We review Europcar - car hire specialists with offices throughout the world in Spain and Gibraltar

History and Background

Europcar, as their name suggests, is a European focused car rental company, but through an alliance with Enterprise offer car rental throughout the world. Europcar was founded in 1949, and has grown through a series of aquisitions since then.

Locations

Europcar have around 230 offices across Europe, but through their alliance with Enterprise this ballons to about 13,000 offices worldwide. They have access to over 1.2m vehicles in 150 countries. Europcar themselves run a fleet of some 190,000 cars and smaller commercial vehicles and have a particularly strong presence in the UK, Germany, Italy, France and Spain. They have offices however in most European cities.

Insurance

When you rent a vehicle from Europcar, Third Party Liability cover for Bodily Injury and Property Damage is provided in accordance with the legal requirements of the country in question.

This cover is automatically included in the rental at no extra cost. The level of coverage provided depends on local legislation and markets. There are other insurances which cover any potential damage or loss to the rental vehicle

These are either packaged into the cost of your rental, or can be bought seperately from Europcar. Renters who have purchased such protection are however still liable for a residual non-waivable amount (or "excess") which becomes payable if there is any damage to or loss of the vehicle. Some countries may give renters the opportunity to eliminate the excess through an additional fee. Additionally tyres, windscreens, underbody, and glass are amongst the areas not normally covered either under the standard insurance or the extended cover. Alternative insurance can be bought through the moneymaxim car hire insurance service which will cover the excess and such additional areas (please see policy documents for full details).

Young Driver Surcharge:

In certain countries drivers under 25 years old must buy a specific product to extend their cover.

Service

We provide the tools so customers of Europcar can rate the service provided - this enables those who are perhaps using the company for the first time to gain an expecaton of the service standards they can anticipate.