SIXT Italia Reviews 1,698

I went to rent a car, but my rental was refused because the staff claimed my driver’s license was “too new.” They only looked at the issue date on the front of the card, without realizing how EU licenses work. In all EU countries, including Finland and Italy, the back of the license shows the original date when the driving right was first granted.

To make it clear: I have had the right to drive for over five years, but I had to renew my license card six months ago because the old one was lost. Renewing the card does not mean starting over as a driver — it is simply a reissued document. The back of my license clearly shows the original date when my license was first granted. I even presented an official document confirming the same date, but the staff chose to ignore it.

Because of this misunderstanding, my rental was denied and my weekend was ruined. I find it surprising that a professional car rental company is not familiar with such a basic detail of EU driver’s licenses.

Freud company.
You charged me extra money eventhough i returned car with full tank.
You gave me the wrong car keys at first and i had to pay for it ?
ALWAYS be sure when you return the car, personnel only wanted the keys, he didnt want my signature and if i asked to see the protocol there were added some damages, that did actually not excist.
Never use SIXT again,

I had booked a BMW Z4 Roadster M40i well in advance (one and a half months prior to my arrival) and received written confirmation for this exact vehicle. The entire purpose of my trip to Italy was centered around driving this specific high-performance sports car.

Upon arrival, after a long flight, I was informed that the car I had reserved and confirmed was given to another customer. Mr. D’Onofrio then offered me either an SUV or a BMW 420 Diesel as a replacement. These vehicles are not remotely comparable to the BMW Z4 M40i in performance, category, or purpose.

When I explained that the entire trip had been planned around this sports car, Mr. D’Onofrio responded rudely, dismissively, and without any willingness to help. His exact attitude was essentially: “This is what we have, take it or leave it.”

Unfortunately, I had no choice but to accept the BMW 420 Diesel, but the substitution completely ruined my travel plans. This was not the car I reserved, paid for, and was confirmed to receive. In addition:

Mr. D’Onofrio was hostile and unprofessional, raising his voice and shouting at me.

He demonstrated dishonesty by refusing to acknowledge the confirmed booking and making misleading claims.

His behavior showed a complete lack of understanding of both customer service and the importance of delivering on confirmed reservations.

Due to this failure, I returned the vehicle one day earlier than planned, as the trip had been ruined without the proper car.

This experience has caused me significant financial and emotional damage, as my entire trip was carefully planned around this reservation. I therefore

I paid the full rental amount in advance with my card. When I picked up the car, the service was denied because the cardholder's name wasn't on the card (as was the case with any other card issued by my bank). I was asked to contact customer service to request a refund. Over a month later, I was told that since I hadn't shown up to pick up the car, I would have to pay the full amount. When I complained, I was offered a voucher (unusable, since I can't pick up cars with my card). I've started a case with my lawyer and am waiting for a full refund for the cost of a service that was never provided.

Customer service 0/5 — Scammer 5/5
We had made a non-refundable reservation for a large car for 4 people and 4 luggages. We had concerned we might not get the car we needed (large enough, automatic) and so we contacted the company who assured us we would get exactly what we reserved for, or an alternative at no extra cost. We made our online checkin to accelerate the pick up, but our flight ended up being delayed by a couple of hours, during which they decided to give our car to someone else. When we got there, no more cars matching our reservation were available. We were offered a small car that couldn't carry 4 people with 4 luggages, or to upgrade. Since our reservation was non-refundable we had no choice but to take the upgrade, which doubled the price of our initial reservation. We've been trying to settle this with the company ever since we got back and nobody is replying.

Stay away from this rental company, you will get scammed. I showed up an hour and a half late because I could not find their location, they said they rented my vehicle to another person, but they had another vehicle for me which they will upgrade free of charge.

I went to the garage to get the vehicle and the vehicle was full of damage, scrapes scratches, and dents everywhere. I took a video of the damage, but the gentleman told me that it was not necessary, he said all the scratches were documented on paper.

Five days later after I returned the vehicle, they said that there are damage scanner detected additional scratches, they provided black-and-white images that can barely be made out.
They want me to pay almost $3500 for scratches that I never made. The vehicle was not scanned when I left the Genoa location, and was only scanned in Rome. These people will continue to rent out the same damaged vehicle and they will charge the next consumer for more scratches without fixing the existing. You cannot give someone a vehicle full of scratches and dents and claim that there are additional scratches and dents and continue to make money, each time a consumer returns a vehicle to you. This is called fraud you’re not in the business of vehicle rental, but rather the business of fraud.

There is a class action lawsuit that was one by consumers that Sixt in the USA had to payout. There’s going to be another class action lawsuit because they’re really scamming the tourist. Watch out SIXT Italy, Karma is coming. People are on to your game, it is all over the Internet!

Sixt delivered, thanks to Sara, our agent at Rome train station. I reserved 3 cars to get my family of 9 and extra luggage to my son's wedding in Tuscany. When I checked in at the counter, Sara reviewed my reservations and provided recommendations to ease our burden of 3 vehicles. She was engaged, helpful and made our Italy experience much better. Staff at the pick-up location where helpful with car seats and sent us on our way. I have traveled the world and this experience was exceptional. TY Sara!

We arrived and are car wasn't ready. we were told to return in 20 minutes. We were then told it was unavailable and hard sold into getting a bigger car, not just ones size bigger. Discussion lacked clarity and detail. The following day, we changed the car to a smaller one. ended up paying more than we should have other car companies had the car we wanted at £300 less. Other branches of SIXT may be fine (and I have used them). Milan Linate - I wont be using SIXT again. The 2nd car was damaged on collection, this was from Milan station...we wer then charged for a different drop off. I hadn't planned on spending 6 hours on the 1st full day of my holiday to drive to s different location to collect a different car...they said it was fine. No confirmation in writing. This came through later.

I paid for the car in advance and later found out that my account was blocked by Sixt without any explanation. I tried to call and email them, but they only replied after 7 days. Very poor communication and unprofessional service. I do not recommend!

Had a great experience when renting for 1 week from Pisa airport. My plan was to rent from Drivalia but the car I wanted wasn't available so I walked over to Sixt and they were very helpful and made a reservation for a car on the spot.

Great service minded staff
New car
Good information via e-mail from Sixt

Highly recommended!

Absolutely horrible. When or if you deny their insurance, they will claim damage and go after you. The exact damage that was on my check out sheet was reported and claimed as "new" damage upon return. They only offer an online/automated protest, which when presented with their checkout details that matched the claim, they still denied and said it was new damage. I put a block on my credit card, so they couldn't charge, but they use a series of vender id's, so when one gets blocked, they submit under another id. Total scam and fraud.

I had an excellent experience with Sixt. What I liked about it most was the car I rented. I think Sixt offers the best cars especially if you are renting for an extended period like we did. Rentals are often very basic vehicles without a lot of extras. Our car was fairly new, in great condition and very easy to drive as we were on a road trip covering a lot of terrain. The pick up was smooth as was the drop off. The staff was super helpful and knowledgable and I’m very happy with our choice.

When I arrived in Milan, the front desk employee greeted me with, “Oh, you look tired.” Nice comment to people You have never met before. There were three staff members present, and the one addressing me had was a male of a hispanic descent. Without any request from my side, he immediately began trying to upsell me various services and products.

I politely asked if we could proceed directly with the car rental, as I had already booked and paid for the car online two weeks in advance. All that was needed was for me to sign the paperwork and receive the keys so I could leave the airport.

Instead, the employee became increasingly rude and dismissive, repeatedly telling me I could “just cancel the car” if I didn’t accept the additional options he was offering. This interaction was both uncomfortable and unnecessarily confrontational. The entire purpose of booking in advance was to avoid precisely this kind of hassle upon arrival.

At the time I approached the desk, it was 12:45 PM, and my scheduled pick-up time was 1:00 PM. When I declined his offers and asked if we could proceed with the formalities, he told me to come back at 1:00 PM because I was “too early.” This clearly felt like a punitive reaction to my refusal to accept his upselling attempts.

As instructed, I returned at 1:00 PM, only to find a queue of five people ahead of me. In the end, I waited until nearly 2:00 PM to receive the car—despite originally being just 15 minutes early. Not only was the employee discourteous, but his behavior also caused an entirely avoidable one-hour delay.

Additionally, the car was not properly prepared—it had no windshield washer fluid. I chose not to complain at the time due to travel fatigue.

Overall, I had a very poor experience with this particular front desk representative, and the vehicle did not meet the expected standards.

As a long-time loyal Sixt customer, I find this experience unacceptable. Therefore, I will also be posting a public review on Trustpilot in the coming days.

Car had a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere. Roadside assistance took us to the nearest garage where I had to pay 370 for two brand new tyres. The office here refused to compensate me, I’ve sent multiple emails and calls to customer support and have been ignored. You don’t have clear breakdown procedures in place and you’re refusing to take responsibility even after I’ve paid for full damage protection. Disgusting and dishonourable behaviour. Will never rent from you again. And I hope people are discouraged from renting with you because you have no accountability

It’s impossible to contact the customer service, stay away from this company

I want to warn anyone making a reservation by at Sixt Car rental Perugia airport. I had a reservation, but had an issue with my drivers license. They refused to rent me the car. I said ok, then my wife will rent it. But that made the price increase allmost double, since they had that car not available anymore... (I made a reservation) ! ? But the worst of all: they charged me the entire week due to 'no show'. That is a crook practise.

We hired a car in Italy. It seems cheap initially. Once the statement came to my friends house they charged him an additional €700 claiming extra taxes ..I strongly suggest you don't use them .

Stay away from this car rental company!!
I started by booking a car — Opel Mokka or similar — for €806.66 with a Smart Protection Package. The problem began when I went to pick up the car.

On June 9th, I arrived at around 11:00 AM to collect the car. The staff told me that there were no cars available, except for a Jeep SUV model (I don’t remember the exact model). However, they said I had to pay an extra €300. I tried bargaining and, after just one offer, they instantly dropped the price to €240, but I still wasn’t keen on paying more.

So I asked if they had the car I originally booked, or any other car in the same class. The answer was that I'd have to wait until 2:00 PM, with no guarantee a car would be available. If one did become available, it would only be a small Fiat with a 600 cc engine — definitely not a larger engine.

I showed them my booking confirmation email and looked up the Opel Mokka's engine, which is 1200 cc. I asked if that shouldn’t be equivalent, and they replied that the class is defined by “2 persons, 2 luggage”, not engine size. Regardless, if I didn’t pay more, I’d only get the small Fiat. They even remarked, “A small car like that won’t make it to the Dolomites — you should take the bigger one.”

I tried negotiating further and asked if there was anything smaller than the big Jeep. Eventually, they offered a DS3 with a 1200 cc engine, for an extra €200. If I refused to pay, I would still have to wait until 2:00 PM and get nothing more than the 600 cc Fiat.

At that point, since I didn’t want to wait until 2 PM (we had travel plans and I didn’t want to be driving late into the evening when it’s dark and more difficult), I reluctantly agreed to pay the additional fee. In the end, I ended up paying over €1,000 — painful, to say the least.

I rented a car in Naples and drove it to Bari on a 4 day rental. When I returned it in Bari, the car had red scuff marks on 3 of the aluminum wheels - the type of marks left by chalk or chalky paint and that typically can be removed with a towel, or by buffing the tires with a mechanical buffer. Two weeks after my rental, I received a bill for more than $2000 Euros, claiming "5-10cm scratches down to the primer." Oddly, Sixt provided clear pictures that showed no scratches at all. The damages estimate was vague and I assume they charged me for the full replacement of 3 aluminum wheels. This is a situation where perhaps I would agree to pay a reasonable fee ($200 euros?). However, Sixt is claiming an amount that makes absolutely no sense and is fraudulent. I will never do business with Sixt in Italy again. [Fortunately/unfortunately, my credit card rental car insurance is simply paying the entire claim without dispute. Great, except it encourages Sixt to rip people off.]

They are complete scammers. They charged illegal fees, then the Italian Courts ordered them to refund the fees, now Sixt are telling me that they need proof that I paid the fee with "Sixt" shown on the bank transfer, even though the payment instruction did not include referencing Sixt. I also had numerous awful customer service experiences with my rental and multiple overcharges. These people are just terrible.