5 Euro/day SIXT Smart -- Super cheap car hire - Munich

When I saw it (including 100km) it seemed too good to be true... and I'm thinking it might be. Given I haven't been in a car since coming here I wanted to rent one just to drive around before I forget how to drive (okay and go to Ikea/WalMart/Real).

Anyway you go to the web site and plug in all sorts of dates and can't get anything near 5 Euro (more like 30)! Seems like bait and switch to me! Maybe it's get the car at 11:50PM and return by midnight!

Was just curious if anyone has managed to pull off this rate with SIXT.

Nope - I looked at it and twenty yoyos was the best I could find, and for that money you can get a Ford Focus estate - much better motor, especially if you're going shopping.

I could have taken that rate, I was looking to book about a month in advance and taking it mid-week. It's the normal contingent thing, like with flights. Fair enough. But look out for the snags, when I read the small print it say you have to wash the car yourself, or pay for the cleaning... and over 100k there is a huuuge mileage fee. Worked out cheaper overall to go with Europcar, for me.

I've never tried this deal from Sixt.

But have seen advertised a new venture from Nicki Lauda (Austrian F1 bloke).

laudamotion.de/muenchen has Smart's for €1 per day.

It's so cheap (almost free) because they make their money from advertising painted on the car.

looks good, although you have to be over 23, and have to drive between 30 and 100km per day, or pay a surcharge.

Also you are only allowed to drive up to 20km away from Munich, and not abroad (not insured).

But then with 100km per day you're not going to get far anyway, good for trips to Ikea and Dachau though

I have used SIXTI now a few times.

The only way of getting the SUPER CHEAP deals is by booking long long in advance and in the middle of the week. For instance, if you book now, you can get it for 5Eur on the 19th Jan 2005 (A wednesday).

Then there are the other charges mentioned above... Cleaning, extra fuel etc.

Last time I hired with them I took the car back a few mins too late and got stung bigtime for that too. They can be ditrt cheap but will work out expensive if you are not careful

Are there any rental agencies that do allow you to drive to other countries? Actually what I am looking for is a deal that will allow me to drive a Van to the UK, pickup my things and drive back here. Perhaps a 4 day unlimited milage rental. I have tried looking at Sixt et al but my german does not stretch to their legaleese.

S.

I've tried the laudamotion and paid 4 Euros for 4 days + about 7 Euros to wash the car before returning it.

It's a little complicated because you can only book it at certain times of the day and then you have to pick it up between 2 and 3 pm one day, same thing when you return it...

As JB already said you can't really go to far out of Munich (20 or 30 km) so it might be a bit hard to drive 30 km every day within Munich.

other than that, if you feel like driving around Munich in a Smart - go for it! Excellent when you live in Schwabing or other places in Munich where finding a spot to park your car can be tricky!

I have used http://www.avisbasic.de/ before. It is easy to see the price you are going to pay but they are closed at the weekend, so they charge for a 3 day hire. They also ask for 15 euros to clean the car when you return it, but a carwash only costs 5 euros which is the cheap option.

The astra estate is great for skiing.

It would be really really nice if all car companies made the rentals real simple like small medium and large and included all the charges up front.

so you know it will cost you 50 per day and no more.

It's even worse in North America because often the on line quotes don't include tax, insurance fee's etc.

Then they have 25 different categories which make it even more confusing.

I got one of those Laudamotion smarts for three days last week. It was really quite good. EUR3 rental, EUR5 to wash it and it already had a half tank of juice in it (you don't have to bring it back with the same level as when you took it out, just so long as the warning light isn't on, they don't care). I'd highly recommend them, conditions and all.