Car Rental

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Ok, I have just reserved a car (a Corsa or something similar) which I will rent for a day to get me from Indre to CDG airport.

Over the past few weeks I've been trying to figure out the best way of getting there and done heaps of online quotes for rentals to CDG. They've been coming in at around €200 mark for a small car.

Just now, I've reserved via Hertz, a Corsa which will cost just €33 for the day and I'm not sure this is right. It's one of those ones where you pay when you return the car, so I'm a bit dubious that I'll get stung by hidden costs etc.

This is what I'm apparently getting:

Selected Vehicle

(B) Opel Corsa or similar

1 day

Unlimited Free Kilometers Included

Total approximate price includes:

Vehicle licensing fee and road tax

Collision Damage Waiver

Theft Protection

Tax and other charges

And it says total approximate charge €33.19

Has anyone any experience with this? Seems too good to be true now, which makes me dubious.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

And where are Hertz based at CDG? The address says Terminal 2 (I depart from terminal 1, but the CDGVAL connects between the two, so that's not a problem), but the map on pagesjaune.fr shows it being miles away from the airport.

Am confused.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Interesting. I made the reservation on hertz.co.uk and got the price of €33.

I just went through the same process with hertz.fr and it came to over €200.

[Gardengirl]

Car hire can turn up very different prices, according to the site. But that does sound a huge difference.

What they might try to get you on is an extra damage waiver to save you further costs in the event of trouble. A lot of people take this at extra cost, so that all risks possible are covered; sometimes tyres, windscreen etc.

We take out a policy with insurance4carhire whenever we need to hire. It's an annual policy, and covers anything that could need cover. I first heard of it years ago when a holiday columnist on one of the weekend broadsheets mentioned it. When we travelled to Australia and NZ we took out the wider policy.

I'm not saying you necessarily need more cover - but we found it gives extra peace of mind.

Enjoy your trip Richard; am I right in thinking this is permanent, or is it 'just' a visit? No smilies available! :o)

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

There are further options available, but even if I took them all up, it wouldn't come to more than €50.

This trip is just a visit, going out for 2 months. There's a long way to go before making it permanent, but hopefully by this time next year, it will be.

[PaulT]

[quote user="Mr Coeur de Lion"]And where are Hertz based at CDG? The address says Terminal 2 (I depart from terminal 1, but the CDGVAL connects between the two, so that's not a problem), but the map on pagesjaune.fr shows it being miles away from the airport. Am confused.[/quote]

Some airports have a desk in the terminal and then bus you to another location to collect the car and a reverse process when dropping off the car

Paul

[Les]

Do Hertz know, you will be leaving the car at a different location?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Yes, on my confirmation I'm picking up from Tours and dropping off at CDG. It looks like I drop it off at Terminal 2F and the CDGVAL shuttle service runs from there to Terminal 1 where my flight is.

Just phoned Hertz France up to confirm the price and it is €33, so I advise anyone who wants to rent a car in France (even if they live in France), to book via the UK site, it's heaps cheaper.

[krusty]

I have done pick up one location drop off at a different one a few times with Hertz in the UK , they always charge for it , usually about £30.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Is that extra?

If so, they haven't specified it.

[Chancer]

When you were inputting all the required fields did you fill in one specifying which branch you were going to drop the vehicle off at?

I am sure that you would not have thought that you could take it back to any Hertz branch without charge.

€33 is far too cheap (as you suspected) for a days hire and drop off at an alternative location, €200 seems to be the going rate and when you consider their costs of getting the vehicle back to the original branch or another one that is short, it is not unreasonable.

If it were any less all the fleet of vehicles would very quickly migrate to the airports.

[Sunday Driver]

Surprised you've managed to get that Hertz rental as low as 33€.  I've just run a dummy reservation through their UK site:

One day rental, unlimited mileage, pick up at Tours rental office, dropoff at CDG.

Pay Hertz UK upon reservation - £71.50

Pay on drop off at CDG - 98,50€ 

[blink]

PS:  There's a 30-odd euro surcharge if you pick up from Tours Gare - might they have been talking about that?

 

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I'm picking up from somewhere in the middle of Tours, not the station or the airport.

I've phoned Hertz twice to double check the price and each time was told it was the total amount to pay. I guess after all, it is only a Corsa I am renting, but as long as it gets me to the airport in time, I don't care.

Apparently I can drop the car off at terminal 1, so I hope it's well signposted there. I'm going to leave extra early to make sure I have time to drop off and everything.

[NickP]

Richard forgive me if I missed something here, but if you are going from Tours why do you not use the TGV. I would think that price wise it would be a little dearer than the "Corsa" price, if that is correct? but  would be a lot quicker and I think less stressful.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I looked at the TGV and it's €50, so not a lot more, but I would have to stay in a hotel overnight as I would need to be at the airport by 9am on the Sunday morning. No trains get there that early.

But I think I've sussed it now, I can drop the car off at terminal 1 which is where I fly from.

I re ran the rental on the hertz.co.uk site and got the same low price.

Coming back in Spetember, it will cost €120 which is what I would have expected, but I'll book that later.

[amos]

I have rented from hertz lots of times and have dropped of at different airports in France on departure and have not been charged, but this does seem to vary from area to area. A word of warning, as I am in languedoc I sometimes fly to Girona, hire a car and drive up. I did this a couple of weeks ago when I was over and was not happy to be told I could bring the car back empty of fuel as they were going to charge me a compulsory fuel charge. This was not apparent in their T&Cs when I was booking, I have written to complain (which will probably achieve zilch, but at least it made me feel better!)

[Chancer]

That is a stonking deal Richard.

Perhaps at that time of year there are very few cars rented from your local branch but those left at the airports will be snapped up.

In the past I have sometimes got virtually free car hire from airports if my destination corresponded with where they wanted to get a car (or cars) to.

Maybe you could try this on your return and get a double whammy?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I have a return flight, but I will be changing it as I was to fly back on a Wednesday, but my girlfriend works during the week, so I suppose I'll just have to extend my stay an extra couple of weeks...

So, will be trying regularly to see what deal I can get.

It was funny, the second time I phoned Hertz to confirm again, even the girl said she couldn't believe the price.

Happy days.

[LEO]

My "3 years old" experience of hiring a car in France - it was possible to have all the usual insurances but not total  CDW

5000/600 euros was the amount of liability I could not buy no matter which company I used.

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

Did it again.

Booked through hertz.co.uk, £35 for a car for a day. Pick up at CDG and drop off next day at Tours.

[Loirette]

Well I have just made a prov booking from Tours to CDG and the charge (pay now) is £69.30,  As this is our normal way of getting to and from the airport, I would really love to know exactly what you are selecting to acheive such a fantastically low rate.  ie. which office in Tours, what day of the week etc.?

[Mr Coeur de Lion]

I just went online to hertz.co.uk and went through the motions.

I picked the lowest of the range car (think it's a Peugeot 107) and it came out at that price.

This is for arrival next Saturday morning.

I did try and book a couple of weeks ago and it came to over £100, but when I tried this time, it was lower, so I grabbed it while I could. Price must fluctuate I guess.

The office in Tours is the Rue Marcel Tribut one and strangely I want to return the car the Sun morning, but they're closed. I guess there must be a letterbox to put the keys in.

[Gardengirl]

In which case, Richard, I would take some photos of the car on return, plus the fuel reading and hang on to the fuel receipt for a couple of weeks afterwards. I've heard recently of a number of disputes over repairs supposedly needed for hire cars and petrol supposedly needed to fill them up.

Even when there's someone on the desk, they won't necessarily come out to check the condition of the car, fuel level etc - at Nimes airport they have very short hours on duty, and at other places they're busy processing hire cars for the incoming flight. I've never had a problem when returning a car to Nimes airport though.