Car Hire in France

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Pique318

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Hi,

Can anyone give opinions on the various car hire firms in France as I will be hiring a car in the first week of June for 10 days in Lyon.

I need opinions as to the standards of the companies and how they generally deal with situations where the class of car reserved isn't available.

I have the option of 5 companies.
AVIS
Hertz
Europcar
National/Citer
Sixt.
Currently, the options prvided by National/Citer are the best. They have classes of vehicle broken down very specifically and detailed and the prices are very good.
If not them then I will probably go with Sixt as they seem to provide the best price for a 3-series or A4 estate.
The other 3 are pretty vague and do not specifically state 'estate/touring/sw' which I need and I am reluctant to try to deal with a problem with my pigeon-French and a crying bay and a potentially ignorant representative.

All opinions on the National/Citer & Sixt appreciated.
 
Avoid Avis at all costs. When we rented in Chartres in 2011, everything that could go wrong went wrong:
- no car at pre-booked pickup point (Chartres Railway Station) They don't even have an office there, just a plate on a wall.
- had to get taxi to another pickup point, miles away.
- blatant misrepresentation of car's features by hire salesman, in an apparent attempt to get us to trade up our rental.
- several hundred euros overcharge following return of car (later refunded after contacting an Avis Ireland official based in Cork).
 
I've used all you listed except National. In order of preference:

Sixt.
Hertz
AVIS
Europcar

Tip - Apply for a Sixt platinum card and you'll get a free and decent upgrade.

Tommy, I rented from Avis in Nairobi and they tried to give me one of the employees bangers. For a while it was like being in one of those Liam Neeson films.
 
Sixt required 2 credit Cards, but after a vigours debate, accepted the only 1 we had with us.
The car was a C class, merc, very clean and worked perfectly, sat nav was built in so no extra cost.
 
Hi
I always use Autoeurope, they pick the best deal from all the available car hire firms, i have used them in europe and america many times and have never had a problem.

Pat
 
just go into rentalcars.com. they get teh best price of them all. cant go wrong
 
Hi,

Run a mile from Europecar ... then run a bit further from them, based on my personal experience.

While cost is always a consideration, I found a very good provider in France and have used them now a few times -just checked and they have one for Lyon too:

http://www.eliterent.com/

They were excellent to deal with, would pick you up at the airport in your hire car and drop you back if you wanted, give you a direct "relationship manager" with mobile phone number if you need help (all done through English :)) while you've got the car etc.

Sometimes, it pays to pay a little extra in my own view :)

- having said that, Hertz have also proven grand when I've used them (in other countries, never in France - for no particular reason, mind you).

Hope this helps.

Regards

Mr. Earl.
 
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