Hi guys,

I’ve got a few trips planned this year and need to book some rental cars. I’m travelling with my family and need seats for 4 people and 1 large suitcase, 1 rollaboard, 1 compact kid stroller, and 3 backpacks. Usually this means booking a full size sedan or mid size SUV.

What is your strategy for getting a decent rental car in the US? Any different advice for doing the same in Italy?

Also, what’s your favorite rental car model, if it’s available?

On the last few trips I’ve had a Nissan Rogue (good, I’d take one again), Dodge Charger (perhaps my favorite), Chevy Malibu (never again), GMC Terrain (acceptable), and lucked into a Lexus NX (good, but small).

Thanks!
Mike

 

I mainly use Sixt these days when I rent a car. They have BMWs, etc. in their fleet and even the option to rent specific models. Most categories are well defined, so even if you are not booking a specific model, you get a comparable one. Last car I rented in the USA was a BMW 3-series. Via the Sixt app you can also select the specific car a few hours in advance and if you are a member with status you can skip the line and pick the car up straight in the VIP area. For example when I rented that 3-series I could pick between it and an X3. Basically the moment I landed, I opened the app and checked in, then selected the specific model I wanted from the available cars. Sixt being a German company is also all over Europe, so I use them when in Europe as well. Usually get a Golf with manual transmission through them, because a smaller car is much more fun in Europe and more usable on the smaller roads etc.

 

Other interesting options to consider are car rental programs affiliated with the car manufacturers. In the USA there is Silvercar for example. Their entire fleet is Audis and they are owned by Audi USA. You can book a specific model such as a Q7, but they don't have locations everywhere. Audi tried their own rental program called Audi on Demand a few years ago. They ran a pilot here in San Francisco and I regularly used them to rent different models for road trips and such where I wanted or needed something different. Porsche also has a similar program in the USA.

In Europe, there's Mercedes-Benz Rent and all the other manufacturers have similar programs. https://mieten.mercedes-benz.de/cars/. They are not very convenient, though, as they don't have airport locations and mostly rent out of participating dealerships and the hours are usually limited to Mo-Fr business hours, but it's an option to consider.

 

Thanks for the info! I'll look into Sixt for my Italian trip. I like the idea of predictable results to which car I'll be getting.

I've heard of the EU dealerships having rentals. That sounds like a nice way to have an autobahn blaster next time I'm in Germany.

 

I went to France and Germany last fall for a month vacation. I rented 4 cars while traveling. 3 of the 4 where from Sixt. 2 out of the 3 rentals from Sixt had problems. Problems severe enough that I had to get AMEX involved and force a refund from Sixt. The one rental not from Sixt was through Turo.

I have never rented from Sixt here in the states because there are too many options of better well known rental companies. I found that over in Europe, there are very limited options for car rental and Sixt is really the only large company with many rental locations and plenty of cars to choose from. I will NEVER rent from Sixt again, here in the states or over in Europe. They really have the "Large Corporation" problems with employee quality and effort applied to address issues that come up during a rental. They have no process for identifying problems with rental vehicles but instead rely on customers to discover problems with their fleet. The phone/email contacts for problems with Sixt is a complete joke. They are not concerned with your issues with their broken car and will reply to your issues when they have time and when they feel like getting back to you. The actual humans they have at some of their offices are useless and could car less about anything. Be glad to offer more details if anyone is interested but finish my description of the Sixt company as "THEY SUCK". I did have one rental from them for a single day and that went as planned without any problems from the BMW M4 I ran up the Autobahn. As good as that was, it did not make up for the previous problems they caused during my vacation.

I will happily recommend the Turo company as an alternative to the traditional rental companies. Turo is worldwide and they are basically individuals that have been vetted by Turo company and have a good system to rent a car from an individual for a short or long term rental. I rented a Mercedes CLK Cabriolet from a guy in Normandy France for 4 days to tour around the battlefields and WW2 museums. Fantastic car that was a few years old with some miles but still in great shape. Fantastic price and very convenient pick-up and drop-off. Meeting the owner of the car was also a good thing for us both.

So my recommendation for European rental is to stay away from Sixt and find a nice guy with a nice car on Turo. I think you will be much happier with the cars and the price.

 

Interesting. That sounds like some really bad luck. I have to say, I never had problems with any rental car from one of the big rental companies for that matter. Definitely curious what the problems were. The only issue I had with an Audi A6 from Sixt was that it still had winter tires on it in June at one point. I did email them and now that you mention it they never responded, but I didn't really care. I have used Turo and similar in the past. Sounds like you had better experiences with them. For me it was like driving somebody's crappy car. Both times they weren't particularly clean and they were fairly old. One had terrible fogged headlights and it was a hazard to drive at night. I did notify the owner and he was very apologetic and promised to fix it for future renters. Hope he actually did. It's like Airbnb. I got tired of staying in other people's places and having to clean afterwards even though I was charged a cleaning fee. I want a certain level of service when I go on vacation and stay somewhere or drive a rental car. Don't wanna have to take the latter through a car wash first, but as said, I'm curious in the specifics of the issues you experienced.

Specifically interested in hearing if you rented these from a major airport location or one of these local small locations. I pretty much avoid the latter as much as possible. I know it's cheaper, because you don't have to pay the airport fee, but these small local locations have a limited fleet and don't have the staff to really maintain them. If they have to take one vehicle out of rotation, it's costing them a lot of money if they can't rent it out. That A6 with winter tires for example was from a local location in Frankfurt. I don't do that anymore and just rent directly at the airport.

 

I will attempt to give you the short version of the long story with the failed Sixt rental car company.

1st Rental: No problems with the car rented other than it was not full of fuel. Less than 3/4 of a tank when I first got in. I took a picture of the fuel gauge and the odometer (in same frame) to prove that I have not moved the car but it is short on fuel.
-- Sent an email to Sixt customer service and the BS began and continued for multiple days. Countless emails from Sixt basically calling me a liar until I finally got a human to look at the picture I sent them and then they just stop communicating. I told them they owed me 30 Euros for the missing fuel. You know the fuel that says on the rental agreement that if you don't bring the car back FULL, you will be charged a crazy price for them to fill the car up. They did not do that and I guess they expected me to eat the missing fuel.

2nd Rental: The car was a complete mess. Brand new (less than 100 Km on odometer) SEAT Leon. Spain built VW piece of crap. This car had multiple software issues and should never of been offered for rent to any customer. Multiple systems (Navigation, Audio, and vehicle system controls) were corrupted or did not work at all. One big one was the Cruise Control which did not work at all. I could go on but there is only so much time and space to describe how screwed up this car was. The fact that someone at Sixt drove this car around but did not check out any of the basic functions to determine there are serious problems with this car and they should not rent it until repaired. This really was the issue for me that they did not make any effort to verify these cars are ready to be rented.
And for those reading that think I was unfamiliar with the functions of the car.... I am a car guy, I took the owners manual into the hotel room to read but discovered it was written in Spanish. I downloaded the entire owner's manual on my cell phone and read everything I could to figure out if it was me or actually a seriously messed up software package that was installed on this car.

Yes, I contacted Sixt again about the broken SEAT and got even more BS responses from their customer no-service department. I made quite the effort to resolve this and get another car but they did not help at all but wanted to tell me there was nothing wrong with the car. After weeks of emails and phone calls and nothing resolved from Sixt, I returned to the states and called American Express and told them what happened. The 30 Euros for first rental fuel and the full 500 Euro rental charge for the 2nd rental car were returned as a credit on my account withing 1 day.

I got all my money back and compensated for the missing fuel. Bottom line is that the Sixt company failed me and AMEX gave me the support I have come to expect from them over the 30 years I have been a member, not a customer. Best advice I can give anyone renting a car anywhere in the world is to use your American Express card. If you don't have one, you really should as it has been one of the best financial decisions I have ever made. No, I don't work for AMEX, They work for me.

Both cars rented from large train station locations as people travel by trains in Europe as compared to flying in the USA.

Sorry for the long reply but this really is the short version.

 

Appreciate the additional details and it puts a different light on things. Quick question, did you deal with the French or the German Sixt with those rentals? Regarding the rental locations, I'm European, so I do know how people travel in Europe. Unfortunately, the train station locations are not the best, either, however I have used them and so far haven't had an issue other than limited vehicle models.

I thought you had serious mechanical issues with the cars when I read your post, so a few thoughts about your experience.

1st rental: Do not leave the rental location unless everything is in order. Disputing fuel levels and damages afterwards is not gonna be fun. Go back to the front desk and have them note the deficiencies right there or request a different car. I've been given rentals with flat tires, low oil warning, cracked windshields and other damage that wasn't noted at first, so this must be addressed immediately. Once you drive off, you take responsibility unfortunately.

2nd rental: ****e car. That's all I can really say here. I don't ever rent a SEAT. I always request a German make. I do let a Japanese model slide. Had a Mazda 6 on a recent rental in Germany. Was surprisingly good for a normal car. Having said that, software issues are unfortunately a huge issue with modern cars. VAG cars in particular. SEAT is a cheap VW. VW's software and Infotainment system is a catastrophe. There's no other way to put it. SEAT uses the same crap being part of VW. Pretty sure the rental company is off the hook unless the car breaks down mechanically. Sounds like it still drove, even though the software was ****e. All these tertiary systems aren't really on the rental contract unless you specifically pay for it. For example the rental cars often have navigation, but if you didn't add it to the rental agreement then basically you didn't pay for it and there's no obligation from them that it must work. If you requested GPS and pay for it, then they must ensure it actually works.

 

I actually had 3 separate rentals from Sixt. The first two were in France and the third rental was in Germany. First two had problems and the 3rd was as expected without problems. Maybe it's the French part of Sixt that is a mess?

The first rental with low fuel was a minor issue but they didn't want to take responsibility until I showed the picture I took before leaving. Then they wanted to delay and BS me in emails. That really set the tone of this company and how they treat their customers.
It was the 2nd rental that really set me off due to their careless attitude and non responsive reaction to a new car that is totally F***ed Up.

The bottom line is this company has process and people issues. Yes the SEAT is junk but Sixt should have made the minimum effort to check out the cars they receive prior to renting them out to the public. They don't hire people that are concerned about quality and they have a process that rents vehicles to the public without verification/validation that everything works as expected.

 

Yep, you confirmed what I suspected. I was 99% sure that the problematic rentals were in France. Sixt is a German company, but that doesn't mean you get German service and attention to detail in other countries. The French don't give a hoot about you, especially once they know you are American. I hate to say it and I don't usually stereotype people. While in Europe I've only rented in Germany and Switzerland. I speak fluent German as well, so if I have an issue I can deal with them in their language.

 

Regarding Turo, I agree that some people just want to rent their beat up old car and make a few side dollars. Those folks should be avoided. You need to do your homework with Turo and research the guy who is renting his car. They are very open on Turo and communication is key to a good rental.

The Frenchman I rented a nice CLK from was very cordial and open to any questions. We traded several emails and I felt very comfortable renting from him. He has a small collection of about 10 convertibles and had plenty of pictures of each car available. All were in very nice condition including a early 60's Citroen with the sliding canvass sunroof. I would recommend Turo over any of the European rental car companies. Just put some effort into communicating with the renter and move on to another if it doesn't feel right. You can't do that with a huge company like Sixt.

 

Yes, you can find some gems on Turo. I've mainly used them in the past to test drive cars I'm thinking of purchasing if they weren't readily available to test drive at a dealership or I wanted to do an extended test drive on specific roads. For example BMW dealerships give you attitude around here about test driving an M, so I found one on Turo instead. I have to say this, though. If you make me have to vet the renter, have a bunch of upfront communication with them, research them and what not just to rent a car, then I have to say no thank you. I'm on vacation. I'm not gonna do a background check on a random dude who is renting his car on Turo, so I have a set of wheels. I do that if I want to drive a specific car. Even with the CLK you rented, that's on old car by today's standard. No modern amenities like CarPlay and such.

Just like what I said about Airbnb. I'm back to staying at hotels, because I just got tired of doing this exact same thing with places that somebody wants to rent out. I actually stopped after I stayed at some girl's apartment in Amsterdam. The fridge was full of spoiled food and the kitchen had her dirty dishes all over. She put her place on Airbnb while vacationing herself. The bathroom sink was also full of hair from somebody who shaved previously and didn't care to clean the sink. I was being charged a cleaning fee to basically clean up the mess that was already there. No thank you. I don't have the energy to vet these things while I'm on vacation. BTW, the listing on Airbnb also said there's free parking at the complex, which is partly why I chose it. I was doing European Delivery at the time with my C63 and I wanted a place to park it. When I got there I found out that parking is only free on weekends and time limited during weekdays w/o a permit, and the free parking was a 15 minutes walk away at a different apartment complex.

As said, I'm not gonna spend several days communicating with somebody over a rental car. I book it online and I'm done with it and I can expect a somewhat consistent level of service based on past experience. BTW, with Sixt if you use their mobile app, you can pick the specific car several hours in advance, or you can even reserve a specific model. I like them particularly for that as they let you choose the specific car. Even if you check in at the counter, they show you what's available and you can browse through. Specifically I usually want a rental with a manual transmission when I'm in Europe, so I'm very particular about which car I want and Sixt allows me to do that.

 

Book midsize or full-size SUVs in the US for space and comfort; compare prices and book early. In Italy, choose compact SUVs or hatchbacks for easier driving and parking. Dodge Charger and Nissan Rogue are solid picks; avoid Chevy Malibu.

 

Well, for our Italy trip we ended up booking directly from Alamo. We had two needs that made the booking a little harder and pushed us to Alamo: my wife wanted an automatic and we needed a one-way rental from Pisa to Civitavecchia. For this scenario, Alamo had the best pricing and also its Civitavecchia rental office had the best Saturday hours (better than Sixt), so that sealed the deal. (I’ve learned that Italian rental offices often close early—or completely!—on Saturday and Sunday.)

Like yovenim suggested, I tried to be super careful about picking my class of SUV to get something big enough for our luggage but small enough for Italy. The intermediate SUV class I booked was promoted as a “Volkswagen T-Roc or similar” and we ended up with a Jeep Renegade hybrid. I guess the Renegade is "similar?"

The funny thing about our international Alamo booking was that the reservation said “serviced by Enterprise”, and the Enterprise agent gave us keys with a “Locauto” tag! (Locauto is an Italian car rental company.) It just goes to show that American brands overseas often partner with local companies.

Our rental agent informed us that the Jeep Renegade was built in Italy, which surprised me. Apparently, this Jeep shares a lot with the Fiat 500L. During our week-long rental, I kept spotting other Renegades on Italian roads, so I guess it is somewhat popular in Italy.

As warned, roads and highways in Italy are much narrower than those in America and the city parking lots were tight, tight, tight! In this environment, I was happy to have the Jeep Renegade as it balances a compact footprint with reasonable passenger space (thanks to its height). The trunk space was tight, though, and it barely fit our luggage.

The other difference we needed to account for were local child seat laws. Italy requires kids to be in booster seats longer than California does, so we had to purchase a travel booster for my fourth grader. I was also surprised that the seatbelts in Europe don't lock when you fully extend them. This is how you lock the belts to hold a kid's car seat in place in the USA. Are European car seats only using the LATCH anchors to hold them in place?

Ultimately, the Jeep Renegade was well suited to our needs if a bit boring to drive. (I wrote a drive review of the Jeep here.) I would have loved to have a Fiesta ST or Focus ST on curvaceous Elba, but I made due by driving the Renegade with gusto! Beautiful Italy made up for the Renegade’s deficiencies.

 

Here’s one more rental report for you all! We rented from Sixt at the international airport in Lisbon, Portugal. Booking online was easy, and I reserved a compact station wagon as I love wagons and wanted to try something we don’t have in the USA.

The pickup was a debacle, as Sixt had an hour-long line to check-in with the desk agents upon arrival. My wife went ahead to the parking garage kiosk to see what the scene was there, and patrons were waiting another 30 minutes to 1 hour post check-in because the cars they’d been assigned were still getting cleaned and readied.

As a result of the increasingly unhappy texts from my wife, I upgraded with the check-in agent to a car which was immediately available. I’m not sure the extra cost was worth the hour saved, but we left in a Mercedes CLA 180d wagon.

Once we had our car keys, the rest of the experience was good. The CLA worked well with my smart phone for Android Auto. The A/C worked well, which was required as we visited during 100*F weather, and the little diesel engine was both frugal and reasonably peppy. These smaller European diesels aren’t the snappiest engines, but its more relaxed nature worked well with the car’s softer suspension and automatic gearbox.

Even though we were in Portugal, not Germany, I got to drive long highway distances at high speeds. There were enough lead-footed drivers in Portugal to chase and alert me to speed cameras. I could see how this CLA would gobble up hours on the German autobahn.

We were mostly staying in Algarve beach towns, and in this environment the roads have modern dimensions (much better than Italy) and cars larger than the CLA would have worked fine. When we got into the old heart of Lisbon and Sintra, I was happy to have a smaller car, which was easier to squeeze through tight parking lots.

Even though the CLA wagon is one Mercedes’s smallest models, the trunk is massive and the rear seats are reasonably sized, too. It worked great for four people and a bunch of bags.

I’m not sure I’d rent from Sixt Lisbon again, but overall the experience was decent.

 

Whenever I rent a car, I always double-check if roadside assistance is included. One time I had a flat and had to pay out-of-pocket because I assumed it was covered. Lesson learned — ask everything before signing.

I’ve also found that booking from a laptop instead of a phone gives more vehicle choices. Some mobile sites don’t show all the options or filter features. Price trackers can also help if your dates are flexible.
Returning the car clean and with a full tank avoids the usual surprise fees. If you’re driving in NYC, finding a rental that allows easy pickup and drop-off is key — traffic and parking make everything harder.
I tried https://realcar.nyc/locations/manhattan last time and liked that they offered delivery, which saved me a bunch of time. Not bad if you're trying to avoid the usual chaos of Manhattan rental counters.