Any recommendations for a hire car company in Italy. Will be flying in and out of Bologna for a week.
Thanks

Rentalcars/com are usually the website of choice on here

I am picking up one tomorrow!

Used easycar.com last year, trawls the small companies for deals. I was pretty sceptical as it was half the price of any of the big companies – assumed they were gonna try and screw us on the insurance or something – but all went very smoothly.

Big chain with their insurance. Avis have been good for us. Watch out for minor traffic infringements. It’s how the local councils supplement their taxes.

Be warned. A fiat Panda is not a city car, it’s the next size up in Italy. I kid you not. You want to hire a Focus sized car to transport anything. Found this out the hard was in Venice.

After my experience of picking up a car in Rome yesterday, certainly not AVIS!! 2 1/2 hr queue in 40C heat, customers fighting over cars, – unbelievable!!

Be warned. A fiat Panda is not a city car, it’s the next size up in Italy. I kid you not. You want to hire a Focus sized car to transport anything. Found this out the hard was in Venice.

Currently piloting a Panda in Sicily and would not want anything bigger. Panda’s a great city car for two plus luggage – it’d be a squeeze for any more.

Rentalcars/com are usually the website of choice on here

Wouldn’t trust them with a barge pole. They hooked me up with Goldencars in France who ripped me off something rotten. I’d only go with big name that you know, Avis etc.

expedia have been very good both times I used them for car hire – naturally taking their cut but for peace of mind with the Mrs

Autoclic every time I go out to the house – haven’t been beaten on price yet!

The trick with Avis is to register for their rewards and then there is no queue 8) . As for the Panda. We had our two teens with us. Plus their luggage. Great cars, and we managed a week. But a squeeze with the luggage.

Ah – I can imagine! 🙂

Tired – I’m Avis preferred and it was still 2 1/2 hrs!!

We flew to Rome, Fiumicino last June and used Goldcar. Cheapest deal we could find. 5 days cost us about twelve quid. No extras.

No really: we got a beaten up POS, something like the Opel equivalent of a Vauxhall Astra with dents on every panel and a clutch that was close to being totally shot but I was only using it for transport to the holiday destination and back, not a status symbol.

Looking for similar, a week in September with pick-up in Florence and drop off Milan (airports).

Normally when hiring here in the UK, I take out a separate policy for the excess. Is it wise to do the same abroad?
From Hertz the rental cost was around £200. Then it advised that the “super cover” would likely be another £200 at the pick-up location 😯

Hertz and Avis seem like good choice as they are based in the airport terminals (from what I can gather). Really want to minimise transfers

EDIT: Damage/theft excess wavier seems to be about £25 a day when taken from the renter

EDIT2: Insuring the excess with a third party might be a hassle as I’d have to do all of the running around for the claim, e.g. getting damage/accident reports….hmm may not be worth it

Hertz and Avis seem like good choice as they are based in the airport terminals (from what I can gather). Really want to minimise transfers

Seems this is Expedia getting things wrong, they all appear to require a shuttle bus ride – Florence Airport Info

We do the excess thing ourselves – Mrs Pondo had cause to use it for a chipped windscreen last year, had to pay up front then claim it back, she reported no hassle.

Yeah, I can see that being straight forward. However should there be an incident such as a collision or theft, I’d be worried the process could become a lot trickier, e.g. getting Police reports for an accident. Not in any way fluent in Italian

So, I’ve reserved a Golf sized car through Auto Europe, which has booked the car with Enterprise rent-a-car. I’ve paid everything* bar the one-way drop off fee, which is to be paid locally

I chose the full excess minimise option, including wheels, windscreen and it came to around £330. I’ve then gone direct Enterprise’s website to get a quote as a comparison, £600! Something doesn’t add up here…

*or have I…

Something doesn’t add up here…

Sounds about right. I suspect your full excess minimise option is sold by auto Europe rather than enterprise.

Ah, seems Auto Europe are providing the excess cover for a booking with Enterprise. That makes a lot more sense. http://blog.autoeurope.co.uk/zero-excess-and-excess-refund-explained/

EDIT:

Sounds about right. I suspect your full excess minimise option is sold by auto Europe rather than enterprise.

Yup!

The down side of own excess insurance is the huge block of funds that the rental company will reserve from your credit card. It will need to be a credit card too as debit will not be acceptable for the block.

huge block of funds

Highest for me has been 1050 euros

In terms of documents to present, do I need the endorsements document (and check code) from the DVLA online? Can you pre-register with Enterprise Italy for (slightly) quicker pickup?

I have excess insurance and they generally reserve 2500.

Is that in Lira??
Must be lucky here in Oz Hertz/Europcar etc do about $200, worst is about $400 if you want to go with a debit card.

Think I’ll be taking the full excess if I book one.

Sad I know but due to being skint at times I’ve taken to reading the full T&C’s and they should tell you up front or confirm what the deposit is. Worth checking as not everyone has 2500 euros spare for a week or so.

And very strangely the last UK one I had europcar managed to beat the online rate at the airport and throw in full excess cover for the price.

Rented in Italy twice now – a couple of years ago had a Passat estate from Europcar in central Pisa, returning to Pisa airport and this time a Fiat 500 from Avis in Siena to Pisa. Both times we booked through the relevant company’s website as the deals didn’t seem any better elsewhere (I think the one way rentals didn’t help on the broker sites). Both times the handover and drop off were no more, or less, difficult than anywhere else.

The 500 was woefully underpowered and we had to drop to second for some of the hills – worse, the agriturismo was at the end of a 2km track (downhill all the way there), which we could only get back up in first gear all the way, and with my foot flat down most of that. The first time we climbed it, I was too gentle and stalled on a steep part – the subsequent re-start (actually a few as I’m clearly not a driving god) left a small cloud of burnt clutch behind.

The Fiat had a flat tyre on return (pothole a couple of miles from the airport), so I was glad to have paid for the nil-excess insurance meaning we could just walk away – driving around Tuscany was much less ‘excitiing’ than around Naples, but we knew we’d be on ‘white roads’ for at least some of the trip, so it seemed worthwhile.

We hired a car in Bologna airport last year using Europecar through Doyouspain It was a very nice new Nissan and we didn’t have to queue at all.
Also the price was the best we could find but they tried the hard sell with extra insurance which we declined.

The down side of own excess insurance is the huge block of funds that the rental company will reserve from your credit card

they don’t take or block the whole excess.
they authorise a deposit of typically £250-£300, which normally you won’t even see go thru

I never ever pay for the rental car upsell extra insurance to reduce the excess to 0.
If I did, it’d be the equivalent of always having paid the equivalent of one full excess (about 1000) every 4 rentals, rather than paying a full excess *if* something happens causing you to have to pay it.

I’ve never had a full excess authorised up front, and definitely never had that amount taken then refunded.

Just returned from Italy and the car hire went well, barring any road tolls I missed or speeding fines yet to come through. The A36 (Pedemontana Autostrada) toll took a bit of working out to pay, but managed in the end.

Picked the car up from Florence Airport and dropped it at Milan Malpensa Airport. Really easy and no problems. So for reference, I booked through Auto Europe and took out full excess cover for a car from Locauto/Enterprise. I requested a VW Golf and got a VW Golf (which is now on the car shopping list, it was great).

The only issue we had was getting the shuttle bus from Florence Airport to the car hire, some selfish US tourists filled the bus with their cases and stopped half the people getting on. We had to wait 20 mins for the next one. Far more people were able to get on the next bus as people put cases on seats or racks.

Also, the deposit they took or reserved was €450

Does anyone take out a supplement policy like iCar to cover excess?

Does anyone take out a supplement policy like iCar to cover excess?

I have done in the UK, but in Italy I didn’t. However, as I booked through Auto Europe for an Enterprise/Locauto car, it seems Auto Europe were covering the excess in a similar way to iCar.

My experience of Bari airport car rental is one of long waits, now i leave the wife in the baggage hall and go and join the queue as soon as we get through immigration, you get there before the rest of the people on your flight.