Fantastic service from Europcar

Hard-sell on everything there is to hard sell on, threats of consequences if we didn't take their total cover insurance ("we always find something wrong when you return it otherwise"). It isn't my first time using them, and have mixed experiences so far, but this time took the biscuit. Oh, and the guy "helping" us claimed to be the manager - I hope not for the other employees.

Helpful and thoughtful throughout the process.

Easy fast and efficient pick up. Nice car in good condition . Would rent again .

Platform great no issues with booking Did not sign up for Price Protection.

We had to wait well over an hour for our car. We were initially told we were being upgraded (which seems to happen every time we hire a car) but the upgraded car could not be found so we were told we would be upgraded still further. Despite being very clear we wanted (and had booked) a manual car, when we went to our car we found it to be an automatic. Having waited for nearly an hour and a half to get a car we could not be bothered to go back to the check in desk to argue! If we had known the car was to be an automatic we would not have paid for a second driver as only the first driver was comfortable driving an automatic.

Instead of having a Ford Focus I received a Citroen. The heating system was terrible, the windows were always fogging. The manual transmission was difficult to engage in proper gear. The heater was so noisy it was impossible to have a conversation.

We were kept waiting well over an hour for no good reason other than incompetence, as far as I could tell. I'd made the point in the booking process that the car needed to be comfortable for my disabled and elderly Mum - it was not.