celfan

I'll be renting a car from Hertz in Prato Italy from 5/4 to 5/11. I'm flying into Florence, but I've heard bad things about FLR rental car lines and even finding the place when you return the car. I understand there is a fast bus from the airport to Prato so I'm going to try this, especially since we're spending our last night in Pistoia.

I originally made a reservation on Hertz website and was unpleasantly surprised how much zero deductible collision was - not super coverage but the next level down. I've read that AutoEurope was best for rentals and reasonable insurance coverage, but they only offered auto trans in the larger and more expensive models in Prato and FLR airport. . I then went to Orbitz for a quote and got a good rental price and a much cheaper zero deductible collision quote for Hertz/Prato. I made the reservation and prepaid $77 for collision. The collision is from AIG.

Since making the reservation, I came across a quote from Rick Steves saying that renters in Italy and Ireland pretty much have to buy collision waiver from the rental agency directly.

Looking for experienced Italy travelers who know a bit about this. What can I expect when I show up at Hertz with AIG insurance? I'd hate to pay for AIG and very expensive hertz coverage.

Oh, and btw, I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Would that have been enough? I understand that Chase wants members to decline collision option, but I've seen reports of travelers claiming to have trouble at rental agencies in Italy when declining.

Thanks

rcspeirs

Rick? Hmm, he always seems to be the cause of 'interesting' advice.
Throughout Europe, if you use a third party insurance policy, the rental company will ignore it. In fact, there is no point showing your policy at the desk as the rental company will never - ever - deal with a third party insurance provider.
This doesn't mean your insurance is invalid. What it means is that should you incur damage, the rental company will hit your credit card (up to the excess / deductible amount) and is then down to you to reclaim this from your insurance provider.
Check the car very carefully for existing damage BEFORE you leave the rental depot. Damage control (across Europe) is much stricter than many north American customers are used to - and given the way they did in Italy I wouldn't be surprised if the vehicle already has scrapes. In the UK, the damage control process now includes photos of the car and any existing damage, but not sure if that's been launched in Italy yet.

cestmoi123

I second this - give the car the same going over you'd give to a new car you're purchasing. Any defect or damage that you would note on a brand new car should be noted on the damage form.

AutoSlash

Actually, Rick's articles on rental cars in Europe are relatively comprehensive and well-written. Regardless of what you think about his travel style or guidebooks or TV show or whatever, these articles are worth bookmarking, especially for newbies to European rental cars:

https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...car-rental-cdw
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...r-rental-costs
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti.../booking-a-car
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...r-requirements
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-ti...pick-up-return

celfan

Thanks to everyone for the great advice.

I think I'll rent with AutoEurope for a Hertz car at the airport. I'll go with their zero deductible. One question, if I buy the CDW through AutoEurope, will this be considered a third party insurance?

Also wondering if I can go to the Hertz Gold counter if I book on AutoEurope website.

AutoSlash

AutoEurope sometimes provides insurance coverage through the rental company and other times through 3rd parties. You'd need to contact them to confirm which applies to your rental. If it's 3rd party and you have an accident, Hertz will charge your credit card for the damage and you'll have to file a claim with whatever insurance agency AutoEurope has chosen to underwrite your policy.

AutoEurope will not allow you to add your Hertz Gold Rewards number to the reservation. You can try to go to the Gold counter if you are a member, but no guarantee they will let you, and even if they do, they will have to process it manually since the way AutoEurope does prepaids is incompatible with the way a typical Gold reservation works.

rcspeirs

Autoslash. I've just had a look at those Rick links. I can't agree that they're accurate.
He says if you accept CDW then your card coverage is invalid - that's not true for my Amex. Furthermore, for Hertz in Europe rates without CDW are way more expensive.
Don't accept a car without a spare? Good luck with that, given that most European cars don't have them these days.

AutoSlash

On the whole, his advice is solid, but some of it may be a bit out of date and/or inaccurate. The T&Cs for many credit card do state that if you accept the coverage from the rental company your card coverage would not apply. There may be exceptions, but we've seen that wording ourselves in some cases.

In terms of rates, it often depends on what country you choose as your residency when on the booking site. For US residents, many times all-inclusive rates are not offered. There is no blanket rule for this as we've seen it go both ways--meaning sometimes fully inclusive rates can be much lower, while other times non-inclusive may be much lower. It's worth playing around for every rental to see what works out best.

As for spares, agree that they may be less common these days. That's probably one area where his article is a little older and may not reflect the latest trends.

celfan

Well I decided I'm going to rent with AutoEurope for a Hertz car.

After submitting searches on Avis, Hertz and Budget websites, I realized that Hertz is way too expensive and I won't know what the final tally will be at Avis and Budget until I'm at the counter.

I definitely want super CDW and was quoted about $400 on Auto Europe for Hertz.

For a direct reservation with Hertz, you have to wait until you're at the counter for Super CDW to be added to your reservation. However, I somehow stumbled on to Hertz Australia (I'm in US) and you can add Super CDW to your reservation on Hertz AU site. I tried to do this and my quote was about
$200 more than Auto Europe quote. I would have actually spent the extra money for direct coverage but I still wan't sure I had everything covered, and I suspect I would have still been nickeled and dimed for an extra $100 or so.

So this is what Auto Europe has to say about their no deductible coverage...

Liability Insurance
Fire Insurance
Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) including damage to wheels, glass, underside and roof of vehicle with zero deductible
Theft Protection (TP) with zero deductible
Roadside Assistance

Is this everything I need or will I still need to buy personal insurance from Hertz?

Very confusing since different dealers use different names in coverage.