We Bought a Car….

…sharing service!!

Ok, we kind of sort of bought a car.  The only difference is that we share our car(s) with 10,000 other people in Munich, but essentially we feel like proud automobile owners again.  We signed up for a car sharing service called StattAuto, akin to ZipCar in the States.  And what exactly made us decide to do this?  There is this amazing steak restaurant that requires a car for convenient access, and I decided I have to take Julie there.  And why is this place so special?  Well you will have to wait for the next blog, because today is all about our new car!  But trust me- this steak place is worth reading about.

So after living without a car for almost a year, we have started to miss the sense of freedom that having a car lends.  My amazing Aunt Ellen has always been kind enough to take us (and the doggies!) when we want in her car, but it’s nice to have our own independence and not stretch our invitation too far.  But we don’t really want the extra responsibility and costs that come with owning a car.  After doing some research, it seemed pretty clear that car-sharing was the way to go.  So I put together my best sales pitch and sold the idea to my other (better) half.   However, I discovered later that she was wanted to reject my proposal immediately when I first suggested the idea, and had decided to listen to my pitch only to make me feel better.  I guess those years of salesmanship training selling Cutco knives paid off…I can still close the deal!

The program works like this: 

• Users pay a 250€ deposit (refundable at the end), a 25€ one-time processing fee, and 7€ per month to participate. 
• Once these payments are fulfilled, you have the ability to make an online reservation for one of the several hundred cars which are parked around the city. 
• There is a 2€ per hour rental fee (max of 19€ per day) and you pay 0.20€ per km driven (for the mini-class... add roughly 15 % for each increase of car size).  This fee includes the cost of gas which you would pay using the company’s credit card located in every car.  Therefore, this is very cheap since gas would normally cost around 0.10€ per km given average fuel prices and fuel economy. 
• To rent a city car for one day would cost about 20€ and a weekend getaway to Austria would cost about 120€ (including the cost of gas!).  This is very comparable, and in some instances cheaper, than traveling by train. 
• And also the cars are all insured with a 500€ deductible. 

All in all, this car sharing program is more economical compared to buying a car for someone driving less than 5,000 km per year- for people like us!

I went to the introductory class last week to learn the rules and sign the contract. The best part about the 1.5 hour lecture was that I impressed myself by being able to follow along pretty comfortably in German.  Normally, I would just pretend I understand, but this time I actually did understand it!  Now, all we have to do is wait until I get my PIN card and then we can start driving some cars.  Then we will find out how quickly I can re-learn how to drive manual transmission.  It’s only been about 10 years since my last time….I’m sure it will be fine.  ;)

The other really cool thing about this program is that they have about 100 different parking stations and there is one right down our street (3 cars, just 2 minutes walking)!  We have walked by this parking station about a million times and never noticed it before.  It’s in the back of an Opel dealership which maybe explains why the three rentals there are made by Opel (one Agila and two Astra for anyone up-to-date on Euro car styles).  Basically, they are amazing and we are really excited to have cars parked nearby!

It’s looking like an Ikea and steak dinner kind of weekend!  Stay tuned….

Oh and Aunt Ellen - don’t worry.  We (including the dogs) are still counting on you for our local getaways… your car (with your company) is still our preferred method of transportation!