Autovia Car Rental Reviews 241

This was the worst rental car experience ever!

Our case: we picked up our booked a fiat 500 up in September 2023, on site the car already looked quite beaten up, which we didn’t mind, we took a lot of pictures and went of.

Already when we left we heard a disturbing rattle, but didn’t know where it was coming from, the following day we realised the left door-handle was loose and causing the disturbing noise, we informed the company via e-mail, what we should do, if the handle comes completely loose and already then they told us, it is a damage caused by us. Explaining the situation didn’t help, we had a horrible driving experience and made driving this car not a pleasurable experience for the vacation.

On the day of return, the stuff on sight, said it is clearly a damage caused by us and we have to file a damage report, the office then will decide what’s going to happen. Explaining her the Situation, that it is a malfuction of their bad maintained rental car, even showing pictures of the pick up day, where you can see a bigger gap on the door-handle as usual didn’t help, she said if we don’t sign this damage report we are not retuning this car. Still, neither the door or handle showed any kind of damage. As of good will, hope the office will see this case, see it is a problem caused by them, because if you would imagine, the same thing would happen to a bolt of the wheels, suspension, or what ever, it could be a huge safety concern, and a leaving flight, I signed the damage report. But clearly stated it is a malfunction of their bad maintained car, and could be in some case even a safety concern!

A few months in I got a bill over 386,88€ saying we are reliable for this damage. Communicating with the office didn’t help at all, a few emails were exchanged and now they charged my credit card with 386,88€ for a loose bolt of the door-handle, which we didn’t cause. Now I set them a time limit for redoing the transaction, and if this isn’t successful, I’ll take legal actions against the scamming behavior of this company. They are trying to let the customers pay for their bad maintained fleet, and neither of the stuff was treating us with respect!

Today 06/09/2024 345 euros were stolen from my credit card account.

The dispute with them is not over and the last letter from them was 06/24/2024 and I was waiting for a decision. But today they stole money from my card.

THIEVES and scammers

Avoid, don´t even concider!!! When we got the car, they had marked 6 scratches. We photographed 36 scratches and went back to desk wanting them to write them down. They didn´t. They charged 500€ as a payment, not deposit authoritization. Never returned so we lost 500 € even we complained the credit card company as nobody could proof it´s not a payment but deposit. Tank was half full, no liquid to wash windows. No answers to any emails. Tire alarm was on all the time, we payed for checking the pressure, they didn´t pay back.

I have truly never had so bad of an experience with any company, and I promise you paying a little extra to choose a reputable company is worth it. After TWO hours of waiting to pick up our car even though we had a reserved time, they gave us a car absolutely nothing like the one we reserved. We reserved a small, automatic car and were given an SUV-sized manual car with no apology or chance to change it. not exactly ideal for the tiny Amalfi roads, and the customer service rep admitted this! the first car we were given genuinely did not work, and clearly did not undergo any test drive because it started stalling almost immediately, even though we had a driver experienced with manual cars. About 45 minutes into our drive, we smelled something awful, the car stopped accelerating and under the hood started SMOKING! thankfully we had bought the roadside assistance but of course after calling Autovia they made us organize with the towtruck company completely by ourselves over call and whatsapp. After HOURS of literally being stranded on the side of the road, we were told we had to come BACK to the Autovia to get our next car. This included splitting up our group so two of us could ride an hour with the tow truck driver who wasn’t warned he would be driving us, and taking a taxi OURSELVES from their garage back to the Autovia storefront. Of course, we were treated as the problem by the company who offered ZERO compensation for us losing an entire day of holiday because we were given a car THAT DIDN’T WORK. After arriving back, we were given an even bigger and older car that was also unsafe for the Amalfi coast roads, but we had no other choice. At least this car did the absolute bare minimum and got us through the rest of the trip safely, but we returned it two days early simply to have this terrible company out of our hair. After all of this, they had the audacity to ask us to leave this company a positive review. I cannot stress enough how NOT worth it it is to save money by choosing this company. In a foreign country, your safety needs to be your number one priority and not only will this company treat you like sh!t, you are very likely to be put into a dangerous situation by them and if you are, they will not offer any apology, empathy or reparations. On the day of our car troubles, I saw at least two other groups at the customer service who were also having car problems. I wish I had enough words to truly convey how much of a disappointment this company is, and I hope for your sake you never have to experience it for yourself.

Doesn’t respect bookings made via an intermediary (DoYouItaly). Extremely rude service. Both companies should be avoided.

This Napels airport dependance is a true scam. We have hired 3 cars and each of us have been scammed in a different manor. They let you wait for over an hour, try to let you pay for additional insurance while you have a good one already in place. They give you or a smaller car you originally booked and claim it’s the same. While both cars where next to each other and clearly the one initially rented was 40 cm longer ?? They let you sign a digital tablet without seeing the tekst or anything else and once you leave with the keys. They send you the pdf which has your 4 signatures on different clauses of the contract. The contract misses indicated damages to the car and have not been checked or verified with any employee of the car rental company. When you go back to ask for the car or similar you have rented they become very rude including ten neighboring employee who has nothing to do or deal with you. All 3 cars we hired had serious issues and I would nnot recommend to rent your car here!

cross border charges + office closed due to delay flight

car rental booked via Klook.com (TO BE AVOIDED - I will leave separate review for their poor services)

Flight was delayed by 2 hrs and Autovia offices in Turin closed at 23:00 (they didn't await for delayed flights passengers)

Reservation was cancelled due to "no show" (despite flight delay not my fault) meant overnight stay in the airport hotel + next day I had to make a 2nd reservation .

Autovia claims Klook didn't inform flight was delayed.

After making 2nd rental via Ryanair I was asked to pay additional 35Euro/day for crossing from Italy into France. This wasn't detailed in Ryanair booking (unless stated in the "Ts&Cs"- which let's face none checks)

Scam company! Do not rent car here! I order Citroen, they give me Fiat- dirty & not full tank!
Up on returning car, they charge me 150€ for something cost 20€!

They took £425 from me 7 months after the hire without permission, warning or reason!!!! I need this money for my family and this has been stolen from me. Please please please never use this company. I am trying to get my money back with NO success as of yet. At the time of the hire I was given the deposit back and now in March this amount has been taken again

They keep charging me for a parking fine which I tried VERY hard to pay whilst in Italy. I told them about this and tried to pay them - they refused to take it and said it would come off later. They charged 60 euros to my card in November (a month later) which I thought was the end of the matter. They have just charged a further 60 euros and say that this is just a service charge NOT payment of the fine. It is IMPOSSIBLE to pay the fine in Italy or England, so as far as I can see this is a scam.

Hired car on December 1st we returned it and they said we had scratched the wheel, expected a small fee but they kept our €500 deposit, could replace all four wheels for less than that, then we received an email demanding a further €600! They tried 3 times to take the money from our card which we had to block then they had the audacity to ask for another €160! €1260 for a scratched wheel? Absolute joke these are just con artists out to steal from almost every customer giving Italians a bad name

Their entire company model is basic on scamming.

Charging 2 students 600Euro in addition to whats already paid due to us not having a credit card but 2 debit cards. After coming home they sent us an additional fee of 60Euro as an administration fee for providing the police with our identification due to a missed speed limit. We are yet to receive anything from the Italian Police. 5 months later we've received an additional fee of 60Euro for another administration fee again with no additional detail of the incident. Car has ended up costing upwards of 1400 euro for 14 days excluding gas. Stay away.

Terrible service, hidden fee's (charged months later on bank account hoping people won't notice), really shady business and not worth what seems to be "an easy and cheap solution" (it later turns into a nightmare)

If I could give no stars I would! We used this company in August 2023. No real issues at the time except we couldn't find their desk at the airport in Bari, Italy as there was no/poor signage. Since returning a few months later, we have had communication to say we incurred a traffic fine, which we paid (there was no proof of this). However, subsequently now we've been informed that there was damage on the car, which there was not. They cannot give any proof and have now tried to take payments from our credit card. We have blocked it, so they cannot. Completely fraudulent! AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

I rented a car here in September. Had nagging from day 1 and had to deal with unfriendly employees. Read my previous review for this. Now 5 months later, this landlord debits €700 deposit without notice. This turns out to be possible and I'm really shocked. I wrote to them but haven't heard anything yet. Skip this landlord if you don't like stress and scams.

Update: Received an invoice for around €700, exactly the entire deposit. And this 5.5 months after returning the rental car and releasing the deposit. This is really pure fraud, it contains things that are completely unrecognizable or extremely inflated. I am working with ICS to dispute this transaction, but what a gang of thieves. Apparently they can still collect your deposit up to a year after the date. You are simply powerless. DO NOT RENT!

Awful company, do not use!!! They will try to create additional fees wherever they can - I see below that many customers had the same issues as I did.

Agent did not communicate about issues with out of hours returns to Milan Malpensa (there being nowhere to return your car in the airport, and the out of hours car park 4km away was just an empty car park with no autovia branding anywhere). Had to leave car in another company's bay at the airport. Autovia charged €200 for this!

6 months later, after absolutely no communication, they randomly ask for €750 for damages to the car. I have a video from my return that showed clearly that there was no damage. Their communication is very slow (several weeks between emails) and then their next email says they will take legal action if I don't pay within 7 days....

Really dreadful!

Hired a car from Naples airport with drop off in Lamezia Terme. Waited over an hour at the office and once processed we were given a near new Renault car with so much damage that almost every panel and wheel was impacted. We recorded it all on video and the attendant stated that it was all noted in the system as previous damage. Two months later after returning to Australia we get a charge on our credit card for all the pre-existing damages. We sent the video to Autovia but have had no response or refund.
I WOULD ADVISE ALL TOURISTS TO AVOID THIS COMPANY, THEY ARE DODGY AND WILL CHARGE YOU FOR EXISTING DAMAGE. THEY DON'T EVEN GET THE CARS REPAIRED JUST KEEP CHARGING UNSUSPECTING FOREIGN TOURISTS EACH TIME!

Auto a noleggio dall'aeroporto di Napoli con rientro a Lamezia Terme. Abbiamo aspettato più di un'ora in ufficio e, una volta processati, ci è stata consegnata un'auto Renault quasi nuova con così tanti danni che quasi tutti i pannelli e le ruote erano rimasti colpiti. Abbiamo registrato tutto in video e l'addetto ha dichiarato che tutto era stato annotato nel sistema come danno precedente. Due mesi dopo il rientro in Australia riceviamo un addebito sulla nostra carta di credito per tutti i danni preesistenti. Abbiamo inviato il video ad Autovia ma non abbiamo ricevuto risposta o rimborso.
CONSIGLIO A TUTTI I TURISTI DI EVITARE QUESTA AZIENDA, SONO DODGY E TI ADDEBITE PER I DANNI ESISTENTI. NON FANNO NEMMENO RIPARARE LE AUTO, CONTINUANO SOLO A CARICARE TURISTI STRANIERI Ignari OGNI VOLTA!

We rented a car through Autovia back in April 2023. Now, 7 months later, they suddenly charge 180 Euro on my Mastercard, claiming that I have received a traffic ticket. But they don't send me any proof of the fine, and when I write to the email address they say I can write to, the email just comes back with a 'undeliverable' message.
I have now also read about several other Autovia customers who have been subjected to the same scam, and I would strongly warn against using this company.

I had a booking from the 8 to 15 of October, in Ancona airport with Optimo rent oerated by Autovia.
Already prepaid, but no car was given to me and I was left stranded at the airport and had to spend over €100 in taxi and hotel.
The blond lady at the office(Russian - Eastern European speaker) was extremely rude and unhelpful, also I heard her saying that was a glitch on the system and could not see my booking, clearly their fault which cost me lot of money and time.
Even emailed them, but guess what ? No answer
Beware

Can only warn against this company, it starts already at airports, where they tried to persuade/threaten us to buy an extra insurance, even though we had bought extra insurance in advance, the big problems begin when we had to hand over the car, then they found fault on the car's rims, the 2 of the faults could wash away!! The last one was a minimal scratch in the rim. It was clearly an attempt to get extra money out of us. No recommendation from here, it is pure scam.