Autovia Car Rental Reviews 241

I wish I would’ve seen the reviews before renting a car there… this company is trying to scam customers with hidden fees and overcharging… I booked on my name and when I got there I didn’t have my credit card, therefore I had to change the name to my friend… I was charged double what I payed initially to change the name, which is absolutely ridiculous! I still haven’t had problems with the deposit but as other reviews state apparently that they don’t give the deposit back in a timely manner, so I’m hoping at least that they sort out…moreover the car was extremely dirty on the outside and the interior wasn’t clean as well… Finally, inside the rent a car office they have a printed version of their Trustpilot page saying they have 4.6 rating which is CLEARLY not true

If possible I wouldn't even give 1 star. Absolute scam & rip-off. They did not accept my card and made me add an additional insurance (which I did not need) for 330€ so that they would accept my card.
Also, the staff was super rude - unfriendly does not even cover it. Still waiting for my deposit to come back - it has been more than 2 weeks and they keep telling me it should come any day (tbh I doon't think I will ever see this money again considering the dubiousness of this venue).
If I were you I would not touch this one with a ten foot pole - go with an established car rental like Hertz, Europcar, Avis etc. These guys will most certainly scam you!
One bad review might be a misunderstanding/coincidence but given the other reviews here - this is a pattern. Spare yourself the headache.

The patronising customer care employee, doesn’t seem to realise how pitiful his employer’s business practices are so I am letting you, the paying customer, judge for yourself:

I rented a car in Rome to be delivered 4 days later in Florence. The Autovia employee gave me an amazing deal! A car with 2 different fuel types, petrol and methane, not at all what I had booked. The methane tank was empty and the petrol tank had 90km of autonomy.

I delivered the car with 60km petrol autonomy and 210km methane autonomy, informed the fine gentleman behind the counter who unequivocally told me it was fine. One hour after leaving such an excellent and honest business I receive an invoice for 46 euros, including 25 for the titanic effort of adding 8 or 10 litres of petrol to the tank. Did they pay me the full tank of methane? Nah… that’s complementary…

Stick to an honest rent-a-car, even if a little more expensive, avoid being robbed by autovia.

Really easy to pick up car, could leave deposit on a debit card too. The car we got from Brindisi airport was a Kia Piccanto (as expected) wonderful size for the narrow streets in the towns. A little dented here and there but all damage was already logged and we took pictures to be sure - not rushed off the forecourt either by the staff. Got the car with full petrol and relatively clean. No branding on the car so you would not know it was a rental. Easy drop off, staff checked car and signed to say no additional damage. Deposit returned same day! Would rent with them again and completely satisfied with the service.

We rented a car at Treviso airport.
Mr Dennis and Michele were SUPER!
Very kind, nice, helpful..
The car was perfect and cheap!
Great company and staff especially.
We will use and reccommend Autovía again

We rented a car at Bergamo airport, Italy, where we were dealing with Francesco. First of all, Francesco is rude, it looks like he hates his customers at first sight. He started with demanding extra charges from us for sanitising the car. When we refused, Francesco grew angry and gave us a broken car: the front seat could not move and the car had around 30 visible defects, duly pictured by us. We were travelling with 3 minor children and drove carefully. However, after just 2 hours, the car's panel showed leaking radiator, excessive temperature, and the engine stopped. We phoned Autovia Bergamo office - nobody picked up. We sent them email - no response. In the end we managed to contact the emergency and the car was collected, the technicians confirmed the technical fault of the car. However, Autovia vigorously defend themselves telling us that the car was in excellent conditions (although they saw 30 visible defects pointed by us and the broken seat, - even before we start driving). They deny all claims and pretend they do not understand. They do not want to refund and they do not want to unfreeze our 500 euro on their hold. Fraudsters.

I fully agree with all the bad reviews about this company.
Just looking for a reason to add extra costs,
They deceived me on the level of gasoline, At the beginning of rent it is a few mm below full but it turns out that it remains the same even if you refuel at the gas station around the corner!
So , if you even make a mistake and rent the car at that company , obligatory make a picture of gasoline level!
Thier staff at Bolognia airport does not speak English and no way to explain anything to them....

I have rented dozens of cars around the world, and I have never been treated so badly.

1) Company that does not pick up the phone.

2) Company that is located 20-25 minutes far awat from the airport.

3) You have to wait an hour for them at the airport for them to arrive, after other hour to pick-up the phone at mid day.

4) When you rent the car they tell you that the insurance you have taken out is rubbish and that you have to take out theirs for 110 euros and they tell you about all the dangers that occur in Sicily to cars.

5) When you return the car, after having washed it at the gas station next door, they tell you that you have to pay 50 euros to the garage next door that washes cars, or they deduct 100 euros from your deposit. When you pay the 50 euros, they dont wash the car, only take the money without any receipt.
This is corruption.

6) 96% of the opinions they have here are very negative. I made a mistake in renting with this company and did not read the reviews first.

Unfriendly customer service, fees hidden in the contract (I mean, what kind of person willingly pays a car rental company a “car washing fee”?) and I was charged for damages I did not make.

In Bergamo, the rental desk is conveniently located in the terminal, where you’re expected to sign the car damage form without even seeing the car. Additionally, I had booked a mid-range sedan and was given a 20-year-old diesel-powered Fiat 500L with broken air conditioning. Just want you want in the Italian summer sun.

Thankfully, I was able to get my money back through my credit card company after proving I had been given an unenforceable contract, but others may not be so lucky.

Avoid this car rental company at all costs and go with a reliable, well established company like Avis, Hertz, Sixt, etc. The money saved by going with Autovia/Ecovia is not at all worth the stress of dealing with them.

Having rented 2 cars for 1 week in Bergamo Airport thru Holiday Autos, the local agent was stated as OptimoRent in the voucher. However, OptimoRent did not exist and via google we found out the Agent was Autovia. We have no previous experience with Autovia and expected nothing but the usual car rental process. We waited for 85 minutes as the expediting of the customers in line was very very slow. Rental of our first car reservation was slow, but worked. You need to sign a new contract and conditions although we had a contract with Holiday Autos. There is not much understanding nor service from the Autovia personnel in explaining what this means. You need to sign a number of times on documents in Italian in order to proceed with your reservation. We had a MasterCard used for deposit reservation. Note that the deposit is reserved for 1 month and not the week that the rental lasted and the car returned. As for our second reservation we wanted to use a visa card to reserve deposit as this was the card associated with the driver here. This was refused by Autovia. Although we have used this card for car rental just a couple of weeks ago in Spain.... We asked to change the driver - accepting a fee - to another in the group with a MasterCard. This was refused as the pickup time registered was exceeded...We said that we where lining up in time - not expecting 85mins of queuing and then adding a long process time for the first car. The assistant didn't care, smiled and ignored us starting to proceed with other work. And no car. We called Holiday Autos on the spot. The Assistant there asked to be transferred to the Autovia Assistant and they kept going back and forward giving me my phone in between as they could not find a solution. The Holiday Auto Assistant said he could not help as the pickup time was exceeded and thus nothing could be done according to Autovia. The Autovia assistant just laughed in our faces and said sorry no car. Although we HAVE paid for the rental. This was merely a question of a deposit reservation. And absolutely no willingness to find a solution from Autovia. And the worst - the Autovia assistant laughed at us when we left the counter. Upon return of the car we did rent, there was no office at the return park area and a sign referred you to the counter in the arrival hall - same desk - and assistant - as the pickup. The processing and waiting was just as devastating long as the pick up - almost 2hrs - upon return the assistant recognized me/us from the pickup event. He just wanted the keys - as they obviously were short on cars in stock for rent out - upon insisting that I wanted to go thru the car and sign off for no damage and full deposit return before a key handover, the assistant got clearly annoyed and upset, rolled his eyes and said 'donna' He called an additional assistant that very irritated had to walk with me to the car park to go thru the car. No damages and full petrol and a signature - and then he got his keys. In a very unfriendly atmosphere. One good point to note though: The car we rented was OK and worked fine. So my reservation and warnings are on the handling and total lack of service as well as a very poor attitude at the service desk. And of course -having paid for a car that we never got. Leaving us with the need to rent another car at 6 times the cost.

My husband speaks English only. He arrived at the ecovia counter before me and started to rent a car. I arrived after and listened while the staff member spoke in Italian to the trainee about the different methods they could use to claim more money (falsely) from us at the end of the hire. We ran straight over to Hertz and never looked back.

Everything about our experience with Autovia was good until the end. Pickup was easy at the Venice airport and the fee for returning at a different location (Rome) was reasonable. We left the car in the same condition we got it. A few days after returning the car, they sent us a notice that there were scratches to a fender and hub cap and a missing tire repair kit. I never even knew about the tire repair kit, so it must have been missing when I got the car. It is absolutely ridiculous that I would be charged for it. It is possible there were tiny scratches to the fender and hub cap, but I never noticed them and they weren't visible in the pictures Autovia sent as "evidence" of the scratches. I sent an email contesting their charges which I never got a reply to, and then they charged my credit card a few days later. I recommend against this company, but if you do go with them, definitely get the insurance for damage to the outside of the vehicle.

We rent a car in Autovia via rentalcars.com, paid money, did not receive car, problem solution, refund, answer for our complaints , nothing. We had to rent a car in other rental car company for a lot of money. It was terrible.

100% agree with all the bad reviews these are crooks probably mafia. Every time you return the car they find damages that were never there before. If trustpilot had a minus star rating I would give them minus 10 . DONT HIRE from these crooks

I booked through Autovia Bari.
Booking was easy and price was really competitive. Anna (the assistance) was really kind and helpful. Professional and thorough check-out and check-in.

Two aspects to highlight:
- car must be returned professionally washed (otherwise you might incur in surcharges). I returned the car even cleaner than how I collected it.
- after one month from the booking, holding deposit is still on pending as they are not able to release it. Unfortunately this issue has not been sorted yet. Autovia Bari did not offer assistance. I wrote an email to Autovia Bologna as per AutoviaBari’s suggestion. Unfortunately I am still waiting for this issue to be resolved (no reply yet!).

Without considering this big issue, I would rate the car rental service 4 stars. However the problem with the deposit locked for so long after the end of the car rental does represent a negative aspect about the service. Furthermore the difficulties in getting assistance on this regard does discourage from further bookings through Autovia Bari.

Hire car was returned to Bergimo Airport on time, cleaned, full of fuel and with no damage. A video was taken proving no damage. Security deposit was returned. Two weeks later £415 was taken out my account without any warning. On contacting Autovia I was told I was being charged for damage to the rear bumper and alloy wheel. I objected and provided the video proving no damage and was subsequently ignored by the customer services or complaints department. No proof of damages was ever provided. I do not recommend using this company.

Luqa Malta. 04/10 - 13/10 2020. Hired small car through Carjet. Arrived at airport for 11am pickup, no one arrived until 12.30. Car was all dented at front passenger side, took lots of photos. On way to my destination car was very lumpy and wheel was rubbing on wing going over any uneven road surface.Got a call from Ecovia saying they had left a card machine in glove box and could they collect it. I told them car was not roadworthy. Came and swapped car at 1530 next day.
Replacement car was all good, but they now knew where I was parking vehicle. On morning of departure, I received a call to ask what time I would be at airport.....strange as it is on booking sheet.
Car had been mysteriously damaged overnight with scatches on passenger side rear. I park in disabled bay as I have blue badge, so there was 1 metre between me and the adjacent vehicle. On returning to airport, rep was waiting and went straight to the damage. Got charged €1400 for damage, which appeared while car was unattended on last night of hire. This damage, according to my local bodyshop would cost no more than £120 to sort out. I know times are hard but this seems like a setup scam. You need to do your homework before you decide who to scam, I will have the last laugh.

I have hired many cars from many countries and companies over the years. This was my first and last time with Autovia. They are not to be trusted. I disputed damage they claimed was my fault. I replied to them via Trustpilot and I have heard nothing.

The most dishonest and fraudulent company i have ever dealt with. The operative in Brindisi lied directly to my face regarding damage to the car, and provided a tablet for signature whilst saying specifically that there was no damage (the paper form was not completed). I have provided photographic evidence that the damage was on the vehicle upon pickup and have contacted the UK European Consumer Centre. I have been saddled with a €375 euro bill for absolutely no damage whatsoever.

I wholeheartedly suggest that you do not trust this lying, deceitful company, however cheap the initial rate appears to be.

Ecovia Malta airport/ bad service
- My husband’s card charged extra 99,84€ on date 13/09/2020. We paid the contract upon arrival.
- The guy who made the contract was unprofessional. Upon arrival we waited for him 20’ min outside Ecovia office. After that we waited another 35’min to bring the car from the parking. When we asked what is wrong he answered he had to clean the car. Unbelievable!!! We travel a lot and used Ecovia rent a car before in Italy (Rome) and the service was excellent. In Malta the service is really bad.