artnbarb
1000+ Posts
With car rental prices being higher this year, and with the reduced pool of cars, I'd pretty much resigned myself to paying through the nose and just chalking it up to the new normal. In a previous thread I listed the costs of our rentals in Italy over the past few years, and @italian excursion mentioned that she rented locally. After checking the train schedules and thinking about logistics, using her guy in Orvieto wouldn't work for us, but I contacted a friend who has a car service in Marsciano, very near to where we're staying.
Luciano was the one who picked us and our 10 suitcase up at FCO when we moved to Italy in 2003, and before Covid hit I'd decided I was going to pay him to pick us up at the airport and then just rent a car at the Perugia airport. The idea of not having to drive for 2 1/2 hours after that overnight flight was really going to be a treat! Then cars were crazy expensive at the Perugia airport, so we just went with the moderately crazy prices at FCO and ditched the idea of a driver.
After Cheryl's suggestion I asked Luciano if he could find us something, and he was able to find us a rental for €29 per day, €250 deductible! We'll save several hundred dollars, even after we pay him to pick us up at FCO when we arrive.
I also want to give a shout-out to Auto Europe. When I called to cancel our Renault lease, I told them one of the reasons I was cancelling was because we couldn't drop off the car on Nov 1st (BIG holiday in Italy - the office at FCO is closed TWO days a year - Nov 1 and Dec 25). The womanat AE was very upset to hear that, and contacted Renault on our behalf to ensure that we could drop the car off on Nov 1. When I told her I still wanted to cancel she acknowledged that we were long-time customers and offered to reduce the cost of the lease by an additional $400!!! I had to reluctantly admit that we'd made other plans, but thanked her for going above and beyond. We'll use AE in the future and this is one of the reasons why.
Luciano was the one who picked us and our 10 suitcase up at FCO when we moved to Italy in 2003, and before Covid hit I'd decided I was going to pay him to pick us up at the airport and then just rent a car at the Perugia airport. The idea of not having to drive for 2 1/2 hours after that overnight flight was really going to be a treat! Then cars were crazy expensive at the Perugia airport, so we just went with the moderately crazy prices at FCO and ditched the idea of a driver.
After Cheryl's suggestion I asked Luciano if he could find us something, and he was able to find us a rental for €29 per day, €250 deductible! We'll save several hundred dollars, even after we pay him to pick us up at FCO when we arrive.
I also want to give a shout-out to Auto Europe. When I called to cancel our Renault lease, I told them one of the reasons I was cancelling was because we couldn't drop off the car on Nov 1st (BIG holiday in Italy - the office at FCO is closed TWO days a year - Nov 1 and Dec 25). The womanat AE was very upset to hear that, and contacted Renault on our behalf to ensure that we could drop the car off on Nov 1. When I told her I still wanted to cancel she acknowledged that we were long-time customers and offered to reduce the cost of the lease by an additional $400!!! I had to reluctantly admit that we'd made other plans, but thanked her for going above and beyond. We'll use AE in the future and this is one of the reasons why.
