 Poster: A snowHead
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I am looking at car hire for Turin Airport and getting rather confused.
When booking through middle men (ebookers, Expedia, holiday autos etc) what is the most important part of the descriptor?
In the past I have always booked “Standard Wagon” to ensure I get a good boot capacity and hence can fit 3 big bags and the double ski bag with 1 seat down. This has normally had an example of VW Passat Estate or Ford Mondeo estate alongside (haven’t yet had the exact car but until last time the car has been big enough. Last time our upgrade because they had run out of our class was and Alfa Romeo Stelvio and it was a real struggle to get everthing in and all footwells except drivers had to be fully used.
So this time one of the middle men has offered Stand lard Wagon as Renault Megan sport tourer... that is a much smaller class in my opinion with only a 521L boot. That wouldn’t be big enough - the Alfa was 525L and barely managed. Our normal car is a Seat Toledo but that has a 550L boot.
So I tried another middle man - spotted one with an example car of VW Touran - which would take everything nicely but the class is described as a standard class. It also says it has 5 seats but googling the Touran it appeared to be a 7 seater?
The better deals seem to be with Locauto. Googling their reviews was quite scary but others on here have reported favourably about using them?
I have tried quotes direct with the car hire companies but looking at closer £1k going that route but Locauto claim to have no availability for my dates despite being offered them via the middle men. I am looking early here do suspect that is in part why.
So main questions what is the most important but the “standard wagon” or “example car” for the booking? How does it go through to the actual supplier?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Oh and most amazing price found was for a Fiat Tipo estate which apparently a compact class??? that will “only” cost £59489.99!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@NickyJ, I would say if you want an estate car, book an estate car. Standard is basically just a category, not a configuration. I generally use Auto Europe as an aggregator if not booking direct. Their categories are: Mini, Economy, Midsize, Large, Estate, Van, Luxury.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@NickyJ, I've booked the Megane Sport Tourer class through middlemen a couple of times from Turin. Last year 4 of us fit in an actual Megane with 4 ski/board bags plus other luggage with a split seat down. This year was an Octavia Estate which was similar but more spacious.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| queenie pretty please wrote: |
| @NickyJ, I would say if you want an estate car, book an estate car. Standard is basically just a category, not a configuration. I generally use Auto Europe as an aggregator if not booking direct. Their categories are: Mini, Economy, Midsize, Large, Estate, Van, Luxury. |
So on Auto Europe and has Audi A4 Estate with an “OR SIMILAR | FULL SIZE CLASS” in descriptor below. No mention of estate.
With them if I click on Estate column, first is Skoda Octavia Estate (which would be happy with size wise) but descriptor is “OR SIMILAR | INTERMIDIATE CLASS”
The estate part despite filtering on that isn’t making it through to any of the or similar text descriptions hence my confusion.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| leggyblonde wrote: |
| @NickyJ, I've booked the Megane Sport Tourer class through middlemen a couple of times from Turin. Last year 4 of us fit in an actual Megane with 4 ski/board bags plus other luggage with a split seat down. This year was an Octavia Estate which was similar but more spacious. |
My sister used to have a Megan’s Sport Tourer and I remember thinking the boot was a decent size... but stats accounting the online car buyer say 521L with seats up which isn’t that big.
Who was your end supplier?
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@NickyJ, I've just had a look through my emails and have drawn a blank I'm afraid.
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Thanks for looking @leggyblonde
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Expect are offering me a Standard Wagon with Alamo for £311 which I would more than happily pay, but the example car is again that Renault Megan ST. If I go onto the Alamo website and search is offers me a standard wagon with VW Touran as example but with a picture of a Renault - the identical picture to that shown via Expedia, and wants to charge best part of £1200.
Tempted to book that with Expedia and hope for the best.
If it ends up costing too much will go with private transfer and just not have a hire car available for day trips - that will equate to about £345 (using the points credit I have with Alps 2 Alps).
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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@altis, the thought intermiate was smaller than standard?
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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It’s certainly higher up the ACRISS category list but, with roof rack, is perfectly adequate for five plus all gear - unless you get “upgraded” to a Tiguan which, turns out, is smaller!
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| altis wrote: |
| It’s certainly higher up the ACRISS category list but, with roof rack, is perfectly adequate for five plus all gear - unless you get “upgraded” to a Tiguan which, turns out, is smaller! |
Certainly we found that with the Stevio was considered an upgrade and certainly was in terms of engine power, size of wheels, types of brakes, features etc... took 3 attempts at repacking to get the boot to close!
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You know it makes sense.
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@NickyJ, you rarely get the exact model, you simply get a car in that class or above. If you choose 'estate' you'll get an estate. Surely that's the best option if you need boot space.
My most recent car hire booking (last weekend!), I booked and paid for 'Mini' which has previously been a Fiat 500. However this time I got a Kia Ceed!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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The Touran, we've run one long term so agree with your assertion of space.
They are all configured with 5 seats in the lower spec models sold to consumer, you'd need higher spec or option to get seven seats which they probably don't generally do for hire.
Body is identical, the 7 seater just has slightly raised boot floor to accommodate the folding seats plus the safety belts. So space in both when used as 5 seater doesn't change.
That class would also contain opel zafira, Renault scenic, fiat 500L, Citroën C4 wagon, etc and would logically be std vehicle wagon. Large wagon would generally be Ford s-max/galaxy, seat alhambra etc.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Citroën C4 is Picasso in wagon shape. 
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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| queenie pretty please wrote: |
@NickyJ, you rarely get the exact model, you simply get a car in that class or above. If you choose 'estate' you'll get an estate. Surely that's the best option if you need boot space.
My most recent car hire booking (last weekend!), I booked and paid for 'Mini' which has previously been a Fiat 500. However this time I got a Kia Ceed! |
But it doesn’t have estate in the descriptor with auto Europe so am worried that we aren’t going to get an estate. If it did I wouldn’t be getting so confused/ worried 
Other middle men have Wagon in title at least but then example car doesn’t match with descriptor. Hence me going round in circles and wanting to know others experience with reality.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Turn is likely to have a lot of Fiats
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Car hire is a lottery - book Wagon or Estate if you want to be sure of getting one. You might get away with haggling for one if you have booked the general class but are only offered say a hatch but it's not a cert especially if you're renting at a busy time like school hols when all stock is allocated. I might chance it for a weekend elsewhere.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| NickyJ wrote: |
| Oh and most amazing price found was for a Fiat Tipo estate which apparently a compact class??? that will “only” cost £59489.99! |
In case anybody thought I was joking
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we hired with europcar in turin last time, was supposed to be a RN KADJAR (IDMR) or similar (Intermediate), ended up with a fiat tipo estate
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Thanks @Little Martin and I bet it didn’t cost you 60k
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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I think they are quoting the price to buy a fleet of at least 4
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| NickyJ wrote: |
| Thanks @Little Martin and I bet it didn’t cost you 60k |
Thankfully only £250 for 9 days with chains (come to think of it, we didn't have the chains, maybe that's why they discounted it from 60k)
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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It is the luck of the draw what you end up being given, though you should be guaranteed a car of at least the size & capacity of what you booked. Depending on what they have available, you can sometimes ask the desk clerk nicely if there are other options.
I've not had any trouble with Locauto who are the Italian partners of Enterprise/Alamo/National, had a nice VW Golf, New Fiat Tipo, Opel Crossland X from Venice & Turin and no problems on return.
Sometimes the brokers have been a bit creative with the descriptors, calling some cars compact when they belong to a class lower. There's no way a Megane ST is a Standard Wagon, which is a class larger than an Intermediate. It's a Compact, like a Focus, Astra, Golf, Tipo, etc. Standard, you'd expect at least a Mondeo, Passat or Skoda Superb.
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@luigi, this is my dilemma- if I book a standard wagon and get the Megane, do I have any right to demand anything bigger? None of the example cars that I am getting back through the searches are what I would like to book. One of the middle men don’t even keep Estate in the description so I daren't use them.
As we would need the car for 9 days it is borderline on price as to Whether a private transfer vs car is cheaper.
As we are going to La Thuile - just found out the shop isn’t great on stock so a car to stock up somewhere could be valuable - when we went to a mayrhofen we found plenty in the shop in walking distance. We normally only eat out one evening to keep costs down as this is for a second much cheaper week which it only works out if we keep good control of the pennies
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You know it makes sense.
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@NickyJ, although La Thuile is a charming little village, there's not much in the way of shopping. I can only recall a small supermarket near the lift, not in the village centre. Aosta is probably your best bet for a larger supermarket.
I still think you need to specify an estate car on your booking, so a Station Wagon rather than a Standard Wagon. Perhaps it would be better to book direct with a car hire company, rather than using an aggregator?
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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| queenie pretty please wrote: |
@NickyJ, although La Thuile is a charming little village, there's not much in the way of shopping. I can only recall a small supermarket near the lift, not in the village centre. Aosta is probably your best bet for a larger supermarket.
I still think you need to specify an estate car on your booking, so a Station Wagon rather than a Standard Wagon. Perhaps it would be better to book direct with a car hire company, rather than using an aggregator? |
Would do but at circa £1k we won’t be doing that.
If we COULD ensure we specify Station Wagon I would. 
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Poster: A snowHead
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@NickyJ, try this website, as recommended by luigi above:
https://www.locautorent.com/it/
I just put in a sample request for half term week next year from Turin and Station Wagon classes started at just over €300 for a week's rental.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@queenie pretty please, thanks, guess I must be too early for them as it keeps telling me know vehicles for the dates you selected. So will hold off for a while. Thanks
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FAQ
It was a right pain in the ar$e as it wouldn't fit in the hotel's car park. 