That's funny and way too true.

 

Hi guys,

I’ve got a few trips planned this year and need to book some rental cars. I’m travelling with my family and need seats for 4 people and 1 large suitcase, 1 rollaboard, 1 compact kid stroller, and 3 backpacks. Usually this means booking a full size sedan or mid size SUV.

What is your strategy for getting a decent rental car in the US? Any different advice for doing the same in Italy?

Also, what’s your favorite rental car model, if it’s available?

On the last few trips I’ve had a Nissan Rogue (good, I’d take one again), Dodge Charger (perhaps my favorite), Chevy Malibu (never again), GMC Terrain (acceptable), and lucked into a Lexus NX (good, but small).

Thanks!
Mike

Pic of our last rental

In the states I just use AMEX and go with enterprise just cause I’ve been using them for a long time, or my people reserve one for me. I actually had a good time in a full size Wagoneer, thought that thing had balls surprisingly, if less people Durango GT is also not bad.

 

Thanks! I'm looking into my AAA and Chase options. My kids are still small, so we do fine in sedans over larger SUVs. That said, my in-laws had a Durango GT for many years and I agree it's a nice drive!

 

i usually rent a halfton pickup 4 door crew cabs, way cheaper than full size suv
although i never really put anything in the bed of the truck, luggage usually fits in the cab also

 

Well, for our Italy trip we ended up booking directly from Alamo. We had two needs that made the booking a little harder and pushed us to Alamo: my wife wanted an automatic and we needed a one-way rental from Pisa to Civitavecchia. For this scenario, Alamo had the best pricing and also its Civitavecchia rental office had the best Saturday hours, so that sealed the deal. (I’ve learned that Italian rental offices often close early—or completely!—on Saturday and Sunday.)

I tried to be super careful about picking my class of SUV to get something big enough for our luggage but small enough for Italy. The intermediate SUV class I booked was promoted as a “Volkswagen T-Roc or similar” and we ended up with a Jeep Renegade hybrid. I guess the Renegade is "similar?"

The funny thing about our international Alamo booking was that the reservation said “serviced by Enterprise”, and the Enterprise agent gave us keys with a “Locauto” tag! (Locauto is an Italian car rental company.) It just goes to show that American brands overseas often partner with local companies.

Our rental agent informed us that the Jeep Renegade was built in Italy, which surprised me. Apparently, this Jeep shares a lot with the Fiat 500L. During our week-long rental, I kept spotting other Renegades on Italian roads, so I guess it is somewhat popular in Italy.

As warned, roads and highways in Italy are much narrower than those in America and the city parking lots were tight, tight, tight! In this environment, I was happy to have the Jeep Renegade as it balances a compact footprint with reasonable passenger space (thanks to its height). The trunk space was tight, though, and it barely fit our luggage.

The other difference we needed to account for were local child seat laws. Italy requires kids to be in booster seats longer than California does, so we had to purchase a travel booster for my fourth grader. I was also surprised that the seatbelts in Europe don't lock when you fully extend them. This is how you lock the belts to hold a kid's car seat in place in the USA. Are European car seats only using the LATCH anchors to hold them in place?

Ultimately, the Jeep Renegade was well suited to our needs if a bit boring to drive. I would have loved to have a Fiesta ST or Focus ST on curvaceous Elba, but I made due by driving the Renegade with gusto! Beautiful Italy made up for the Renegade’s deficiencies.

 

Here’s one more rental report! We rented from Sixt at the international airport in Lisbon, Portugal. Booking online was easy, and I reserved a compact station wagon as I love wagons and wanted to try something we don’t have in the USA.

The pickup was a debacle, as Sixt had an hour-long line to check-in with the desk agents upon arrival. My wife went ahead to the parking garage kiosk to see what the scene was there, and patrons were waiting another 30 minutes to 1 hour post check-in because the cars they’d been assigned were still getting cleaned and readied.

As a result of the increasingly unhappy texts from my wife, I upgraded with the check-in agent to a car which was immediately available. I’m not sure the extra cost was worth the hour saved, but we left in a Mercedes CLA 180d wagon.

Once we had our car keys, the rest of the experience was good. The CLA worked well with my smartphone for Android Auto navigation. The A/C was strong, which was required as we visited during 100*F weather, and the little diesel engine was both frugal and reasonably peppy. These smaller European diesels aren’t the snappiest engines, but its more relaxed nature worked well with the car’s softer suspension and automatic gearbox.

Even though we were in Portugal, not Germany, I got to drive long highway distances at high speeds. There were enough lead-footed drivers in Portugal to chase and alert me to speed cameras. I could see how this CLA would gobble up hours on the German autobahn.

We were mostly staying in Algarve beach towns, and in this environment the roads have modern dimensions (much better than Italy) and cars larger than the CLA would have worked fine. When we got into the old heart of Lisbon and Sintra, I was happy to have a smaller car, which was easier to squeeze through tight parking lots.

Even though the CLA wagon is one Mercedes’s smallest models, the trunk is massive and the rear seats are reasonably sized, too. For interior space, we were as comfortable as we are in my CTS-V wagon: It worked great for four people and a bunch of bags.

I’m not sure I’d rent from Sixt Lisbon again, but overall the experience was decent.