Europcar: 2026 Reviews, contact and practical info

I am always afraid when renting a car that I will end up with a dishonest agency that invents scratches to charge extra fees, or has issues with timing, etc. When the prices are cheaper than the others, I am even more suspicious.

So, despite the attractive prices, I still chose Europcar for my last rental.
Vehicle was flawless, agents were super welcoming, and no scams!

I recommend!

Well-known brand but not a crazy reputation. And yet, interesting prices and no problems to report so far.

I needed to rent a compact car near my home (Hauts de Seine) to get around locally for a day.
After comparing different rates, the Europcar agency in Nanterre - Rueil Malmaison offered the best price: about fifty euros for the day, including 155 miles (250 km).

Let's start with the negatives:
The agency is pretty hard to reach by public transit (by definition, if you are renting a vehicle, it is because you do not have one...).

The positives:
Beyond the price I already mentioned, I really liked the agent's professionalism:
Since I arrived a little after the scheduled time, she pushed back my rental window by an hour (basically, I had an extra hour to return the vehicle the next day, and that really came in handy!).
Based on the mileage I was planning to do, she steered me toward an electric vehicle that was larger than what I had reserved: an electric, automatic MG versus a gas-powered, manual Fiat 500. At first, I thought she was just trying to "take" an extra €15 from me, but the selling point that hit the mark was that I didn't have to worry about filling up the tank. They take care of recharging the battery at their own expense. When you combine that financial benefit with the comfort of a larger, automatic car, it was a great offer.
As for the rest, nothing to report: picking up and returning the vehicle went without a hitch.

Hello everyone, I want to share a bad experience I had with Europcar in Namibia. I traveled through this wonderful country with a rental car. As you might know, the majority of the "roads" are actually gravel tracks. It is almost inevitable that you will get at least one flat tire during a trip like this. So, you change the wheel, get the tire repaired at the next station, and everything is fine. But that is where the famous "safety standard" clause from Europcar comes into play. I unfortunately made the mistake of being too honest when I returned the vehicle by mentioning that I had a tire repaired. Surprise two weeks after I got back to France, Europcar billed me (actually, it was automatically deducted from my credit card) for the price of a brand new tire, about €80 (about $86)!!! After days of searching, emails, and messages, I finally got an email response from South Africa. This procedure is supposedly "normal," and Europcar replaces all repaired tires because of "safety standards"!!! No one at Europcar could send me a copy of these, so I am still waiting for this famous set of rules. I am convinced they are messing with me because:
- My spare tire was not new. So it had been used before. Why put a worn tire as a spare if it was not after a repair, so the "safety standard" is not valid.
- The 4 tires I had on the vehicle were very, very worn. It is impossible to drive 20,000 km in Namibia without getting a flat at least once, so these tires must have been repaired, so the "safety standard" is not valid.
- As everyone knows, you never replace just one tire on an axle. And I have not seen any Europcar vehicles with three worn tires and one brand new one!! So the "safety standard" is not valid.
..........QED!!! In short, to sum up: if you get a flat tire in Namibia or South Africa with Europcar, definitely do not report it, or it will cost you the price of the repair plus the price of a brand new tire (per flat tire). Have a good trip and watch out for Europcar. Review imported on 11/04/2020 from our old site Voyage-Net.com

Dear travelers, I would like to share my story and warn you following a negative experience I had with Europcar, which resulted in legal action.

The Europcar agency at the Lisbon airport in Portugal, where I had rented a Peugeot, really outdid themselves, to say the least. My rental vehicle broke down due to flooding caused by extremely violent storms in the Algarve. Europcar assistance sent a tow truck and I got a replacement vehicle so I could make my return flight to Paris.

Up to that point, I had no complaints, but imagine my surprise after returning to France to find that:
- The Europcar agency at the Lisbon airport had charged my credit card for repairs to the vehicle, even though I was in no way responsible for the cause of the breakdown.
- The cost of the repairs exceeded the €950 deductible by €202, even though the vehicle was rented online via GO VOYAGES under CDW conditions, meaning with a reduced deductible. The Europcar agency at the Lisbon airport justified this by sending me a document featuring my scanned signature, claiming that I had declined the reduced deductible ???

Subsequently, Europcar International France acted as a relay for their Portuguese colleagues, informing me that this excess over the deductible was due to the fact that the deductible had been exceeded because of VAT (?????). As a reminder, a deductible is always expressed inclusive of tax.
- The Europcar agency at the Lisbon airport overcharged me for fuel for the replacement vehicle, as they charged me for consumption over a distance of more than 500 KM, even though I had driven a little over 270 between Faro and Lisbon.
- The Europcar agency at the Lisbon airport charged me for an extra day of rental based on the time and date the broken-down vehicle was returned on the tow truck, not the replacement vehicle.

The total damage came to €1201. Faced with this behavior, I filed claims with Europcar International France to get a refund of this amount. Seeing no progress, I informed them by letter that I was going to start a legal procedure. They replied that they were not involved and that I had to start a procedure against Europcar France. I do not know if this redirection to Europcar France was a tactic, but in any case, despite the manifest misconduct of Europcar Portugal International, the French justice system considered that the contract was under Portuguese law and that the territorial jurisdiction for the procedure was in Lisbon.

Not seeing myself hiring a Portuguese lawyer and traveling 1500 km, I obviously left it at that. But I now know who I am dealing with when it comes to Europcar and their customer service policy. As for you, if you use them, I hope for your sake that you do not have any flooding problems abroad with your rental vehicle. In that case, check your bank statement carefully when you get back, or you might be in for some bad surprises.

Review imported on 11/04/2020 from our old site Voyage-Net.com