Renting a Car in Romania: What Went Wrong (and Driving to Moldova)

I’ve been to Romania twice already before this trip- many years ago. I remember details that stayed in my memory forever, so this year we decided to do a lonegr trip and what’s better than renting a car in Romania and stopping whenever we want?

We rented a car at Bucharest airport for our 16-day road trip, drove it all the way into Moldova and returned it to the airport at the end. Renting a car in Romania turned out to be far less smooth than we expected, starting from the moment we walked into the rental office. Here is everything that happened, from the pickup to the roads, the border crossing and driving in Moldova, so you know what to expect and don’t make the same mistakes we did.

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Renting a car in Romania: our experience

A note before you read: this post is not intended to harm the companies mentioned or anyone working for them. It is an honest account of my own experience and of how our complaint was handled. I believe it is important for my readers to have this information before they book, so they can make their own decisions. I have kept the emails mentioned in this post.

Renting a car in Romania was supposed to be the easy part of our trip. We booked our car through DiscoverCars since we always have had good experiences with them (we use them on all our trips and will continue so), and the local supplier was Car Alliance (but they also went by the name ExpediCar- a bit confusing). Before the trip, we spoke to someone to make sure everything was in order, especially that we planned to take the car to Moldova and crossing the borders usually involve some extra paperwork.

Then we arrived at Bucharest airport, walked into the Car Alliance office, and spent over an hour realising that nothing was prepared.

This is the story of that pickup, the roads, the border crossing, driving in Moldova and how it all ended. If you are planning on renting a car in Romania, read it before you get pick up your car. This is based on our experience and maybe other customers are extremely happy with this company.

Over an hour at the rental desk

After a long journey, all you want is to get the keys and go. Instead, the first surprise was that they had no information about us in their system. None. We had to give them all our details again, from scratch.

Then came the deposit. We paid 2,000 euros, and we were told that it would be released within 30 days. Now, at the desk, it was suddenly between 30 and 90 days. Three months is a long time to wait for 2,000 euros. It all started becoming a bit shady. We were told that we either pay these 2,000 euros or an insurance with them (even though we already purchased full coverage).

At that point, we decided to ask for the deposit back. Somehow, they refunded it immediately and happily . This was the same deposit they had just told us could take up to three months.

Then they asked us to pay around 500 euros for their own insurance. We had already bought insurance through DiscoverCars. That’s when they started talking badly about the way DiscoverCars handles insurance if anything happens, and told us it would cause us problems. We felt like we were being bullied into it as we needed the insurance at this point after cancelling the deposit. And it worked: we bought insurance again. So we paid for insurance twice. Lesson learned, and it was an expensive one.

They weren’t finished. They also told us we had been late notifying them that we were crossing into Moldova. We hadn’t. We showed them our emails, sent with plenty of time in advance, which they had never replied to. In the end, the Moldova paperwork itself was fine.

And the exchange rate they used? It differed a lot from the rate we saw online on the official exchange website.

When we finally got to the car, the tank was nearly empty. The policy was to return it as you got it, so technically that was fair. But after a long journey and with a long drive ahead, the last thing you want is to start by hunting for a petrol station.

What does driving in Romania looked like

Driving in Romania is slow. The roads are not always in good condition, although generally they are not that bad. My Romanian friend mentioned that the roads are bad, but actually they were much better than I imagined. The biggest problem was that it was impossible to drive up to the speed limit because of the traffic, occassional bumps or one-lane roads. The worst stretch for us was Sinaia to Brasov. It was just over 40km, and it took us two hours because of road works and only one lane each way. All other parts of the trip were much better.

But the driving experience in a new country does not only depend on the quality of the roads. Some drivers were crazy, driving way too fast. But there were other moments too. A few times, tractor or truck drivers pulled over to the side of the road to let the cars behind them pass. It doesn’t happen everywhere, but it happened.

However, the landscape in Romania was insane. It is really worth doing a road trip in Romania at least once in your life, especially in the north. We loved seeing storks everywhere- my camera has at least 100 photos of storks.

Crossing into Moldova at Stanca Costesti

Before the first checkpoint, still on the Romanian side, you have to pay a bridge tax of 14 lei. We paid by card. Then came the road surface, which was horrendous, with very deep potholes.

The passport control and car documents check was fairly easy and fast. Everything else was not. Nothing was clear. We saw some signs saying that a vignette is needed for foreign cars. It took us a while to figure it out, but finally we realised it can be done online. Nobody spoke any English, literally nearly zero.

Driving in Moldova

We noticed the difference instantly. The quality of the roads was much worse, bumpy and full of holes, and that alone made the driving slower. On top of that, there were cameras everywhere, and the police patrolled quite frequently. It was such a different driving experience from Romania.

Some drivers are a bit reckless, but nothing as crazy as in Albania or Sicily. But the landscape drastically changed from Romania as well. There were no more storks (we couldn’t understand why since Romania was full of them) and it was msotly flat.

And Chisinau? Actually, it was not that difficult to drive in. There are many one-way streets in the capital, but it was all quite easy to figure out.

How it ended: returning the car

We returned the car at Bucharest airport with no issues. Because we had their insurance, they didn’t even care to look at the state of the car. The only thing they checked was the petrol.

After everything at the pickup, after being told our DiscoverCars insurance would cause us problems, after paying around 500 euros for a second policy, nobody even walked around the car.

The complaint

We sent our complaint to DiscoverCars, and they responded fast. They first contacted the supplier. Then the story changed. Later, they told us it was all our fault because we hadn’t notified the supplier in advance about crossing into Moldova. We had the emails to prove that we had. Then the story changed again: we should have phoned DiscoverCars immediately from the supplier’s office.

In the end, we didn’t get any refund.

What I would do differently next time

If anything goes wrong at the desk, I would phone DiscoverCars, or whoever you booked through, from the rental office, before signing or paying for anything. Emailing afterwards, even with proof, didn’t help us.

I would decide on insurance before arriving and stick to it. If you have already bought insurance through DiscoverCars, expect the rental company to push their own and to tell you yours will cause problems. In that moment, I would phone DiscoverCars immediately (as per their own advice they gave us later).

I would take a screenshot of the deposit terms, keep every email with the supplier, check the fuel level before driving away, and compare their exchange rate with the official one before paying anything.

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