Help on Hi End Car rental in Munich

[500e500toronto]

Heading to Munich in May for a couple days of business and was wondering if anyone can suggest a good car rental company for a Benz or Porsche. I was thinking of driving the 2 hours to Stuttgart for the MB factory tour. This will be my first time in Germany.

 

[gerryvz]

I would just contact Europcar or Sixt, (Europcar.com, Sixt.com) as they have SLKs and SLs for rent at the Munich airport. Munich to Stuttgart is a nice drive up the A8 .. one of my favorite stretches of autobahn in Germany. Try to drive in the evenings or at night, far fewer cars and no trucks on the road - they tend to pull over at the rest stops by 6 PM so you can go much faster. Consider going back by an alternate route.

While in Stuttgart I'd visit the factory in Sindelfingen for the tour -- when you walk in the visitor center there go to the counter on the right side and inquire as to when that day's English tours will be happening. Usually it's around 10-11 AM, so I'd try to show up by 9 or 9:30 AM. There are a couple or three restaurants where you can hang out, as well as a massive gift shop, and you can have a drink on a large platform above the car delivery area, where people waiting for their car to be driven out sit, until their name is called. Then they get called on PA system and go down and load their car up, get personalized instruction on how to operate it, and drive out the sliding garage doors into the sunset. The tour takes about 90 minutes and is usually a combination of walking and being on a bus, though the last time I did it, it was 100% on a bus so you don't get as "up close and personal" as you used to be able to.

Across town (25-30 minute drive depending on traffic) is the MB Museum in Untertuerkheim. You have to go through the tunnels under the downtown area and get onto the B10/B14 to get there. It's fairly well marked and most all cars have Navi, so it's easy. If you have another hour or 90 minutes, drive the 7 km up the hill from the MB Museum to Fellbach, and visit the MB Classic Center (90 Stuttgarter Strasse, Fellbach). You can get in and out pretty quickly, but it's worth visiting.

You should also consider going to AMG HQ in Affalterbach. Evidently they have a brand new showroom/gift shop that just opened in recent weeks, so should be nice to get a report if you can manage to visit. Affalterbach is just north of Fellbach (15-20 mins max)?, a very short drive and you're well out of Stuttgart city traffic in the surburbs.

That should take the better part of a day for you. Then take the morning of the next day and drive the 15-20 minutes from Stuttgart up to Zuffenhausen, and visit the Porsche Museum. Definitely worth your while.

My favorite hotel is the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin Hotel, in downtown Stuttgart. It's expensive, but worth it to pamper yourself for a night after a long day of Benzing.

Good luck and enjoy your trip. Just made my own travel plans for GVZ Euro Tour 2014, kicking off June 13th !!

 

[bing]

My favorite hotel is the Steigenberger Graf Zeppelin Hotel, in downtown Stuttgart. It's expensive, but worth it to pamper yourself for a night after a long day of Benzing.

Or this Porsche theme hotel near Zuffenhausen. Very comfortable with spa/pool, clean, friendly staff, plenty parking and mostly car guys stay here

http://www.abaccohotels.com/en/

Gerry, i reckon your son would enjoy staying here

 

[500e500toronto]

Gerry, Thanks for the info on car rental & the Museums. Bing, I think I will plan to visit that Porsche themed Hotel next year.

My trip to Germany was fantastic. We stayed in Munch at Hotel Schlicker which is in an area called Town Ctr or something like that. Nice walking area with lots of (expensive) shops & Restaurants. All the cabs in Munich are a cream/Beige color. 99% are MB's & 100% are Diesels. There are tons of Station Wagons running around Germany, such as C & E's even saw some CLS Wagons, along with everything else imaginable from many of the European manufacturers from Skoda to Peugeots. Overall the wagons don't look too bad. Probably 90% or more are Diesel powered.
I had reserved a C Class from SIXT about 2 weeks before I left for Germany but when we got there they only had a 318d WAGON (with an M badge on the front fenders & steering wheel) which actually worked out well as we put 500+ Kms on it in 1 day for a total of 50 euro in diesel. We drove from Munich to Stuttgart up the A8 in great time managing to get the Bimmer up to a top speed of 210 Km/hr. All those stories of faster cars coming out of nowhere & ending up on your ass while in the left lane of the Autobahn are SO TRUE. It happened a couple of times as I was passing slower traffic. I tried to see if we could keep up to 1 guy after he passed us and as I was hitting the 210 Km/hr threshold in the BMW the S Class was still pulling away until we couldn't see it. Their roads are as close to perfect as you would expect. The scenery is quite good and it seems they build the Autobahns & Highways in areas where there are lots of trees/forests, for the most part, which I think helps with pollution control. We noticed lots of areas off the Autobahn that seemed to be Solar farms with panels laid out for what seemed like acres feeding back into the grid. I also noticed a lot of the office buildings, semi covered shopping areas and even the MOC (Munich Convention Ctr) have a lot of glass in their structures allowing natural sunlight in. They are very energy conscious and recycle religiously. Going to the MOC by bus for the 3 days of the trade show you see the centrally located recycling bins for as we went through residential areas. Also on this route was the BMW Munich factory where you could see newer camouflaged Mini's, X5's, Sedans in their compound. Even saw an I-8 running around. The parking area of the factory had a whole lot of BMW's ready to be shipped.
I did see an RS-6 Wagon, in the brightest Fire Engine Red finish I think I have ever seen, 1 day coming from the MOC and watched the driver 'get on it' as we were waiting to cross the the street To say the least it was quite impressive.

Even their Subways have Wi Fi so it was surprising to see people on their phones & computers while on the Tube. Just last week the Toronto City Council was talking about having Wi Fi in the Toronto Subway as one of their excuses for a fare increase.

We went to the Porsche Museum first and enjoyed a very clean, informative and well laid out building with a good display of cars. there were several school groups there on this Wednesday we were there getting a guided tour. Nice to see them showing the youth this kind of stuff. We got through the tour in about 90 mins or so then had lunch in the restaurant on the main floor. We decided to do the Mercedes Museum on the same day as we had to be back in Munich to attend a trade show at the MOC that started the next morning. I would be hard pressed to say 1 museum is better over the other as they are both well laid out & clean. There is lots of history with both of these companies and these places really explain a lot of it through their displays.
I have some pics that I will post once I sort them out.

 

[JordiC]

I stayed at the Abacco and it was quite entertaining, I highly recommend it for all car lovers.

 

[500e500toronto]

View attachment 29747View attachment 29743View attachment 29748{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252{\fonttbl}
{\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;}
}

 

[500e500toronto]

...In no particular order

View attachment 29777View attachment 29775View attachment 29778View attachment 29779View attachment 29780View attachment 29781View attachment 29788View attachment 29774