Renting a Car in Spain. Tips?

[SecondAttempt]

Just got back from Europe and rented a car in Spain. I rented from Hertz because I'm an elite member of their loyalty program from years of business travel. I only rent once or twice a year these days but they still love me.

In any case, the experience in Spain (Bilbao) was excellent - no lines, no BS pressure to buy insurance or fuel, all in all, great. My experience renting cars in Europe is that I have always been treated better than in the US.

Someone correct me if I am wrong but I think in Europe liability rests with the vehicle owner and Europe is generally far less litigious so there is no need to buy liability coverage (and I have never seen it offered). CDW though you probably should make sure you have. It is not expensive to buy there, I think it was $10 a day, but I had it through AMEX.

Someone mentioned tolls. While I doubt you'll encounter many on short runs, I found them very confusing. We drove from San Sebastian to Barcelona. At most toll plazas there were signs indicating which lanes were coin, currency, card, "ezpass" etc. But it was not always obvious. Even though I read Spanish, I found myself having to figure out where to go at every plaza. Usually the rightmost lanes were best but sometimes those were truck lanes with "ezpass" only.

At one plaza I pulled up and it would not take my ticket. I saw "cops" stopping people randomly right after the plaza so I was determined to try to pay but after several minutes I just went because the guy behind me started honking. I did not get stopped but I never did figure out what was going on.

We did not get robbed in Barcelona but I think if I had seen those videos before the trip I might have been a little paranoid.

I did not get an international driving permit (oops!) No one seemed to ask for it but maybe if I'd been stopped by cops it could have been a problem.

 

[NW-Bound]

They most likely have cameras to take photos of your car license plate, then track you through the car rental agency. The car agency will charge your credit card a fee for "turning you in" to the highway administration, who then will send you a bill. This is how they normally track down speeding violations with radar cameras. It may take a few weeks before they catch up with you.

By the way, how could you drive on if your ticket was not accepted? The bar will not be raised until you pay or your ticket is accepted. The lanes without the bar for people to drive straight through are meant for cars with a transponder for automatic billing. The cameras are there to catch violators, else everybody would just drive through the lanes that have no bars.

PS. The above is also how they track down drivers who enter limited traffic zones, called Zonas acceso restringido, in the center of some cities. It's similar to ZTL (Zona Traffico Limitato) in Italy. I encountered them in Granada and in Cordoba. I knew about Granada and avoided driving into the zone, but did not know about Cordoba. Luckily, I stayed in a hotel inside the limited traffic zone, and they registered me with the police, the same way it is done in Italy.

 

[SecondAttempt]

By the way, how could you drive on if your ticket was not accepted? The bar will not be raised until you pay or your ticket is accepted.

Yeah, the gate was up when I pulled up, hence my confusion. Something strange was obviously going on.

I'm pretty familiar with the European approach to enforcement of things like train tickets. They generally seem lax but when there is enforcement it can be draconian - $1000 immediate fine for not having a $1 subway ticket for example. That's why I was suspicious/cautious.

 

[NW-Bound]

In that case, perhaps there was a malfunction with the payment system and they allowed people a free pass by raising the bar.