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EUROPCAR

22nd December 2005
Page 40
Page 40, 22nd December 2005 — EUROPCAR
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LOCATED ON a busy main road in Croydon, the Europcar premises are just a booking office and you have to wait for the vehicles to be brought from the compound. Unfortunately, when we arrived the delivery driver had gone walkabout and we were asked if it was OK if we waited 20 minutes for our van. We're not sure what would have happened if we'd said it wasn't, as the woman behind the counter, while pleasant enough, was obviously rather busy.

No utility bills were required here, though Europcar did want to see proof of identity, a passport being sufficient for this. We were told the fuel policy was return full or be charged £1.40 per litre, and decided the former was the best option.

The Europcar staff were happy to let us sit in the office to wait for the driver, even letting us eat our sandwiches, hut sadly the hospitality didn't stretch to offering a brew and we had to make do with a drink of water from the dispenser.

The van, when it finally arrived, was a sparkling new Fiat Ducato. It was quite possible we were the very first renter of this van — the interior was as new and there were just 149 miles on the clock, yet there was already a scrape on the rear nearside.The interior windows would have benefited from a wipe with a chamois.

As you'd expect from a new van, the short-wheelbase Ducat° drove extremely well.The 2.3-litre JTD engine is one of our favourites in this class and, albeit empty, the little van skipped along with ease. Although it didn't have a bulkhead, the Fiat was quiet inside and the ply-lined interior aided the sound-deadening out on the road.

Due to other commitments we had to call on Europcar's collection service to return the van on our behalf, which was a very speedy affair, costing what we considered to be a reasonable £15.

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