Renting a Car in Germany - Weekend Special Offer

When renting a car in Germany, and many other countries, if you want to guarantee a low price you should look forward to stay with the car between Saturday and Sunday. Usually it is the leisure client that stays the night from Saturday to Sunday, so the business client (normally willing to pay more) cannot benefit from this offer.
The maximum for these special prices can be 72 hours, which is enough for three nights, so if you want more than this specific number of hours you may end up paying more 50%.

These are some examples of prices:
Frankfurt Airport - Pick and Return in April (Prices may vary, specially during holidays)

Europcar - Audi A1

3 Days including Weekend - €135 (€75 from Friday to Monday)
3 Weekdays - €194
5 Days (weekend or not) - €306
Curiously in the Alamo website you will find different prices for the same dates, but they are the same in the Frankfurt Airport.


Hertz - Ford Fiesta

3 Days including Weekend - €78
3 Weekdays - €166
5 Days (weekend or not) - €252




Budget - Ford Fiesta

3 Days including Weekend - €69
3 Weekdays - €137
5 Days (weekend or not) - €237

As you can see prices can be very different, but don't take these prices so seriously, the conditions may vary from company to company, and you can see the promotions in the website. Other factors like the currency you are using and the country where you are from may change your price.

Considering the biggest car rental companies and the ones that are present at the Frankfurt Airport (biggest in Germany), this is the List of Car Rental Companies easily reached:

Europcar (Alamo / National)
Budget
Avis
Sixt
Hertz

or you can just visit a aggregate website like RentalCars.com

My experience has been good with Europcar, for both times I went to Germany and rented the car, Europcar was doing promotions in Germany(25% discount).
You can also do some homework for them and do a "online check in", so when you get there, they have almost all the information they need.

Driving the Mercedes A in Germany

The new Mercedes A class is considered by most as a beautiful car, including me, that is why I am talking about the car. I had the opportunity to drive it in Germany, it seems that when a new German car is out (at least it happened with the Audi A1, Mercedes A and Volkswagen Golf), Europcar gets some of the cars and offers the opportunity to its clients to drive it.

Interior
The interior is quite comfortable. The seats are very good, well defined, where your body can easily adapt, which is good when you are on vacations and want to feel comfortable.
I do not know if all cars from the car rentals are equipped with GPS, but this was and it was a good surprise and extra. Another good surprise was the heating system for the seats, which feels so good during the cold days.

Driving Experience
The driving is very good, it soft and has a nice steering, the manual gear box is soft, and the sixth gear is perfect when driving in the Autobahn, also helping to decrease the gas consumption.
Driving in the city is also easy due to the steering and if you are in a stop and go situation, the brakes are also soft and it does not cause any discomfort, unless you brake suddenly.

Interior of the Mercedes A

The Trunk
We travelled with one hold baggage and a hand baggage. The trunk was enough for everything, and it had enough space for something more. It is not a huge trunk, if you are considering a four people trip, the four seats are great, all well defined but the trunk is not as big as you may think.
The trunk has a capacity of 341l, (Compared to 380l / VW Golf & 267l / Audi A1)

The exterior
You may like it or not, it is your opinion that counts. Since it is from a car rental company, you cannot chose the colour.

Side view of the Mercedes A

Speed Limit
The autobahn may not have speed limits, but in the windscreen of the car there was a sticker with a speed limit of 210 km/h.
The car is pretty stable, and until you reach 160km/h, you barely feel any trepidation. Since we were on holidays we did not have the need to drive too fast, so we just enjoyed our trip. If you like the speed or if you are planning a trip all over Germany, a fast car can interest you, I believe for the price this is a good choice.

Parking
Parking the Mercedes A can be very to park due to its parking sensors, and if you need, the car can park by itself in parallel parking. Even being a bigger car than the smaller options in car rental companies, the sensors are a great help

Side view of the Mercedes A

The mystery of the "hidden" P button

A stupid thing that happened to me was not knowing where I could unlock the car and start driving. I even had to stop the engine and ask for help to the Europcar Employee. The answer was simple, the "hidden" button was hiding at the left of the steering wheel.




More:
Wikipedia - Mercedes A
German Site - Mercedes A configurator
Mercedes A on Pinterest
Renting a Car by Europcar