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Money-Saving Tips for Car Rentals in Europe (cont'd)

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This is not a new phenomenon or a fly-by-night operation. These are deals set up directly by Renault, Pugeot, and other manufacturers, and they've been offering them since the 1950s-it's just never been widely advertised. It's easiest to arrange a lease through one of three agencies.

You can find much more information here.

Shifting to Manual Control… Now
Stick-shift models are always cheaper than ones with automatic transmission. What's more, you get better gas mileage (and Europe's high gas prices will make you thankful for that), plus you have more control over your vehicle and driving technique, which can be especially useful when navigating twisting Alpine roads or the impossibly narrow stone alleyways of medieval towns.

Be A Country Driver
Avoid at all costs renting a car for your time in any major city. Public transportation is efficient, cheap, and always gets you where you want to go, even on the outskirts. Driving, on the other hand, is a frightening, expensive, and pointlessly time-consuming experience.

Not only is the traffic horrendous (and local traffic laws and practices only semi-scrutable), but gas is terribly expensive, as is parking. Speaking of parking, there isn't any. Not, at least, where you want to go. Most street-side parking is time-limited and pricey. Your best bet if you end up with a car and are in a city is to find a large, cheap communal garage and stick your vehicle there for the duration.

The best overall rental strategy is to arrange to pick up your car at some downtown office on the last day you are in the first city of your trip, and to drop it off on your first day in the last city on your itinerary. Um, that may have made little sense. In other words, spend your three days in Rome, then pick up the car on the morning of the fourth day to spend a week driving leisurely northwards through Tuscany, Emilia-Romagna, and the Veneto, and finally drop the car off as soon as you get to Venice (where it's completely useless anyway, unless it's one of the James Bond jobbers that converts into a submarine).

Conveniently, this technique also helps you avoid the airport pick-up/drop-off charge. Instead of driving into town and parking the thing for three days (figure on $30 to $40 a day), you can just use the high speed rail link to get downtown (usually $7 to $20). Also, it shortens you rental period and saves you some dough that way.

Don’t Let the Man Stick It to You
Treat car rental companies like the worst kind of snake oil salesmen, 'cause that's how they treat you. They'll try their hardest to hide as many fees from you as possible so that their price looks like the best deal in town.

Don't let them.   (continued...)