Other Car Rental Programs/Partners (ie. Alamo, Enterprise, Sixt) - Prepayment of rental car - increase chances of getting right type ??

Hi,
I made a reservation for later in the year in ORY with Europcar for an automatic van/mini-van and got the option to prepay for a very small discount compared to pay at pickup. On the other hand changing or canceling the pre-paid car will result in a higher fee than what can be saved by prepaying. Right now I decided to reserve without pre-paying.
(BTW - the prices are so high compared to Italy for example. Autoeurope didn't give me any better rates for this type either).

Now I know that the specific model is, of course, not guaranteed (they list 7 and 8 seats in same category, I really hope to get an 8 seater), but will prepaying raise the probability that when I arrive I will find the car waiting ?

Since this category is not the most popular in France I am afraid that, to quote Seinfeld, "they will take the reservation but not necessarily hold the reservation"....

Also, Autoeurope through their Australian website offer a much better price (insurance included), but they would not match their own Australian quote for a US resident, and their Australian site requires a credit card with Aus. address... why is there such a difference in price by country of residence ? We are talking about renting the car in France and same location.

Finally, if anyone has any ideas how to find a better price for such a vehicle I will be glad to hear (since we are traveling with 2 kids I don't want to schlep to an off-airport location).

Thanks,
uvnyc

Pre-paying will not get you any greater probability of one vehicle over another. I'm not fond of the prepay option because if anything happens between now and then to change your trip or to alter your arrival times you could have paid in advance for a day and you might arrive late with no chance of a refund....or have a problem with a cancel if you have to cancel your trip.
The overseas booking sites do have alot of restrictions and if you don't abide by their rules and you use them to book you could have paid for something and then you don't qualify for the rental on arrival. Don't try to slip "past the rules" or you could be unhappy on arrival.

Unfortunately I don't have any suggestions for better rates. Remember the US dollar is very weak right now so the rates might show unusually high. Not sure if this is why but it's a theory.:confused:

I prepaid for an automatic car through Europcar recently (yes I'm one of those idiots who never learned to drive properly). According to the Europcar site they were supposed to contact me if it could not be confirmed within 48 hours. I showed up on arrival and they had no car for me. Whoops. I walked over to the Hertz counter and got the same car Europcar was supposed to give me for less than half the price.

I will not be using Europcar in the future if I can possibly avoid it.