Anyone have a suggestion of where I can rent a car near the Munich Airport to avoid the 19% tax surcharge? in July...

Hi E,

In Munich.

See www.autoeurope.com

www.gemut.com

www.novacarhire.com

The Munich airport is well out from the city center. In the city, there are many rental offices. The biggest center is in the main train station. All major companies it seems are represented there.

Bob, isn't the 19% tax in effect for rail station pickups too? Suggest that the poster, explore family, check out the pick up addresses for Munich on the AutoEurope website then contact gemut.com.

Betsey, I do believe you caught him. Didn't do his homework, now did he?

The cost from Auto Europe at a downtown office of Avis for a CDMR class car - compact with manual shift - was $$268.69 basic. I looked at the prices for the location at 194 Leopoldstrasse.

At the airport, the same class, CMDR, was $315. It was the same price at the train station, which is a lousy place to rent in my opinion.

One year, out of ignorance, we got a car from Sixt at the train station office. To find the car we had to prowl around a high floor in a dark garage that was downright creepy. (Like nobody hears you scream.) When we tried to return the car at night, the place was very hard to find. When we did find it, we were supposed to drive down a ramp to a lower level, but a car transport truck was blocking the ramp and the driver refused to move.

With our German friend we descended to the lowest level where the auto return was located to see of the Sixt guys would help us. They not give a rip either. So we were stuck until finally the truck driver moved.

I answered this question on another site already. The next town to Munich-Airport is Erding and Avis and Europcar are having stations there. Just look at their websites.

Thank you. I will check it out.

In Munich we took the train (S-1 or S-8) from the Airport to the downtown train station and autoeurope set us up with an Avis car at a location a few Euro taxi ride from the train station. It was about a 17 Euro fee for the train which was an all-day family ticket, and 7 Euro taxi fare -- so figure about 25 Euro.

Forgot to mention that we are picking up the car on a Sunday afternoon after flying in from Budapest. Not many options as most satellite car rental places are closed on Sundays. Looks like we will get it from the airport but drop at a different train station to avoid driving in the city of Munich.
Thanks for the gemut.com link - nice people.