macrakis@harvard.ARPA (Stavros Macrakis) (07/02/85)
> ...a few questions concerning transportation...: renting a car ...
Some information about (1) rental; (2) driving; (3) purchase.
Rental
Renting a car in Europe is certainly very practical, but straight
rental be quite expensive. Prices vary considerably by country: I
know that Greece (GR) is especially high (although everything else is
quite low).
In France (F), there is a far more attractive alternative: you buy a
(brand-new) car with a guarantee that it will be repurchased at a
given price. This is a program supported by most of the major car
companies, including Renault and Citroen, and in fact functions just
like rental. Minimum period is 3 weeks, maximum 6 months. Rates are
low; all formalities (registration, insurance) are taken care of.
You get a brand-new car in warrantee (choice of model and color!) at
the manufacturer's offices in Paris (a couple of hours wait) and must
return it there.
I have done this with a Citroen 2CV and a Renault 5, and had
excellent results in both cases. The bureaucracy worked well (you
need a bank reference, I think). The 2CV was fun and practical
(great on bad roads); the R5 (Le Car in US) was somewhat less fun but
more practical: it got something like 45mpg (in actual driving) and
was a pleasure to drive both on highways and back roads--the 2CV had
a smaller engine but only got something like 35mpg. As a previous
message mentioned, gas is expensive in Europe (2-3x here), so mileage
can matter.
Anyway, for more information, call or write
Europe by Car or Auto-Europe
both in NYC. They are agents who handle all the arrangements. Plan
some time in advance, especially for high season. It may be possible
to do this through dealers, too, although I don't know (and of course
you won't get the whole list of cars).
Driving
Italian (I), German (D), Belgian (B), and French (F) highways are
excellent. Tolls are fairly high in F and I; no tolls in D or B. Of
course, you should only use the highways for long legs.... Secondary
roads are often very pleasant and scenic, but beware of old
(non-toll) highways with heavy truck traffic.
GR roads are generally very good, except for the main highway from
Athens to Salonika, which is narrow and crowded; many secondary roads
wind. The best route from Western Europe to Greece is the Brindisi
ferry, unless you want to visit Yugoslavia (not a bad idea, but don't
expect to zip along). Yugoslav (YU) roads are generally fairly poor,
except for the coastal highway, which is spectacular and well-
maintained (and full of German campers); the main interior highway
(Ljubljana-Beograd-Skoplje) is narrower, more crowded, and more
unpleasant than the GR one. Avoid it. Eastern European roads are
generally mediocre, except the East German autobahns. Turkish roads
are generally terrible, especially in the East, but roads on the
Ionian and southern coasts are pretty good.
For guidebooks for car travel, see my posting of a few months ago for
Italy. For France, probably Michelin Red and Green(s), although I
haven't tried the new Hachette. Also Michelin maps. For Greece,
Michelin map with Companion Guides or Michelin. Use Blue Guide for
supplementary information. For Eastern Europe, I don't know of any
good guides.
As for gas, most European countries used to have tourist gas coupons,
but I don't think these programs exist any more in Western Europe,
except perhaps for I, which may have a program available through
their auto club (TCI) for foreign-registry cars; unfortunately, you
have to buy an (unredeemable) fixed amount in advance and you only
save 10% or so. Do ask the tourist offices. As for Eastern Europe,
several countries <require> foreign registry cars to buy gas with
coupons which are more expensive than cash at the official rate!
(otherwise you could really get a deal with black-market cash)
In much of Eastern Europe and Turkey, gas stations are spaced rather
widely, so keep the tank filled.
Purchase
Another feasible alternative if you plan to stay a long time is
purchase of a car. You can buy a used car or buy a new one to bring
back to the US. I believe the latter has already been discussed on the
net. In brief, Mercedes et al. are currently taking advantage of the
strong dollar to charge very high prices but which are still cheaper
than US, while there are companies that will take European-spec cars
and convert them to US spec.
As for buying used cars, it is possible. The main problem is
registration. Naturally you also have to buy insurance, pay taxes,
etc. on your own. It is said that the best place to buy a used car
is in Holland, which has the most relaxed registration etc. laws. It
can be done in F (you must establish a legal residence, but this can
be fudged). In I, registration laws are said to be more stringent (a
legacy of the days of terrorism designed to make cars used in
terrorism easier to trace). The additional problem in FR is that to
sell the car, you need a `certificat de non-gage' which indicates the
absence of any liens on the car. This makes it hard to sell the car
without returning to the original city (hall of records) where you
purchased it. Anyway, used car lots are not great places to buy cars
in FR; private garages are good if you have a lot of time to look;
but the best is probably the Officiel des Occasions, a weekly tabloid
composed of classifieds. Do get it the morning it comes out, and
start calling immediately. Like anywhere else, you have to budget a
certain amount of time and allow for some uncertainty with this
procedure. And when you go home, you either have to sell the car,
garage it, or junk it (the last may actually be a rational
alternative).
-sdebbiem@rruxe.UUCP (D. McBurnett) (10/04/85)
> ... After our trip to England, I had a one year letter writing > battle with Avis before I finally got a $500 refund from them. It's > a long story, but they guaranteed me a car with seat belts in the > rear, but then couldn't deliver. I had to rent an expensive Volvo > from them to get rear seat belts. Next time I go I'm going to take > something along I can install myself, just in case. > > Vick Bennison > ...decvax!decwrl!rhea!tools!bennison > (603) 881-2156 At least you got a refund and only had to write letters. Actually, we've always found Avis the best to deal with in Europe (there are some good agencies, like Godfrey Davis, in England, but they don't operate on the continent, and vice versa). Avis has always been most helpful to us and we have never had the slightest problem with them. Usually, in fact, we have gotten better cars than we had asked for (this may be a feature of our policy of ONLY travelling to Europe at the end of May or beginning of August, I don't know). My parents, however, had incredible difficulties with Hertz on their last trip to Europe. They had arranged for a car rental for one week in England, a rental for one week on the continent, and a third rental at the end of their trip in England again. Not once was the car they requested available, and this with all their rentals reserved and prepaid. (When they arrived in England the second time, NO CAR was available at all.) In order to obtain the transportation they needed (there were five adults in the party, so they needed a larger than normal car), they had to rent cars from other agencies like Avis. These additional rentals cost them $1700 because they were last-minute one-way rentals. My parents ended up not using any Hertz cars at all. Since the rentals hadn't been tied to a fly-drive package or anything, my folks figured they could just get their money back from Hertz. Guess again. Hertz would not refund their prepaid amount nor reimburse them any part of the additional rental costs they were forced to incur. After a lot of correspondence, my parents got a lawyer and went to court. But it wasn't until my mom wrote up the whole story and sent it to a nationally syndicated travel columnist, who published the tale, that Hertz finally offered any recompense, to the tune of the original prepaid amount plus $150 for the inconvenience and added expense. It still ended up costing my parents an extra grand out of their own pockets, and of course, the lawyer got his cut of the settlement, as well. The whole brouhaha took over a year and a half to settle, and it wasn't for lack of effort on my folks' part. So watch out for Hertz when you're travelling abroad! Debbie McBurnett rruxe!debbiem