far the worst that I've seen.

Thanks for the warning. We are hoping staying outside the big cities might help a bit. But...

richardw

Roselondon wrote: »

We will be landing in Milan. So should hopefully pick it up from airport there.

Linate, Malpensa or Orio Al Serio airport ?

AlexMac

We have rented about 20-30 times in Italy over the years, and the same agin in Spain, and now always use Carhire3000, now trading as rentalcars.com , a Manchester-based broker who scan operators for you. Their prices at either major Milan airport start at £300 for 2 weeks in August. One reason I like them, is that they show the fuel policy on the initial search results, so, given that I prefer Full-Full so I only pay for the fuel I actually use, I can avoid the Full-empty scams (very common in Spain, where headline renatl rates look low, til you factor in a 60 Euro fuel and fuelling fee!)

In many years of renting with their partners, I have always had good cars, often with a free upgrade (we always book the cheapest cars- but have often got an intermediate or better) and never had the hassles of high pressure selling of insurance or imaginary damage. Like the poster above, we always buy 'excess' protection cover before the hol for a few quid with insurance4carhire as basic cover can leave you with a bill for the £600-1k excess for tyre, glass or bodywork damage.

Having said that, for our past dozen or so trips, we have selected Budget Car rentals from the Carhire3000 list and they don't seem to feature at Milan. Budget are AVIS- so always have new cars, so it might be worth going direct at £450 or so

But whoever you choose, google the local renter's name and/or search on Tripadvisor's forum search bar for reviews; for example google reveals that Goldcar get over 450,000 reviews, mostly critical, from people who feel ripped off, and 20,000 on Tripadvisor .

And although driving style is different in Italy, it's just that- different; tailgating is common and concepts of 'right of way' are more fluid; the first one to reach a space or gap occupies it; but once you learn to live with that, it's lovely driving there.