Rent a car (automatic) in Lisbon - Ausocar reliable? / Rent locally?

Hi,
We are planning to rent a car in Lisbon for five days (27-31 July), for a short roadtrip outside of the city. We need a car with automatic transmission, because one of us only drives automatic. I found that the Smart Fortwo model has automatic transmission and with the small size it's within our price range, so we're probably going for one of those.

I found a good price on europcar.pt (the local Portuguese site), but as soon as I entered my country of recidence (Netherlands) on the reservation form, the price went up from €310 to a whopping €525!!
So I continued searching and found a good price at Ausocar (rentacarinlisbon.com). Because I don't know this company I searched for reviews online, but found there aren't many. I did find that the company is connected (sister company?) to YOR Car Hire, but they cover different areas of the country.
Does anyone here know more about Ausocar? Anyone who has experience with this company or heard about it? The Ausocar website (rentacarinlisbon.com) looks pretty decent.

Otherwise, a friend suggested we just find a local rental company when we're there, thinking they might rent cars for the 'local' price, without the 70% extra charge for booking from abroad. Does it work like that? Will a local rental agency (so not one of the big, international agencies) rent for more decent rates when you rent at the desk? And will our need for a car with automatic transmission (in economy class) be a problem with this approach?

I hope someone here can shed some light, because A'm a bit lost now...

Thanks!
Melissa

Have you tried a broker like http://www.autoeurope.com/. Goldcar had some very negative comments on this forum and I think you should stay away from them.

Hello Liberat,
Yes, I tried Autoeurope and also Traveljigsaw. Both were advised to me by a customer services employee of the Dutch Europcar branch, when I called to ask how the price could increase so much at their Portuguese branch :) But these broker sites also turned out very expensive when I selected automatic transmission. There were no Smarts available, so I went up one or two categories.
Thanks for the advice on Goldcar. I hadn't found them yet, but now I'll make sure to stay away.
And do you know anything about Ausocar? Or renting locally at the desk?

Obrigado!
Melissa

I never had to rent in Portugal, because I live in Spain, actually less than 200 kilometer from the Portuguese border, and always take my own car. It's clear that the requirement of "automatic" causes the problems. Can't you take one or two lessons in a car with a stickshift and then rent a car with a "normal" european transmission. Driving in a car with a stickshift is not that complicated. You'll have this problem anywhere in Europe if you want to rent a car.

Yes, the automatic is the problem, but if you have that in your license than there is not much you can do but pay, I don't know how it's in the Netherlands but in Germany they do put it into your license if you only drove automatic during your driving school.

Since only one of you has the limitation just let the other one drive for the short road trip.

You can rent a car with automatic transmission in Portugal. But you need to broaden your options: Check here:

http://www.avis.com.pt/avisonline/pt/avis.nsf/c/frota,portugal_continental ----> WV Golf

https://www.hertz.pt/rentacar/vehicleguide/index.jsp?targetPage=vehicleGuideHomeView.jsp&countryCode=PT&category=Utilit%C3%A1rios ---> Citroen DS4, Daihatsu

You are asking for something "special", so of course the options available are few and probably more expensive.

Thanks all for your replies and advice! We went ahead and reserved a Smart Fortwo with Ausocar. They had a great price and were really polite and helpful in our e-mail conversation. I think everything will work out fine this way!