I'm planning a 4-week trip next summer and have noticed that renting the car (via autoeurope.com site) in Switzerland or Austria is much more expensive (approx 1200 USD) than Italy or Germany (approx 700 USD). Interestingly, the rates for Italy actually include CDW and Theft Protection insurance, which seems like a steal (so there must be a catch)!
I was able to find that in CH/AT they show a "credit card block" of 300 CHF or 660 Euro respectively, but it wasn't clear if that was included in the listed price and then refunded upon return or if there are some other taxes/fees imposed in those countries for some reason.
The rates above were all for the same time frame, car type and company (Hertz). I just changed the pickup/dropoff location to all the cities we could fly into. Is there a reason for the jump in those 2 countries and the apparent deal in Italy?
Edit: I did find that AutoEurope includes CDW/TP in the rate on rentals in Italy, but that doesn't explain why the base rate is so much cheaper in comparison to Germany, for example.
In Italy, the law requires that you must carry certain types of insurances: Collision Damage Waiver (CDW) and Theft Protection. For your convenience, Auto Europe's rates in Italy include these insurances....