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Does anyone have experience of getting 3 people, 3 bike bags and luggage into a Grand Scenic? We're flying to Geneva in July landing on the Swiss side. Not sure if to haul stuff across to the French side where hire may be cheaper?
I think you can car hire Geneva airport either Swiss or french side. Pros and cons to both. French cars can't go on Swiss motorways Swiss cars are limited on how long they can spend in France. Or something, Google it
I have had 4 adults and four bikes in a grand scenic. But no bags and the bike were old school 26 inch wheel hard tails. I'd say really tight but not impossible. Assuming you can fold individual seats out the way on the newer model. Again Google it
French side is a bit cheaper for hire, if you want to use the Swiss motorways you need to buy a one off pass which is about 40 CHF if I recall & it's valid for a year. Most of the French motorways have toll gates fairly regularly. It's easy to get out and onto the main routes but finding your way back into the airport is a bit of a nightmare - well it was for us last summer.
Re: the Grand Scenic, I have the older model and you can fold the 3 rear seats flat and forward individually but obviously one person will be in the back. If you post the dimensions of the bags I can measure the boot and take a stab at estimating if they'll fit - this assumes the newer model hasnt got smaller.
we got 3 folks, bike bags and kit bags in an octavia estate at geneva so in the bigger renault it should be fine
joemmo - thanks for the offer. The 3 bags are all 120cm x 80cm x 22cm.
I think the rear 3 seats in the newer model do not fold individually - they split 2 of 3 on the left so the far left seat is single (looking into the car from the boot).
We'll be driving to Tignes initially, so probably hire on the French side assuming its not too much of a hassle getting over to the French side from the Swiss. I've done a fair bit of driving in France so pretty familiar with tolls etc. I recall getting out of Geneva airport being tricky, but that was as a passenger over 10 years ago.
Don’t forget that with airport car rental 90% of the time you don’t actually end up with the brand/model you booked but something similiar. (Which may or may not have folding seats)
ok, I'll try and check it tonight. It's not a hassle changing sides at the airport, just a case of a bit of walking and going through some doors 🙂
fancypants' point is a good one but we hired from Europcar and got the specific car we asked for. It probably varies from company to company and on what their fleet allocation is like at the time.
I'm aware of the model/make no guarantee, but I've had to make some assumptions. I've made the booking with Europcar - hopefully the fleet size will work in our favour but its a busy time of year. However the cars listed in the same class as the Scenic are: TOYOTA VERSO, NISSAN X-TRAIL 4X2 and VW TOURAN 1,2 TSI 105CH CONFORTLINE. I think only the Toyota would be a downgrade in terms of storage...