A rental car is too expensive and not worth it.

Comparison of the costs of rental cars (Sixt) and Deutsche Bahn

It is often heard that rental cars are very expensive and only suitable for business travellers. The common belief is that you should either travel in your own car or, best of all, take the train. In fact, on certain days of the week, rental cars are often cheaper than the train and also much more comfortable. Therefore we set up an example calculation based on:

Travel from Munich to Berlin and back

We want in this example two nights over the weekend drive from Munich to Berlin and are a total Two people.Outbound trip is Friday 8:00 a.m., return on Sunday at 6:00 p.m.

• By train
  Search via the website bahn.de. The search results in: travel time 6 hours in the ICE. Change once. Fare 378 EUR in total. Attention: This is a savings price that is not always available! (The normal price is a total of 540 EUR). In addition to our saver price of 378 EUR, there are 4 times 4 EUR for seat reservations. So overall we’re at one Offer price of 394 EUR. In this price is at all no use of public transport included in Berlin!
• With a rental car
  We orientate ourselves towards the cheapest and very reliable provider sixt. Search at www.sixt.de. We are looking for Friday 8:00 a.m. to Monday 8:00 a.m. It is always billed in 24-hour cycles. For the “VW Golf” class we get one Price from 100 EUR. If necessary, winter tyres, unlimited kilometers and fully comprehensive insurance (500 EUR deductible) are included. The deductible can be reduced to 0 EUR for a small fee. Extras such as a navigation system can also be booked for about 4 EUR/day. Also included.
  We have to drive about 580km from Munich to Berlin, there and back it’s 1160km. Since the “Golf” class is an upper class at Sixt, it is likely that you will have a diesel vehicle receives. (tip: When booking, click on “diesel” as a wish!) With a consumption of around 5 liters on the motorway (yes, that’s realistic for a new car!) and a diesel price of currently (March 2012) 1.40 EUR, our 100 EUR rental price yet Fuel costs iHv. a good 80 euros.
  So overall we’re at about 180 EUR for our rental car from Sixt including insurance and fuel.
  parking fees are not included in the calculation here, since public transport by train was not included in the calculation either.
  is one ADAC member, rental cars from Sixt and Herz can be booked even cheaper. In our example, we would have paid only EUR 85 instead of EUR 100.

Conclusion!

A rental car is almost always cheaper than the train at the weekend! It also has many advantages, basically you can drive a car to any place at any time, which is inconceivable by train. In addition, you almost always avoid delays (particularly on the example route from Munich to Berlin). A rental car is particularly interesting if, for example, there are four of you driving! After all, unlike train tickets, the costs do not increase! Inexpensive travel within Germany by train is usually only possible with so-called regional tickets such as the Bayernticket. However, this excludes any fast trains such as the ICE. It would take a full day to travel from Munich to Berlin on local trains.