Rental Car Age Limit?

[Alpinista]

I will hit 80 this summer; my wife will be 70 in the fall. Suddenly dawned on me that we might have trouble getting rental cars. My wife is always the renter of record, so my age hasn't been a factor, to date. Looking on line, I have found sites that variously say limits kick in at 70, 75, 80, or "none". Anyone on here who has already passed one of these thresholds who can comment on actual rental policies?

 

[vicogirl51]

Luckily I have 2 more years! But I found this at AutoEurope.com
Car Rentals for 70+ Year Olds
When booking a rental car at the age of 70 or older you are categorized as a "senior driver". Senior drivers are subject to surcharges but there are many variables that come into play regarding fees. At Auto Europe our wealth of knowledge will have renters confident in what to expect when booking your trip abroad.

 

[Fioridave]

I will hit 80 this summer; my wife will be 70 in the fall. Suddenly dawned on me that we might have trouble getting rental cars. My wife is always the renter of record, so my age hasn't been a factor, to date. Looking on line, I have found sites that variously say limits kick in at 70, 75, 80, or "none". Anyone on here who has already passed one of these thresholds who can comment on actual rental policies?

I’ve driven many times in Europe, and now avoid it, unless necessary. You don’t need a car when you get to a city, and we take a lot of jaunts by train, eg, from Bologna to Farrara or Ravena.

We go twice a year, and a handful of times we hired a driver, instead of renting a car.

 

[Penn251]

WIll be 73 this summer - been renting through AutoEurope and have not had any issues. I haven't checked to see if there is a price differential for a younger driver, but the prices I am seeing seem reasonably normal.

 

[Alpinista]

I’ve driven many times in Europe, and now avoid it, unless necessary. You don’t need a car when you get to a city, and we take a lot of jaunts by train, eg, from Bologna to Farrara or Ravena.

We go twice a year, and a handful of times we hired a driver, instead of renting a car.

We are there for three months and our house is in a small village.

 

[Galgano]

I will hit 80 this summer; my wife will be 70 in the fall. Suddenly dawned on me that we might have trouble getting rental cars. My wife is always the renter of record, so my age hasn't been a factor, to date. Looking on line, I have found sites that variously say limits kick in at 70, 75, 80, or "none". Anyone on here who has already passed one of these thresholds who can comment on actual rental policies?

I'm 76 and recently hired from Europcar in England for the third time in 4 years. Never been a mention of my age.

 

[Allen]

Just as Galgano just reported above, my 76 y.o. self has never been charged extra by any rental agency anywhere (US, UK, Italy) due to age, though many state in writing they have a right to do so. Don’t know why not.

 

[Lorac]

My trophy husband turns 91 at the end of March and I am 87. Autoeurope has yet to give us a hard time about our ages. In fact, someone at an auto rental agency said that in Italy rentals are made to those 99 and over!

 

[Fedina]

We booked a car for Scotland this spring and are both on the verge of 70. Many sites do state that at 70 there are some hoops to jump (with our bad knees). My husband is concerned as he'd like to rent a small motorcycle for a day in Ireland next trip.

If you are in Italy for three months would leasing a car make more sense. It might be easier. James Martin from Wandering Italy (used to post a lot on SlowTravel) might have some information/advice as I believe he spends 3 months in the spring and 3 in the fall.

 

[Alpinista]

My trophy husband turns 91 at the end of March and I am 87. Autoeurope has yet to give us a hard time about our ages. In fact, someone at an auto rental agency said that in Italy rentals are made to those 99 and over!

Congratulations to you both for the ability to continue to enjoy travel (and to show off your trophy husband as you go ;-) Very encouraging news for my own future travel plans.

 

[NoSpin]

We are there for three months and our house is in a small village.

If you are there that long, you would be much better off financially to lease a car, and there is no age limit. Check out https://www.renault-eurodrive.com/en and https://www.car2europe.com/en/

 

[Alpinista]

We split the time into two trips — 7 weeks in summer and 6 in fall. The cost/benefit for leasing falls right about those points and hasn’t been in our favor whenever we’ve considered it.

 

[Sandrac]

I will hit 80 this summer; my wife will be 70 in the fall. Suddenly dawned on me that we might have trouble getting rental cars. My wife is always the renter of record, so my age hasn't been a factor, to date. Looking on line, I have found sites that variously say limits kick in at 70, 75, 80, or "none". Anyone on here who has already passed one of these thresholds who can comment on actual rental policies?

Alpinista, you probably did this too but I tried an online booking Hertz here in Rome (at Termini) on the Italian website to see what would happen. The only points raised about age were minimum - 25 years for some vehicles and 30 years for others. Which I thought was interesting. I'm not sure it's conclusive but it gives the sense Hertz at least is far more concerned with young drivers!

 

[Alpinista]

A tangential item, but we have always declined CDW since this is covered by our credit card. Learned on another site that the credit card coverage is limited to 31 consecutive days (and confirmed by a call to my credit card company -- Chase VISA).

 

[Pauline]

Learned on another site that the credit card coverage is limited to 31 consecutive days

We ran into this on long rentals years ago and bought the insurance through AutoEurope instead for those trips (which was good because on one of those longer trips we smashed up the car a bit and all was covered).

 

[NoSpin]

We ran into this on long rentals years ago and bought the insurance through AutoEurope instead for those trips (which was good because on one of those longer trips we smashed up the car a bit and all was covered).

OK Pauline, you started it. Now inquiring minds want to know, what happened?

 

[Lorac]

If you are there that long, you would be much better off financially to lease a car, and there is no age limit. Check out https://www.renault-eurodrive.com/en and https://www.car2europe.com/en/

Regarding car leasing that has no age limitations, know that once you hand over your credit card, you have bought that car, as is. We did this once, picking up a Renault at the Munich airport. What we didn't know was that the car battery was almost dead, and our brief run to a gas station to fill the tank finished it off.
Renault in Paris was beyond useless. We ended up at a car shop on a Saturday close to noon. The shop closed for the weekend at noon. They arranged for us to get a rental car. Off we drove to a lake resort where it rained that day and the next.
On Monday, we picked up the Renault which by now was smiling at us and running nicely.
Moral to the story: see if you can take a brief drive with a leased car before committing to it.
Lorac

 

[NoSpin]

Hi Lorac, from your post I can tell that you did not lease from either of the official sites for which I posted links. These sites lease you a brand new vehicle. The only miles on the vehicle are a few delivery miles. Also, you reserve the car at least 30 days in advance and the lease fee is already paid, you do not hand over your credit card, only ID.

We have leased many times from Renault and once from Peugeot. We once had a flat with a Renault Megane. We called their service number and a repair van was out within an hour to put on the spare. The tire wasn't repairable so they said go to any Renault dealer and tell them to call us. We did and the dealer replaced the tire with no charge or credit card from us, and we were on our way.

If anyone is going to have a car for 21 days or more, you cannot get a better deal than a lease from one of the companies I listed above. Keep in mind there is unlimited mileage, any person can drive the car with no additional fee (a family member can drive it without you, a non-family member can drive it as long as you are in the car), the car and it's contents are fully insured with zero deductible, the cars include A/C and GPS, and most importantly you get the EXACT model you ordered (how many times do you rent a Mercedes S Class "or similar" and when you get there they put you in a Ford Fiesta? ).

Some rental cars may be cheaper over 21+ days, but they have nowhere near the benefits of an officially Renault or Peugeot leased car. On our upcoming trip we have a 1 week rental in France (Sixt) and a 1 week in England (National). I'm not looking forward to either because I know I'm not going to get the cars I reserved.

 

[Lorac]

Hmmm...well, we made lease arrangements through Auto Europe, the consolidator we have used over the years for rental cars. The benefits to leasing rather than renting were very appealing to us. This experience dates back at least ten years ago, so no, I didn't have access to your posted official sites.
Re my mentioning handing over a credit card, that was a metaphorical statement. If ID was required, then that was what we did.

 

[Allen]

Sounds like a very unlucky rough start to your well planned vacation, Lorac. Like NoSpin, and for all the same reasons, I have become a convert to the short term lease option. I have not experienced any essential difference in service or benefits when booking a lease arrangement directly with either of the orgs listed by NoSpin or with AutoEurope (very minor differences in cancellation policies). We’ve used them all and for the last few years have settled on booking a lease through AutoEurope. The only complaint I’ve heard from friends re these programs is about limited availability of several car models in recent years (chip shortage), so if one is interested, early booking probably still a good idea.