Anyone used Auto Europa for car hire?

i've used Auto Europa from Ancona with no problems however the best prices I have found recently are via ryanair whose website relays you to hertz (at prices less than standard hertz)

We've used Auto Europa (Sicily by Car), on a couple of occasions and found them to be excellent. A little more expensive but their prices were all inclusive. Not to be confused with Auto Europe, we ended up paying as much again for the car hire with them since we were scaremogered into taking out extra insurance at Treviso on pickup.

I regularly use them at Ciampino where they are extremely competitive I have always found them to be very good. Have a good look round the cars & bring any little scuffs & scratches to their attention. The tanks are quite often not full, so get them to mark that too! Decline any insurance & go for one of the independent companies like insurance4.carhire.com. I use Questor: www.questor-insurance.co.uk/q...insurance.asp In bocca al lupo! 

That's good advice from Chris Notton. I've used them too with no problems save that you have to have the usual vigilance about having scrapes etc noted before you take the car. Also the last couple of times I used them I thought the cars were slightly more dingy than usual. I'd recommend your own annual excess insurance too. Hector - I hadn't realised that Auto Europe and Auto Europa were different companies - just thought they were translations of each other. They have the same logo.

I used Auto Europa several times in 2008-9 from Ciampino and found them very helpful. I wanted a Smart car and always phoned my order in. Then last summer I got a less than helpful response when I phoned and learned that all the staff had changed. I booked the first car online, it was filthy and had no water in the windscreen washer. The second car a few weeks later did not correspond to the description I was given ie the staff member told me it was a new blue Ypsilon and it was a not so new grey one. It was dark by the time I picked it up so couldn't really check it but the woman said there was no need as it was new. Needless to say, she found a scratch on it when I returned it. The computer description said it was orange, so I was less than confident that we were talking about the same car. They charged 440 euros to put the scratch right allegedly and fortunately I had a policy with insurance4carhire and got it all back. I won't be using them again as I didn't like their attitude. Maybe I was just lucky the first six times I used them before the staff left. I'll be looking to see if the staff have changed again when I go next month! Like others have said, Hertz seem to be competitive even without going via Ryanair which I find surprising. I'm hiring from them next time. And they have Smart cars much cheaper than Auto Europa now.

Auto Europe or Auto Europa - two different companies, though whether related or not [their logos are the same] is not clear from my enquiries. We have used auto-europe several times after switching from holiday autos when we found their prices cheaper.   www.auto-europe.co.uk  are a Portland USA based organisation that operates as a booking agent for the car hire companies [in the same way as holiday autos].   Our hire cars booked via them have been with Maggiore, Eurocar, Sicily by Car, Targarent from Rome, Venice and Ancona.    www.autoeuropa.it  is the holding company and website for Sicily by Car and is headquartered in Palermo. Sicily by Car/Auto Europa and Targarent are the only two companies we have picked up cars from who have been very "thorough" re their post hire "scratch inspection" , and we have learnt it pays to ensure that everything is noted down when you collect the vehicle and you have a copy of it.     As already said by someone earlier independent insurance for your car hire excess is probably a good idea and is certainly cheaper in the medium term.

Auto-europe may well use Autoeuropa (Sicily by car) because they are really like a broker and supposedly get you the best deal. We used Auto-europe recently and got the car from Sicily by Car (which at Pescara turned out to be the Autoeuropa desk). The 1st car we got was a clapped out Micra, so many scratches it would take days to check out. Still it was late so we took it as is... It got us where we were going 45 minutes up the motorway, then on arrival the ABS came up as failing. We called it in and they sent a pick-up truck to take the car and US back to the airport. We are a little new to this game, but we did wonder why they had not just brought a replacement car. Anyway they upgraded us to a nice Bravo, however this is a bit big for tight little streets... They then charged us almost £400 on our credit card a week or so after our return for a bump in the boot door. They did not tell us about this or provide anything until we chased it through Auto-Europe (who were very good by the way). They then sent a registered letter with pictures... They never even checked the car on it's return, so how they could say it was done by us we don't know.  However by the same token, we could never really argue it was not us...  I agree Hertz via Ryan Air is cheap....

And I live in Lanchester, about 10 miles from Washington, ArthurE. After having £44 taken from my cardit card by AutoEurope/Auto Europa (who I thought were the same company) after renting a car last year, I queried it, got loads of different, and wrong, details about why they deducted the money from my account and finally said it was because I didn't pick up the car until 10.30 at night when they had to have someone wait for me. (My flight arrived at 8.15 and straight after picking up my cases I went for the car hire - friends with me confirm that)  At that time we were sat in an icecream parlour a good hour south of Ciampino at that time but because I couldn't prove it and they wouldn't pay me back yet they couldn't prove that I was late their end either. It got me down so much trying to get through to them I decided it wasn't worth the stress it was causing me. They are a broker and another time Auto Europe passed me over to Avis who said they had no  cars left, then passed me  to Hertz who gave me a car with hardly any petrol in and again I was charged on my credit card for not filling the tank upon return!  I HAD filled it MORE than it had in when i got it but my mistake was not getting a signature to confirm this fact.  This cost me about £40 which I never got back.   So my suggestion to everyone would be that they get the cars checked over, especially upon return, signed for to say they have petrol and also get confirmation of their arrival time.   We now have an old car of our own in Italy at the house for when we are there because we are sick of being conned by these car hire people who have access to our credit card accounts.  And we have heard similar stories from just about everyone we know. Maralyn

We booked with auto europe last summer at pescara but went to wrong kiosk auto europa, we still filled in forms and took the keys packed bags into car and was just about to leave the car park when the girl came running up to us to explain we should have been with auto europe it was funny at the time but wouldnt have been if we had left the car park and drove to our house.

Used them last year and collected car in Naples. No problrms with them but the car had a problem - not Auto Europa fault  

rented a car through thrifty and was actually auto europa

AVOID Them. overcharged me for 750 pounds
. customer service never replied
office told me to go to the police afyer shouting at me
terrible experience now i don't know what to do

avoid usign auto europa, thrifty and dollar in italy

we had a guest  ripped of  by these  con arrtists    beware of  a ny offer that includes a voucher    the cheapest is not allways the  best   , and i allways  use  car4 hire   for  extra insurance

We have been using Auto Europe (the one based in Maine, USA) for many years and have never had a problem. We usually pick up at Fiucmicino and drop off at the airport in Bologna.  In Bolgna, we have always had an early am flight and just dropped off the car and never had any issues with being charged extra, aside from the daily road tax which we were informed about in advance.They have a price match guarantee so when I have found a cheaper price elsewhere, they have confirmed it and then have given me that price or a bit better.  I believe they have now changed their policy and I have to have an actual confirmed booking before they will do a price match..They also have a sister company called Kemwel and when they have a cheaper price, I use them and they have the same price guarantee.