Originally Posted by
iahphx
Unless something has recently changed, it has always been extremely expensive to rent a car in one European country and return it to another. Basically, it's un-doable except in extreme cases.
On the other hand, there's usually no drop charge returning in a different city in Europe as long as it's in the same country.
Originally Posted by
tallboy
This is exactly my experience: You can rent a car in one corner of France and return it in another far-flung corner of the same country with no / minimal one-way fee, but cross a border and the drop-off fees are prohibitive.
Originally Posted by
Auto Enthusiast
Cross-border rentals in Europe are different than between US states because they're separate countries with their own import laws. It's not like a NC car in Atlanta, for instance, where nobody cares as long as the vehicle is on rent most of the time.
Hertz-transfer.eu has a list of cars that need to be repatriated. FT members in the Hertz forum have said using it gives the regular rate without the usual separate drop fee.
I have driven Avis rental cars in five European countries, Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, and Italy. With the exception of Germany, all of my rentals were pick up in one location and drop off in another. There were only TWO cross border rentals, both were between Belgium and The Netherlands, and neither had one-way fees.
The rentals I had in Spain and Italy did not have punitive one-way fees. The highest one way fee that I have ever paid in Europe was €35, which was for Spain, pickup in Sevilla and drop off in Grenada, which are about 3 hours apart. I suspected that both were independently owned single locations, as opposed to the large company which owns many/most of the locations in Spain, but I do not know that for certain. I was Avis Select Preferred (what is now roughly equivalent to AvisFirst) at the time of all of my European rentals, as I had not yet attained Avis Chairman's Club, my present status, and I do not think that status had anything to do with the one-way fees (or lack thereof).