Quick pickup, good service

Europcar is quite professional in Europe, slightly below Hertz. Their stores are large and professional, with clear instructions, which is very important and makes finding your car quickly easier (In this trip, we also used Avis for the third rental, and their instructions were unclear, taking us an hour to find the car, with average customer service and fewer car models, so we won't use them again). Many foreigners rent from Europcar. This is our second rental of the trip, from the airport. Due to a lot of luggage, we were first given a Ford business van (7-9 seats), but it felt too big for parking and maneuvering, so we requested a change (a very wise decision, given that the public underground parking garages have very narrow paths, making it easy for large vehicles to get scratched). The second car was a manual Hyundai sedan, but it couldn't fit our luggage (we could fold down the rear seats to fit the luggage, but that's not safe for travel), so we changed the car for a third time. After several changes, the front desk upgraded us to a manual Jeep for free, which was perfect. The Jeep handled excellently on mountain roads and steep paths, providing a safe driving experience. We returned the car at Avignon train station, which was very convenient, taking only five minutes. The clear instructions and ample parking space were helpful (unlike Avis at the train station, which had very few parking spots, no staff, and lacking designated parking spots could delay your schedule).

Europcar option came out cheapest for renting Alfa Romeo Giulietta “or similar”. However 1. When went to pick the car our chosen car was not provided and was referred to the clause on advert which says "or similar". However the car provided (cannot remember its name but some sort of Opel) was/and is in no way similar to Alfa Romeo. Looked around at Europcar car park both when picking the car and when dropping it but could not see Alfa Romeo at all so I am sure they lied on advert about having Alfa Romeo in stock at all and were always going to rely on clause "or similar". Extremely dishonest 2. When I arrived at counter with my booking Europcar guy tried very hard to rent me an expensive luxury car instead. The price quoted was 8 times of what I had booked for. (Common sense that I would have booked an expensive car in the first place if I wanted). Pressure tactics like this are very stressful when you have come off a long flight with children early in the early morning. 3. When Europcar were unable to convince me with renting their expensive car, an expensive additional fully comprehensive insurance of nearly double that of the price of rent was charged). I had no option but to accept as excess premium was £1500 without this additional insurance. I had similar experience in the past when you pick the car they find faults with your online comprehensive insurance so I never get a fully comp insurance online and rely on buying it on the day. However the price charged by Europcar was 3 times of what was quoted in the online offer. 4. The car provided consumed much more fuel than a normal compact car and certainly more than Alfa Romeo. Although I had told Europcar beforehand that I will be going lots of miles. 5. As per the contract I was forced to use Fuel type E5 which is more expensive that Fuel type E10. Later on I found out that manufacturer recommends any of E5 or E10 fuels for that car. Again this was dishonest.

No issues

No

No

Arrived earlier then booked pick up time , told me they didn’t have a car in My group (BS) ! Tried to up sell me Mercedes A class for extra 490 euro ! I went back at booked time to be given A damaged car, with filthy glass !! Never will I rent from euro car .