Very good experience.

The staff was a bit careless; you need to carefully review the terms yourself. Everything else was fine, but the rental fee for automatic cars is quite high, much more expensive than in the US. Is this the norm in the UK?

Very good

Speed of collection was incredibly slow - and insufficient staff available to meet the demand - 45 minutes before anyone was able to start processing the collection.

We rent cars at least three times a year and has done so for many many years. It was more then ten years ago we had a worse experience then this. And then it was in an developing country. 1: Quirky que-system and non working mandatory self service stations 2: Pushy staff trying to scare, lie, and bluff you in to taking extra insurance. For instance saying they had never herd of insurances through credit cards. 3: Pushy staff trying to scare, lie, and bluff you by not telling you actual cost if car damaged or stolen. Instead of talking about actual cost of about 1500£ trying to scare you with 18000£. 4: Pushy staff trying to push the “hire-car-fuel-scam” 5: Pushy staff trying to push on you a more expensive car. Car, car return and everything else was very satisfying.

The car was returned with a very small chip to the paint of the drivers door, probably caused by another car door when parked. Europcar's damage invoice seems excessive for a defect so small it would not be repaired. I am uncomfortable with Eurocars ethics on damage so small it could almost be classified as wear and tear.