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Updated: 26 Apr 2022

Europcar review

We survey thousands of real car hire customers to give you an independent, unbiased rating of Europcar and let you compare it with 12 other car rental companies.

Guy Hobbs

Europcar is a global provider of car hire services, operating in more than 140 countries.

Which? verdict: Europcar receives a middle-of-the-road customer score. There are better big brands available.

Visit Europcar.co.uk

Europcar customer ratings

If you want to see how Europcar measures up to its rivals, read our best and worst car hire page.

Car hire company: Europcar (234)
Which? Recommended Provider	Customer score	Clarity of final hire cost	Customer service	Age, condition & mileage of car	Value for money
No	66%	★★★☆☆	★★★☆☆	★★★★☆	★★★☆☆
We sampled 2,282 Which? members in January 2020, a further 843 in January 2021, and a further 657 in 2022. Sample size is in brackets. Customer score combines overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. A dash means not enough responses to calculate that category.

What's Europcar like?

For a big-brand name, Europcar falls short of expectations. The company did receive four stars in five categories: ease of opting out of additional extras and charges; clarity of fuel policy at pick-up and drop-off; age, condition and mileage of the car; clarity of extra charges and the return process. But it’s still got its problems.

Its telling that despite pricing itself at the lower end of the market, it gets just three stars for value for money. Many customers reported hidden or disputed charges. One explained that despite a Europcar employee signing off their car as fine on return, back in the UK they were stung. They said: ‘We discovered more than £200 had been charged to our credit card.’

When Which? asked people to send in complaints about car hire companies and we received the most grievances about dodgy damage practices from Europcar customers, so this complaint certainly isn’t isolated.

Another added that Europcar 'took every opportunity to try and sell me upgrades I didn't want. It was tiresome and a waste of time'. Hardly glowing reviews.

However, some users of the service had trouble-free experiences. Several commented on the ‘quick and easy’ hire process. Customers also seemed to be big fans of the ‘quality’ vehicles with one reporting their car was ‘virtually brand new’.

And Europcar has kept the price rises down better than Avis or Hertz. It told us: 'We are working closely with our car manufacturing partners to secure fleet'.

Europcar allows you to cancel for free up to 48 hours before the pick-up time.

Should I book with Europcar?

Europcar’s performance is pretty average. If you like the reassurance of booking with a big brand there are definitely better options, including Which? Recommended Provider Enterprise.

Find out How to get cheaper car hire