Car hire in Sicily

[coldel]

Google is bringing up a myriad of car rental companies ... im flying out to Catania airport and need a car for 5 days.
Would prefer to use an English language website that finds me deals and book in advance, but the main sponsored ones on google that appear have very mixed reviews!

Anyone recommend a decent car hire option...Im just after a small SUV I can ferry the family around in for a few days nothing fancy.

Ive tried putting stuff in to the big names like Avis etc and the prices are eye watering...so wondering if the more localised companies would be a better deal

[The Leaper]

Car hire in Italy, and many other countries too, are eye watering, yes. And wait until you see their insurance prices. In 2018 Avis charged me £250 for a week's insurance for a basic VW Golf. Nowadays, I am sure it will be a lot more.

R.

[coldel]

Its really hard to make sense of it.

Sixt were asking £500 before extras for another driver and full insurance

Yet if I used a website like Discovercars which links into local car hire places I can get something like a Renault Captur for about £190 everything in.

[Shambler]

Use one of the local companies. Take out separate hire car insurance. My advice is to take a small a car as possible as some of the roads are really really narrow

[coldel]

Thanks Shambler...I am currently trying to find info on companies like RentalPlus etc that pop up reasonably cheap - the broker websites I am using have their own insurance payout coverage I seem to be able to add on.

[coldel]

Just used HolidayAutos to book one on Italy Car Hire which seemed to be a good balance of reviews and price. £240 for a Mazda CX3 or similar.
Refundable up to 48 hrs before.

[V6Nelo]

I booked with Sixt directly and then took a personal insurance plan for the year as recommended on the MoneySavingExpert site.

Currently in Cefalu but drove around a few days now, the driving is INTERESTING my co-pilot screams a lot and I’m on maximum alertness. But getting used to it.

3 cars abreast on a 2 lane highway.

4 way junction with no traffic lights.

Car join main roads even when not “clear”.

I do enjoying see the Fiats and Alfas around, for all ages.

Food is great and people friendly.

Hope I don’t need to use the extra insurance over

[coldel]

Thanks. I bought extra insurance to cover excess.
We will use the car to get around but won’t be in it that much. Intend to spend some of the time on the beach relaxing etc!

[V6Nelo]

Shambler said:

Use one of the local companies. Take out separate hire car insurance. My advice is to take a small a car as possible as some of the roads are really really narrow

Good advice on the small car, I reserved and paid for a Citroen C1 size car….

Been some sweaty, holding breath moments

[James P]

Possibly a little late for the OP but may be useful for others.

We used to fly into Catania regularly and found that if any of the car hire companies were offering particularly good deals the result would be a very long queue to pick the car up. Sicily by Car were usually the cheapest so had the longest queues. We once had to cancel a booking entirely and use a different, more expensive obviously, company so we could at least get a car and leave the airport.

The 3 lanes of traffic on a 2 lane road (Palermo through road?) works fine once you’re used to it. Italians have no inhibitions about overtaking and as long as you don’t change direction unexpectedly there’s unlikely to be a problem.

Beware of inattentive locals though, using Bluetooth for phones in cars seems to be unheard of here so they’ll be concentrating on their phone rather than the road.

[coldel]

I think the car hire place I used was Italy Car Hire which got an 8.2 rating (actually higher than some of the big brand names) it was about middle of the price range cost. Kinda expecting queues, its Italy after all, nothing gets done efficiently. My wife does speak Italian though so hoping that helps us get the jump on many tourists she can go chat up the blokes running things lol

[coldel]

If anyone searches … the hire company we used was called Italy Car Rent it had good ratings and is a local operator. We had to wait about 20 mins to do the paperwork, then a 5 min walk to P4 long stay car park to pick it up. We got a Ford Ecosport which for a family of three with one suitcase was perfect, the boot would struggle with two full size cases.

Staff were quick and efficient. We did a fair few miles in the car driving about half of Sicily - dropped it back they spent about a minute looking around it signed it off and we were on our way back to the airport.

I did notice when walking back through the airport the short wait we had when we arrived, looked a fair bit longer, probably 45 mins estimate.

But overall a good company, car was in great condition. My wife speaks decent Italian I think that helps with the customer service! I would use them again if they were an option. Hire for five days was a touch under £200 for a small suv

[V6Nelo]

coldel said:

If anyone searches … the hire company we used was called Italy Car Rent it had good ratings and is a local operator. We had to wait about 20 mins to do the paperwork, then a 5 min walk to P4 long stay car park to pick it up. We got a Ford Ecosport which for a family of three with one suitcase was perfect, the boot would struggle with two full size cases.

Staff were quick and efficient. We did a fair few miles in the car driving about half of Sicily - dropped it back they spent about a minute looking around it signed it off and we were on our way back to the airport.

I did notice when walking back through the airport the short wait we had when we arrived, looked a fair bit longer, probably 45 mins estimate.

But overall a good company, car was in great condition. My wife speaks decent Italian I think that helps with the customer service! I would use them again if they were an option. Hire for five days was a touch under £200 for a small suv

Sounds good, did you reserve it online before getting to the airport?

I’m rental return to Sixt was straightforward, spent a few minutes looking over the car and signed it off as being fine.

Hopefully not going to get any surprises from the speeding radars as may have been missing the limits whilst I was looking out for crazy overtakes

[James P]

Generally very few fixed cameras here. If all the locals suddenly slow down you know there’s an active one.

[coldel]

Every car was speeding, literally all of them, the cameras on google maps I couldnt see when I passed them so either well hidden or just not there.

The price of Italy Car Rent vs Sixt was about half the price like for like, and got the same quality of service so was well happy with that. Booked online in advance about 2 weeks in advance.

[Teddy Lop]

Make sure you thoroughly inspect the car on pickup/dropoff too, and EVERYWHERE. Autoitalia I think it was the guy on dropoff laid down on the road in front of the car and pointed to scratches underneath the front valance. Almost like he knew he'd find them.

[Old Merc]

Where ever I go I book through www.rentalcars.com fully insured. you will get a car with one of the big names at the airport. Just make sure the guy at the desk does not sell you “extra” insurance.

Edited by Old Merc on Saturday 3rd June 14:09

[V6Nelo]

Teddy Lop said:

Make sure you thoroughly inspect the car on pickup/dropoff too, and EVERYWHERE. Autoitalia I think it was the guy on dropoff laid down on the road in front of the car and pointed to scratches underneath the front valance. Almost like he knew he'd find them.

No way. That dodgy, I heard some strange stories like that but fortunately not experienced it.

Think I read on this site ages ago about returned cars being taken to intensively lit room at drop off whilst pick was in a poorly lit underground lot.

When shopping for deals I’ve seen some broker sites, offering full insurance at what looks like a good additional price but the fine print states you still need to pay the excess and then claim it back. Which is different to being fully insured and minimal/zero excess.

[coldel]

I picked up in a covered car park, but drove it to the edge to get a good look at it.
Dropped it back in the same dim lit part and they inspected it for about a minute and said fine.

I overheard a family talking on the coach to the plane later that day that three guys spent 20 minutes looking at their rental car and picked up every little mark.

I basically read the reviews and the one I chose had the best reviews of the budget offerings, so felt reasonably comfortable with it. Also with the wife speaking Italian with the staff it does make a difference, they will treat you differently.