[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Bumping up an old thread. I am visiting Germany for about 10 days and plan to do a road trip to nearby countries.

Are there any restrictions on which countries I can take a rental car? My Indian Driving licence is valid and no International licence is required right?

I was thinking of booking this C Class and was wondering is it recommended to get this extra protection for Rs.696 per day for tires, lost key, mirrors etc?

Attachment 1965885

I booked this C Class with GPS for about $446 for 9 days with comprehensive coverage from Hertz thru autoeurope.com.

I was wondering how often do you actually get the car quoted or a very similar car(A4 or 3 series)? My voucher says "Mercedes C Class w/ GPS or similar Full Size 4 Door Car Automatic With A/C". I really prefer a small car and don't want to end up with a Ford Mondeo or a VW Passat or something big.

I have made corporate bookings in the US when they tried to give me a huge pickup truck when I booked a sedan.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I booked this C Class with GPS for about $446 for 9 days with comprehensive coverage from Hertz thru autoeurope.com.

I was wondering how often do you actually get the car quoted or a very similar car(A4 or 3 series)? ...

To tell you frankly! I booked an X3/GLC/Q3 category car last weekend from sixt and instead of X3 I ended up with a monstrous Audi Q8!! To answer your question directly, the chances are 50 % or less but usually unless otherwise due to complete unavailability, they do not provide cars from a higher segment.

C-Class or 3 series or a Passat are kind of similar sized vehicles. If you ordered a Limousine, you will most likely not get a Kombi (Station wagon) for sure unless you ask for it specifically. If you want something small you could have gone for a Golf. IMHO that has more than enough space for all possible purposes.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

To tell you frankly! I booked an X3/GLC/Q3 category car last weekend from sixt and instead of X3 I ended up with a monstrous Audi Q8!! To answer your question directly, the chances are 50 % or less but usually unless otherwise due to complete unavailability, they do not provide cars from a higher segment.

.

You have the chances of a mega upgrade as follows:

• You need to hire the car for a day or two and the hire car company has smaller cars committed for longer periods while bigger cars are knocking around.
• You are a frequent user
• You are hiring from one location and dropping at another location an by chance, a car needs to be moved there

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I booked this C Class with GPS for about $446 for 9 days with comprehensive coverage from Hertz thru autoeurope.com.

I was wondering how often do you actually get the car quoted or a very similar car(A4 or 3 series)? My voucher says "Mercedes C Class w/ GPS or similar Full Size 4 Door Car Automatic With A/C". I really prefer a small car and don't want to end up with a Ford Mondeo or a VW Passat or something big.

I have made corporate bookings in the US when they tried to give me a huge pickup truck when I booked a sedan.

I had to cancel this booking. After much effort and a few calls I managed to speak to someone at Hertz, Frankfurt in English and the lady who had been working there for many years said a IDP is needed.

Was about to book from Europcar but decided to email them first.
They replied within a few hours " Good afternoon,
thank you for your message.

An international driver's license is required."

Now thinking of getting a IDP but my driving licence address is not where I reside nor does it match my passport. Worst case is that I will have to book at the airport from whichever company does not require an IDP.

[Zed]

Perhaps the need for IDP is new regulation. Pretty sure that it wasn’t required a few years ago for rental cars in Germany as long as your native DL was in English. Did you try Europecar or Sixt?

[Simha.k]

Hi Foxbat.

Have you tried hiring a car from budget.com ? I have hired a couple of times from them here in CZ and my experience has been good. They have a wide variety of cars from Skoda Citigo to Mercedes Vito. I have a European driver's license. And hence, the IDP issue never came in to picture. I was just curious and I remember having asked the person at the counter if he'd accept my Indian driver's license and he mentioned they do as long as the credentials are all in English. I hope this helps.

My first post here on Team BHP. Feels wonderful.

Regards.

[AlphaKilo]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

I had to cancel this booking. After much effort and a few calls I managed to speak to someone at Hertz, Frankfurt in English and the lady who had been working there for many years said a IDP is needed.
...

Did you try Sixt? It is news to me that they need IDP as standard. Try buchbinder, avis or keddy if sixt doesn't work out.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by Foxbat

Now thinking of getting a IDP but my driving licence address is not where I reside nor does it match my passport. Worst case is that I will have to book at the airport from whichever company does not require an IDP.

It is always safer to get IDP. I couldn't add my name as an additional driver when we rented from Czech republic last November.
The thing is, our Indian license, though in English is not very consistent in their design. How does a foreigner know what is an LMV?
Once the lady at Enterprise US refused me a car since my Kerala DL says, "valid for driving in India" and hence it is not valid outside. However I have driven with the same license multiple times later even from the same rental place. So, it depends on your luck and the person at the counter.

[Foxbat]

The problem is Hertz on their website and on email said they allow but on the phone the Frankfurt office said they don't, when I said many people have already done it than she said it depends on your luck but you might be denied!

On email Hertz said:
"At the time of rental the driver must present a valid national driver's license which has been held for at least 1 year, provided your national driver's license is in Roman script.
All licenses issued in the European Union are accepted.
All other licenses in Roman Script are accepted for renting, however, an International Driving Permit is highly recommended as you may be required to present it to the authorities.
With all Non-European Union driver's licenses not in Roman Script, an International Driving Permit (IDP) is mandatory.
The IDP translates the national license into various languages and is on its own, without the national license, not acceptable.
Please note that, if stopped by the Police while driving without an IDP, you might incur into a fine and the vehicle may be confiscated for 3 months. In this case, Hertz reserves the right to charge you the amount of the non-waivable excess applicable for the vehicle group."

Sixt says on email:
"Driver's licenses from non-EU countries (except Switzerland) are accepted if:
a) no visa has been entered in the passport.
b) the customer has a visa in his passport and at the time of hire has not been in Europe for longer than 6 months. If he has been in Europe for longer than 6 months, he must present a driver's license from an EU country.

Driver's license printed with non Roman Alphabet (Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic etc) must be complemented by an international driver's license.
For driver's licenses from countries not part of the international driver's license treaty, an official translation of the license must be presented with the original license."

[AlphaKilo]

This means sixt doesn't need IDP right?

[dipen]

Every rental location in every rental company follows a different process or have a different level of understanding.
Best way I found is email your high quality license smart card photo (front and back) and ask them if this is fine. Send this email to the location spoc for the car rental where you are intending to pickup. I think all they look is LMV and what LMV stands for at the back.

Also, IDP in almost all states takes one day. Its a relatively simple process.
Go in the morning, fill form, submit and make payment and collect IDP in the evening.

[Jaguar]

Originally Posted by dipen

Also, IDP in almost all states takes one day. Its a relatively simple process.
Go in the morning, fill form, submit and make payment and collect IDP in the evening.

I wish that was the case. For us residing in a different state than the one from where the DL was issued, it is not even possible.
In my case, even when I went to the home RTO (KL) I was told I need the visa, tickets and a Dr certificate to get the IDP. Paid an agent to get the Dr certificate but still couldn't get the IDP since I didn't have a local KL address address proof.

[veedub89]

I have rented cars in Germany on multiple occasions and all through Sixt.
Last time I rented a car was about 9 months back.

Sixt definitely does not require an IDP.
If your Indian license is in English and is one of the newer ones (the one with the embedded chip) and you have a valid passport with a valid visa you are good to go.

The IDP is itself quite outdated.
If you have the IDP book just go through the list of countries where it is accepted.
The damn thing is so old, according to them Czechoslovakia is still a country!

[Foxbat]

Originally Posted by AlphaKilo

This means sixt doesn't need IDP right?

I suppose so since India is part of the IDL treaty? "For driver's licenses from countries not part of the international driver's license treaty, an official translation of the license must be presented with the original license.""

Originally Posted by dipen

Every rental location in every rental company follows a different process or have a different level of understanding.
Best way I found is email your high quality license smart card photo (front and back) and ask them if this is fine. Send this email to the location spoc for the car rental where you are intending to pickup. I think all they look is LMV and what LMV stands for at the back.

Also, IDP in almost all states takes one day. Its a relatively simple process.
Go in the morning, fill form, submit and make payment and collect IDP in the evening.

Emailing a scanned copy is a good idea but it is not easy to get the email id of a particular office. I called Hertz Germany and they said they could not give the email of the Frankfurt Airport office to customers as it was only to be shared internally.

As others have mentioned getting a IDP is only easy if you currently live at the same address as in your DL and your passport has the same address.

[VaidhiR]

The reason why car rentals insist on IDP for tourists is because of insurance. They don't have a problem with renting out cars. Imagine driving a €50k euro Audi, crashing it and flying out of the nation. There have been cases that have been in the news and it sometimes gets nasty.

If you are a local resident, or if you know someone who is a local resident and has a local driving license, you could be added as a second driver with your Indian license. It doesn't have to be the chipped one. Mine is from 2004 and I have rented cars from almost all companies. Even the smaller unknown ones.

If you are a tourist and want to drive in Europe, then I suggest getting the IDP done.

But be aware. The rules of the road are quite hard and can be costly. Especially if you violate the inner city rules concerning speeding and priority road. Parking violations are not that expensive.