Apparently the tax on new French cars is so high that there is a demand for gently used ones - and some smart businessmen are capitalizing on the profits.
I was pretty sure that leasing a car was the way to go. The main appeal was that it is fully insured - relinquishing the stress of the liability associated with the inevitable damage.
The next perk was knowing the exact make and model we would receive (though some car rentals can guarantee this as well for a fee). We would be spending 48 days close together in this car, and I needed a guarantee that we would each have our personal space as well as room for our luggage.
The last benefit was that anyone of us could drive the car - including Jeremy, who is not old enough to drive a rental. (Watch out Autobahn!).
The final deciding factor was cost. The leasing companies advertise that leasing is cheaper than renting but I didn't find this to be entirely true. There are many factors to weigh in, mainly pick up and return location (switching countries is very expensive), insurance, car class, and length of rental. I found a slightly cheaper rental from Hertz from Venice to Milan for more days, completely insured. But obviously I went with leasing.
Logistics:
- We leased through eurocartt.com
- Different companies lease different French cars. Shop around.
- We got a Citroen Picasso C4 diesel semi-automatic
- We paid $2,916 for 48 days
- When choosing make/model, we balanced something big enough to fit us yet small enough to park (almost) anywhere
- Picking up the car outside of France is an extra charge ~$300. It has to be from a major airport so our only Italy choices were Rome and Milan. Picking up in Rome offered more freedom but at the expense of stress (driving in Italy, been there done that), gas, and tolls, as well as parking inconveniences and fees.
- The car has a bright red license plate instead of the normal white plate. Chris googled it and found out that it is a temporary registered plate for leased cars - and a target for thieves. I never discovered that in my research!
- The car pick up location (Good Park airport parking lot) at Linate spoke no English. Our instructions were to 1) make an appointment to pick up the car and 2) call when we arrived at the terminal. The guy who answered the phone did not speak English. I handed the phone to the Italian next to me (who spoke perfect English) but they must have put the phone down because they would not speak to her. Just then a Good Park van pulled up in front of us. It was picking up a couple. We tried to get on but the driver stopped us. I told him that we were picking up our car, and he said no. I said "Good Park" and he let us on. We got lucky.
- The brand new car came empty except for car mats, a hazard sign and vest (required by law), manuals, accident form, and enough gas to get us 100 miles. The car is also equipped with a GPS. I was surprised there was no breath analyzer kit because France requires it by law.
