One way car rental in Germany
During our visit to Germany in April and May we will rent a small car in Munich, travel the Romantic Road, to Nurnberg, to Cologne, to Aachen, north to Oldenburg ending in either Bremen or Hannover where we will turn-in the car. A small car will be fine as there is only my wife and I with one small bag each. Could anyone suggest a good car rental company in Germany that would not levy a big surcharge for a one-way rental? Do small cars customarily have GPS systems, or can they be rented for a modest charge? Look forward to any comments
Jon
Cincinnati, OH USA 1/9/13
Send Private Message
Check AutoEurope.com and Hertz.com for rates online. AutoEurope is a consolidator and often sends you to Hertz at a lower cost.
It's unknown if they'll charge you drop off charges. They didn't charge me any drop off fees in Italy in April. But I promise they'd knock your head off if you crossed into another country to drop the car.
GPS systems can be rented at all the car rental operations.
Jon,
You could also check Gemut for information on car rentals in Germany. They have a fantastic website with LOTS of information, and they'll be able to provide information on the GPS.
Happy travels!
Check with the German websites of Europcar.de and Sixt.de. One-way rentals within Germany are free and you can get cars with GPS system at low prices. Just keep in mind that the smallest categories come with stick only.
Hi Jon,
We've also used www.gemut.com for our recent trips to Germany. There is no "drop off charge" if you pick up and return in the same country. We've picked up in Frankfurt and returned in Munich with no extra fees.
Paul
If you rent through the European websites of these companies, ones that end with .fr or .de, you'll pay higher taxes. As non-residents we are able to rent at a lower cost if we use the .com websites.
Jon, what are your travel dates? Let's see if international brokers really are cheaper than the service providers themselves...
I'm not familiar with an international broker; what is the process? We plan to pick up a car (small, manual transmission) in Munich (hopefully around 18:00) April 22 and drop-off in either Bremen or Hannover April 30 at about the same time as we picked it up (18:00). Regarding the GPS, we have one and could bring it but would have to purchase ($50+) current Europe Maps, and would not have a chance to see if it worked properly before we needed it; and we don't want to carry something even this small around with us after the car rental.
Most companies either have no drop fee or only a small one for one-way rentals within the same country. Only dropping in a different country has a steep fee. We did what you are proposing in 2010 - picked up a car in Cologne (drove through Belgium) and eventually dropped in Munich. We used Hertz. I don't recall if there was any fee involved (you can find out by doing a partial booking on their web site), but if there was it wasn't worth worrying about. And I say this as a confirmed penny-pincher. I think your only real concern is if both cities have a rental office and if both of those office locations are conveniently located.
Jon, Sixt.de would offer you a VW Polo or similar, manual, GPS (guaranteed) incl. all necessary insurances for €250 from Munich to Bremen (incl. 2,400 km free).
Incl. the optional Vollkasko and theft the price is €370.
Andreas:
A Polo would be just fine, price sounds good. We'll follow up and check what time a vehicle can be picked up in Munich and dropped off in Bremen or Hannover. I'll check with my auto insurance co. but I'm assuming they will say we have no coverage in Europe. While we are budget-conscious we won't drive a car without some kind of insurance. Do you know where we can make an on-line purchase of a detailed German Road Map that is at a large scale (shows all roads, small towns/villages) and an atlas rather than a fold-out map. We have seen such and atlas published by Falk that I believe is a Germany company. We tried Amazon but they didn't have it.
Hi Jon,
I usually use Sixt here in Germany, Hertz in Italy, AutoEurope in France.
Go to momondo.com, click on car rental, put in pick up, drop off, and your age. It will check almost all rental car companies over here, plus the biggies in the states. You can move the dates around as shown on the pricing bar graphs and can get the best price.
The GPS units are very costly here, 10 or more euros per day, and it adds up fast. There are some great GPS apps on Iphone and Ipad, if you have one.
Also, remember if you drive into some of the bordering countries, it might require a sticker on the car. (Vignette.)
You will have a great time! Driving on the autobahn is a blast. I had a company Smartcar here up to 88 mph, (141 kph), until the engine chip kicked in, and slowed me down. Fun!