In the US, it only cost about $8 per day extra to rent a car with
NeverLost in cars as cheap as a $39 per day Ford Taurus and is
available in most cities.

We are planning to take a 5 week trip to Europe next summer using
mostly trains and inter-European flights. However we may rent cars
once in a while for hard to reach locations. Probably only rent a
vehicle 5 days out of the trip at most in one day stints.

Are rental cars with GPS only available in the largest cities in Europe
and only in very high-end expensive vehicles?

"EuroTravel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > In the US, it only cost about $8 per day extra to rent a car with
    > NeverLost in cars as cheap as a $39 per day Ford Taurus and is
    > available in most cities.
    > We are planning to take a 5 week trip to Europe next summer using
    > mostly trains and inter-European flights. However we may rent cars
    > once in a while for hard to reach locations. Probably only rent a
    > vehicle 5 days out of the trip at most in one day stints.
    > Are rental cars with GPS only available in the largest cities in Europe
    > and only in very high-end expensive vehicles?
Generally yes. GPS and sat-nav are standard fitting only in high-end models,
usually in the executive class (BMW, Audi, Merc etc).
Normally it's quite expensive to rent a car just for a day, as most
discounted rates start from 3-4 days and cheapest at 7 days+. One-day rental
is targeted at business users on expense account. There are cut-price rental
outlets in certain places, like Easycar, with the cheapest rates available
when booked far in advance.

Alec

There are portable GPS units you can take with you (such as the Garmin iQue
3600). While their Europe map disk is rather expensive, the unit itself
works well. All GPS units need some practice to learn to use them
effectively however. Also Europe doesn't seem to be as finely mapped as
North America (and I'm not sure the units have access to WAAS stations that
increase the accuracy), so they are most effective on highways and in large
cities. Michelin also sells GPS packages based on PDA technology, which can
access their electronic Red Guide (www.viamichelin.com). The lack of detail
in the small villages seems similar to Garmin's maps, though.

"EuroTravel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] oups.com...
    > In the US, it only cost about $8 per day extra to rent a car with
    > NeverLost in cars as cheap as a $39 per day Ford Taurus and is
    > available in most cities.
    > We are planning to take a 5 week trip to Europe next summer using
    > mostly trains and inter-European flights. However we may rent cars
    > once in a while for hard to reach locations. Probably only rent a
    > vehicle 5 days out of the trip at most in one day stints.
    > Are rental cars with GPS only available in the largest cities in Europe
    > and only in very high-end expensive vehicles?
    >

I'm aware of portable GPS units, but it doesn't make sense to purchase
a portable GPS that would only be used for a few days.
Why don't they just RENT the GPS units with the rental cars for a few
of a few extra dollars per day like Hertz does in the US?
There must be plenty of tourists and even business travelers who would
pay a fee to rent a add-on GPS like NeverLost with a standard rental
car and aren't going to rent a high end gas-guzzling luxury vehicle
that would come with factory installed GPS navigation.

"EuroTravel" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected] ups.com...
    > I'm aware of portable GPS units, but it doesn't make sense to purchase
    > a portable GPS that would only be used for a few days.
    > Why don't they just RENT the GPS units with the rental cars for a few
    > of a few extra dollars per day like Hertz does in the US?
    > There must be plenty of tourists and even business travelers who would
    > pay a fee to rent a add-on GPS like NeverLost with a standard rental
    > car and aren't going to rent a high end gas-guzzling luxury vehicle
    > that would come with factory installed GPS navigation.

Over the past 5 years I must have rented about 3 dozen different cars..
albeit all of them within the UK.

I've never been offered the option of a GPS navigation system, nor have any
of the cars been fitted with one.

I would be suprised if most renters do offer it and I would expect it to
cost a lot if they did.

EuroTravel wrote:
    > In the US, it only cost about $8 per day extra to rent a car with
    > NeverLost in cars as cheap as a $39 per day Ford Taurus and is
    > available in most cities.

That depends on countries and companies. I mostly use Europcar, but I
am sure Avis, Hertz and possibly Budget will also have it.

In places like Germany and France you can ask for a GPS Navigator in
compact cars (Ford Focus, VW Golf, Opel Astra etc.), but be sure to
book in advance.

For Portugal I know for sure that it is not an option on cars below the
executive class, but you can check the respective websites and check
every company and country.
The extra charge was IIRC 5 euro per day.


J.

In the message news:[email protected] ups.com...
"EuroTravel" <[email protected]> wrote:

    > I'm aware of portable GPS units, but it doesn't make sense to purchase
    > a portable GPS that would only be used for a few days.
    > Why don't they just RENT the GPS units with the rental cars for a few
    > of a few extra dollars per day like Hertz does in the US?
    > There must be plenty of tourists and even business travelers who would
    > pay a fee to rent a add-on GPS like NeverLost with a standard rental
    > car and aren't going to rent a high end gas-guzzling luxury vehicle
    > that would come with factory installed GPS navigation.
I can only speak for myself (retired, single, long-time driving licence
holder who rents cars occasionally as I don't have one of my own). I
wouldn't be interested in paying extra to rent a car just because it had a
GPS navigation system installed, mainly because I have never felt the need
for one in the past. Furthermore I suspect the learning curve for taking
avantage of it would be too long, assuming the system is smart enough to
know about all the one-way streets that most conventional street maps don't
show (otherwise, why bother?). But that could be because I generally need
the car to carry a group and/or a load, and only rarely want go far from my
home area, and then only to places that are practically impossible to reach
by public transport at the time of travel (eg where traffic is very light).
YMMV.

Regards,

- Alan (in Brussels)

EuroTravel wrote:

    > In the US, it only cost about $8 per day extra to rent a car with
    > NeverLost in cars as cheap as a $39 per day Ford Taurus and is
    > available in most cities.
    >
    > We are planning to take a 5 week trip to Europe next summer using
    > mostly trains and inter-European flights. However we may rent cars
    > once in a while for hard to reach locations. Probably only rent a
    > vehicle 5 days out of the trip at most in one day stints.
    >
    > Are rental cars with GPS only available in the largest cities in Europe
    > and only in very high-end expensive vehicles?
    >
Avis Germany offers the Mercedes A-class with a navigation system at
group H rates (between C and D).

T.

"Alan (in Brussels)" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
...
    > I can only speak for myself (retired, single, long-time driving licence
    > holder who rents cars occasionally as I don't have one of my own). I
    > wouldn't be interested in paying extra to rent a car just because it had a
    > GPS navigation system installed, mainly because I have never felt the need
    > for one in the past. Furthermore I suspect the learning curve for taking
    > avantage of it would be too long, assuming the system is smart enough to
    > know about all the one-way streets that most conventional street maps
    > don't
    > show (otherwise, why bother?). ...

With a good one, the procedure is switch on, input destination address,
follow directions. If you leave the route, it will recalculate the way back
and, if you want to learn how to push a couple of extra buttons, it will
find you useful things like petrol stations or it will work out an
alternative route if you hit a traffic jam. How smart it is depends on how
good the database is and how often you buy new CD-ROMs.

I have GPS in my own vehicle and usually it is an excellent way to find my
way to distant places I have never visted before. The only time it has
failed me was during a diversion around the centre of a small French village
on Bastille Day, when it decided the road I was on did not exist.
Unfortunately, at the time, I was going down a steep hill on a road little
wider than my vehicle, through a stone arch, towing a 5m long trailer and I
needed to know whether to turn left or right into a road no wider than the
one I was in. However, the unit cost over GBP£2k and the CD-ROMs cost about
GBP200 per country, so it is not the sort of thing that hire companies are
likely to recover their costs on if they fit them.

Colin Bignell

On 2005-01-05, Mark Hewitt <[email protected]> wrote:
    > I've never been offered the option of a GPS navigation system, nor have any
    > of the cars been fitted with one.

I have not seen a rental car without GPS in over 2 years.

    > I would be suprised if most renters do offer it and I would expect it to
    > cost a lot if they did.

Why? GPS is standard on many models, and an affordable extra on the rest.
The economy of a car rental is very much based on the resale value of the
cars, and selling a car without GPS is becoming increasingly difficult.
Aircondition was unusual 5 years ago, now it's standard. The same thing
is happening to GPS at the moment.

IMO GPS should be mandatory for rental cars.