Driving a deal against the Yankee dollar

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This was published 13 years ago

Driving a deal against the Yankee dollar

By Michael Gebicki

I'm travelling to France this year and looking to hire a car for two weeks. On the Avis site, the vehicle I'm looking at is priced at €395 for Australian residents, which is about $550. However I've noticed that for a US resident, renting the same vehicle for the same period would cost $US337, which is about $350, or close to $200 less than I am paying as an Australian resident. Why the difference?

- S. Treloar, Annandale.

Those darned Yankees, they do take the cake. But all is not as it seems. According to an Avis spokesperson, when you rock up to the Avis counter at Charles de Gaulle Airport at the same time as Mr Cheapdeal from Boody, Illinois, this is what will happen: while you will hand over your credit card to be charged €395, Mr Cheapdeal will find - gosh darn - that his $US337 deal lacks a few vital ingredients, such as collision damage waiver, theft protection, taxes and the airport pick-up fee, which are all included in your package.

Consider that the CDW is $14 a day, theft protection is another $5.50, the airport pick-up fee is a mystery amount, add that to the base cost of $US337 and whack a 19.6 per cent tax on the whole lot and who's smiling now? And, by the way, book well in advance for the sharpest deal.

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