Hello everyone. I will be taking a 2 week trip to Europe in May and my sister and I will need to rent a car for about 6 days while we visit southern France. I have checked prices with just about every company (Avis, Europcar, Sixt, Alamo and Autoeurope). I had a reservation with Alamo for 6 days and the total was $271 including VAT and all surcharges. Autoeurope was cheaper at $252 but the only difference was that the pick-up location for Autoeurope was at the Bordeaux train station and when I emailed and asked about the location surcharge they explained that it was 42 euros plus there is a road fee of about 11 euros which means that the Autoeurope price is actually closer to $300. Alamo has a location just a few blocks from the Bordeaux train station which does not charge the train station surcharge but my only concern is that I have not heard much about Alamo car rentals in France. Can anyone suggest Alamo or Autoeurope? I believe with Autoeurope my car rental was going to be with Europcar according to the voucher they sent me. Any suggestions as to which company is better?
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Sorry if I ranted on about my rental car options but basically I just want to know if Alamo is a good rental car company in France? Has anyone rented with Alamo before? Otherwise I think Autoeurope seems to be pretty favored around here.
Thanks
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It%26#39;s hard to say which is better because Autoeurope is a broker, not actually a rental car company. It might be possible to obtain an Alamo rental car through Autoeurope and it often costs less when dealing with a broker.
The 11€ road tax is collected on all rentals and is not unique to Autoeurope. Neither is the train station/airport pickup surcharge but if Alamo has an office near the station and you thusly avoid the fee, that%26#39;s a compelling advantage.
The real difficulty in comparing quotes is often they only include a portion of the cost, not the entire cost to the renter including taxes and fees.
It pays to ask pointed questions and take the time to make accurate comparisons.
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I usually rent direct from one of the majors (Europcar, Hertz) and I find that the quoted price is what I pay. When I tried a %26quot;cheap%26quot; website, I found there were various extras which actually made it more expensive.
I don%26#39;t say this is always the case, but that was my experience.
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