Car Hire in France

[Major]

My wife and I will be spending most of May in France. After a few days in Paris and a tour of the WW 1 Battlefields we propose to visit several important regional areas (you know the ones...Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Rhone, Epernay etc)

Í am looking for current info on rental cars and found a thread which is over 3 years old.

Does anyone have any recent experience or suggestions ? Automatic cars seem to much more expensive than manual. We need wheels for 18 days

I have looked at Vroomvroomvroom

 

[Jacques Vert]

Try the following:

Argus Car Hire compares the prices of 800 car hire agents at 30,000 locations worldwide to find you the cheapest deal! I have used them successfully in both France and Ireland.

Citroeneurodrive gets you a brand new car that you own (lease) with full insurance and no excess (but it is better value over longer periods); Peugeot & Renault have similar schemes. Citroën DriveEurope / Euro Pass Booking Terms and Conditions | Citroën DriveEurope

If you intend dropping the vehicle off in a different country as we did, I found qantas.com/cars was the best/only deal I could get at short notice.

Beware of this scam: a vehicle pulls up alongside you at the lights/intersection and the passenger starts pointing at the front of the vehicle and states there is a problem. When you pull over, he quickly partly deflates the tyre and offers to help you change it. While you are distracted, his mate loads your luggage into their vehicle and they're gone! Very slick operation.

JV

 

[AdMEL]

Whilst I don't have any personal recent experience in Europe, drawing on my general rental car experience and the wealth of info I've gleaned from AFF, I would do the following (in order):

1. If you can extend your rental to 21 days (even if you don't need the car for the other 3 days), look at short term leasing. Benefits include: brand new car, your choice of car guaranteed, low excess. One example:

Peugeot Tax Free Car Leasing - Europe Car Leasing | DriveAway Holidays

2. Use the likes of VroomVroomVroom as your baseline and then check rental car company websites, using all of your available discounts (e.g. Europcar - 20% or 30% off with Virgin Gold or Plat, Hertz - 20% off with Amex Plat Charge or Cent, Avis - QFF). The likes of Hertz often offer cheaper packaged rates to Aussies, which include all insurances. Some brokers, such as Ooodles, allow you to input your discount codes and load all companies at once.

3. Check brokers, such as Qantas, Virgin, Argus, Net flights.

4. Check UK websites of car rental companies, such as Avis UK, which offer packaged cheap rates.

One final note: autos will always be significantly more expensive (50-100%) and often harder to get.

 

[AdMEL]

Haven't checked the leasing rates, but checking 1/5 - 19/5 at CDG, the best rate is:

Hertz - AUD850 for Golf auto, EUR1,400 excess, using Virgin or QFF CDP

At less than $50 a day for an auto, it's a good rate. Net flights, Argus and Avis UK were all higher.

 

[ronicat]

Major, are you doing a guided tour or a self drive tour? We have just returned from a self drive tour that had excellent directions to places that are not visited by most people. PM me if you want the details. I can also give you the name of an excellent collection of WW1 items that is not on the general route. It was a truly memorable experience for our family, and you really need to see the battlefields and the number of cemeteries to appreciate the enormity of it.
With regard to car, we hired from Hertz. Picked up in St Malo and returned to Amiens. Prepaid $320 aud for 8 days 7 seater manual. Our advice from a French friend was to get a manual as they are more reliable in the areas we were travelling. Probably better deals but it suited us as we could do the negotiations in English.

My wife and I will be spending most of May in France. After a few days in Paris and a tour of the WW 1 Battlefields we propose to visit several important regional areas (you know the ones...Burgundy, Bordeaux, Loire Valley, Rhone, Epernay etc)

Í am looking for current info on rental cars and found a thread which is over 3 years old.

Does anyone have any recent experience or suggestions ? Automatic cars seem to much more expensive than manual. We need wheels for 18 days

I have looked at Vroomvroomvroom

 

[Major]

We are doing a 4 day tour with Anzac Day France - Anzac Day Villers Bretonneux - Battlefield Tours. Thanks for the offer and your Hertz experience

 

[ronicat]

I'm sure you will have a fantastic time. We had the pleasure of being accompanied by Mat on a two week WW2 expedition in the Pacific theatre around the Solomon Islands. It was really well organized and very informative.

 

[Major]

Just to follow up on this.

We changed our itinerary around a bit and will hand back the car in Reims and catch the TGV direct to CDG.

I looked at leasing but decided it was a good idea but not suited to our needs. Of the rental companies I booked a medium car from Europcar to be picked up from Gare de lÉst.

Thanks to all for your help and suggestions

 

[Jacques Vert]

Glad to see it worked out for you.

I agree the leasing is interesting but perhaps better value for longer periods.

JV

 

[scallops]

If visiting V-B you should stay at Le Macassar in Corbie, brilliant place to overnight for a couple of days. Everyone drives manuals (Diesels) in France, we also used Europcar booked through the hosts in Corbie. There are some wonderful sites tracing the footsteps of the ANZACs.