hiring a car in italy... help!

[jobnockey]

We need to hire a car for a week in italy... A google search comes up with a few options, obviously the big car hire companies (hertz, europcar etc) but also companies like holiday-autos and auto-europe. The latter are much cheaper but i am concerned there is a reason for this! Don't really want to have to deal with loads of hassle but really need to keep our costs down... Anyone have any experience of these other companies (who i assume are brokers for the main car hire places...) should we avoid like plague???
Thanks in advance!

We used auto-europe when we flew into Pisa 3years ago- no problems at all, would use them again.

They had their own counter at the airport and seemed to operate on their own behalf.

thanks for quick replies... i do love mumsnet!

we're flying to Pisa actually LMS, so your post has given me hope as they were quite a bit cheaper than other firms...

Have you ever driven in Italy?

DP did all the driving- not to bad in countryside/small villages, crazy in cities - we used the train for that.

The only thing I would say is to get insurance to cover the excess on any claims here because they absolutely fleece you if you take it out on the spot and you really do need to have it or they charge you about £200 if you have a burst tyre or something

Eurocar - the one with the green logo (not terribly helpful). All the airport ones are ok.

Remember to fibefore your tank before you take it back or you will get charged petrol at a higher rate. Filling stations are fun! We have never managed to work out the auto service ones - so best to avoid smaller stations at lunchtimes!

Driving is fine - the like to drive close and fast, but we have never had any close encounters!

Watch out for speed cameras - the signs show a little man in a peaked cap... But they cameras are hidden in big grey boxes by the road side (like business franked mail boxes you get in the uk).

Street signs take a bit of getting used to. Often signs point to destinations in two different directions and every cafe and lamp-post has its own street sign. Get a decent map, plot your route and be prepared to get lost a few times.

Oh and check if you are driving to some of the cities if there is congestion charge. Last time I looked Arezzo and Florence definitely did!

And watch your speed on motorways- we got a fine. There's not cameras but I think they work it out by how long it takes you to travel between toll booths so just be careful.

I'm not disputing frontpaw about the speed cameras BTW! This was quite a while back when we got the fine.

You were unlucky to get caught! There have been cases of people getting tickets and fines from hire cars and the money coming off their credit cards (plus handling fees), so make sure you know the speed limits!

Driving in Italy is fine - definitely better now than it was 15/20 years ago.

You need to keep your headlights on at all times - that's another thing they'll fine you on.

We have found that there are far more huuuge 4x4s on the tiny narrow country roads now that ever before, so watch out for these! We haven't even had any near misses (more than can be said for motorways in the UK)!

We do get lost quite a bit though!

Do not use GOLDCAR under any circumstances. We had to queue at Pisa airport for 3 hours whilst our friends car hire took 10 mins and we had to pay 125 euros (non refundable regardless of how tank was returned) for a tank of petrol for a Renault Megane.

Also buy an excess policy in advance, just google it and you will find something much cheaper than doing it through the car hire place. Although GOLDCAR tried not to recognise our world wide policy stating it was not valid in Italy and if we didn't take theirs we would have to queue again to return the car (we didn't)

Oh and because we didn't take the insurance they took 1400 Euros pre authorisation on our card, fine for us as we had read the small print and have a large limit on our credit card, but the people before us were crying as they would not be able to use their credit card on holiday.

My new advice is to stick to well known reputable companies - even if they seem to charge a bit more upfront they won't weasel money out of you through the back door and treat you badly. Autocar is fine just make sure they don't subcontract to Gold car - I wrote and told them how bad they were, sure they would want to remove them from their panel, just got an email back saying I could select a different provider.

Take a look at Tripadvisor Pisa forum. There was dire warnings on there about one company, Goldsomething??? And when we were there I noticed it did have huge queues and unhappy faces. Sorry I cant remember what the name was. We used Eurocar and they were great as ever.

Ha ha sunnytimes - cross posted, valuable lesson learnt, when we went to Dordogne we paid substantially more to hire from Hertz and they were a class act.

Wish I was jetting off to Italy...
What are you going to bring back? My list is...

Parmesan (loads)
Dried porcini and mixed dried porcini
Huuuuge jars of oregano
Pizza spice mix
Kamut pasta
Tablecloths and general diningroom goodies
Ummmmmmm what else?
More cheese...

I think that applies out of urban areas as far as I remember. If you could bring back some wild boar pasta and nice chianti for when I've dropped this sprog I'd appreciate it?!

Ruby, that was what my car hire company stated, that it was a legal requirement to drive with dipped headlights. Just googled, and have found that, "during the day dipped headlights are compulsory when you are driving on motorways, dual carriageways, and on all out of town roads". So pretty much anywhere

Oh, please add Baci chocolates to your list. mmm.

Grappa, lemoncello

Ooooohhhh.... Freezing cold limoncello. Yet another thing that's going to have to wait til this kid's pushed out.

haha! have noted down your lists if there is enough room in my suitcase after I've filled it with cheese i'll sort you out..., slightly scratching my head about the tablecloths... should i be looking out for these?

OKay - so i need to avoid goldcar like plague and i need to make sure we've bought our excess insurance policy in advance for whoever we use.. will other car hire places accept these then if not bought from them specifically?
and we need to have our headlights on all the time just to be safe? DP never speeds so we should be alright in that respect...
can't bloody wait for my holiday - its been ages!