The Europcar Challenge

After what felt like 2-3 days of torturous train rides and flights cramped into economy-class seats, we finally arrived in Brisbane. At the airport, we easily found the Europcar counter turning right after leaving the customs and inspection area.

A friendly Asian representative with exceptionally long fingernails, which he obviously was very proud of, handed us the keys to our 4WD Pajero. We picked a 4WD, because we wanted to go on some unsealed roads in Australia’s great national parks. Therefore, back in Germany we had triple-checked our intended driving route as well as the insurance coverage for unsealed roads. Both had been confirmed by our travel agent as well as FTI, the intermediary agency.

“Unsealed roads are included?”, I asked the Europcar representative just to be sure. “No, sir! None of our vehicles are allowed to go on unsealed, not even the 4WD. He had too many problems with repairs.”, he replied firmly. “And in case you go unsealed, you are liable not just for any damage caused, but for the full price of the vehicle.” — Thanks, Europcar, that’s exactly what I needed after a 30+ hour travel and a jet lag like there is no tomorrow. “Ok, I’ll need to verify this with the agency we booked the car with, because they said it’s included”. “Yes, please check. I am sure it’s not included, because none of our vehicles can go unsealed roads.”

With that, we took over the car and headed to our hotel, and then did some shopping to cover immediate needs like baby-food, water and other basic items. Then, we quickly headed back to the hotel to catch-up on some sleep. – We’ll deal with Europcar later.