I was over here in Germany a few weeks before the family, back and forth for a project. We were selling our cars in the US and needed to buy two new ones here. I wanted to fit in as well as to drive a nice car so planned on getting a small Mercedes, Audi or BMW sedan like my Camry. I did a little research, knew about what I wanted, went to Mercedes and found a used one with 40,000 miles on it and bought it. Didn't shop around, didn't try BMW or Audi. It was about what I wanted to saw so need to go out and try to find something that might be a small improvement (in contrast to Rebecca, see comment below).
So...the trip to work this morning took an hour, much longer than the usual 20-25 minutes, due to a large quantity of snow that had fallen and continued to fall. We had been told there would be no snow here and have been quite surprised. How does this tie into the car conversation? Mercedes and BMWs have rear wheel drive and are absolutely shit in the snow. And it is even worse as I live up some pretty steep hills that are difficult to traverse in rear wheel drive. As I was rather indifferent between the 3 car manufacturers, had I known that this would be a problem, I would have gone straight to Audi and not looked back. Oh well...live and learn. Next time I move to a foreign country I will be more prepared.
Rebecca on the other hand had to essentially go look at, sit in and drive (where possible) every possible car that might be in contention for her driving pleasure. A painful two day process but ended up with a VW Passat wagon and we both love it. It actually won out over Audi, BMW and Mercedes.
And, by the way, I never saw one salt truck or snow plow on the way to work this morning.
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That is because there is only 1 snow plow in Germany and I saw him the day before and so he was off yesterday! And watch here, i am thinkign of posting my car buying blog - or the half written one - I have...
ReplyDeleteATTEMPTING TO BUY A CAR IN GERMANY
ReplyDeleteYou know the day has not gone well when you are in the same location with almost no more information 6 ½ hours after you were there the first time. Such was today. It began at the Mercedes dealer as we had some paperwork to complete for Miles’ car. We decided we should all go to do this because he wanted me to look at the Mercedes wagon. The place was huge with tons of used Mercedes. A fun selection. I watched both girls and looked at a few on the first floor and then wandered to the 2nd and found a bunch more. I liked a red one, the typical blacks and silvers were boring. It was crazy though, I couldn’t really make much sense of the stickers – although I was pretty proud when I discovered what meant leather as opposed to cloth, but I can’t remember it now. I pretty much would look to see if they were E-class, which was easy once I realized they were in separate areas upstairs. Then I would peer in the window to see if they were automatic, because at the moment this is a deal breaker. I really don’t think I can figure out directions and deal with the girls and remember whether I have passed the sign with the yellow diamond lately that means the car approaching from the right doesn’t have the right of way… although I won’t feel awful as when Miles bricked it last night he let one car through and then went and I told him every single car that comes from the right gets to cut in front of you and when we checked today I was right! J These small victories are important right now, anything I know builds my confidence, however trivial, and this is actually really important! So anyway, I don’t think it is a wise choice to put me in a car with a manual transmission. So even though these cars were on the second floor in a secure building all the doors were locked. I couldn’t sit in any of them. So eventually I wander back downstairs proud I found a red automatic and Miles is almost done signing paperwork. The Germans are very serious about their paperwork, there is a form for everything and every contingency and a form to figure out what forms you need and all this and Miles doesn’t even get to take the car today. And he filled out paperwork a few weeks ago and still this took an hour today! Lauren and I head outside to see what else we can find and see lots of other brands of used cars, but no BMW 5 series, Passat wagon, or Audi A6 wagon which are the ones Miles thinks we should be looking at. I did find a green E-series and so I am happy that I can find something. Again with the small victories. So I have been wandering around a dealership inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs and not once have I been approached by a single person to help me. Nada. Zilch. Null. So I head inside to figure out how on earth I can accomplish something other than choosing car colors and my husband has disappeared! The salesman Miles has worked with is sitting at his desk. I ask where they went and he says upstairs. How strange. I find them at one of the cars around the corner from his desk. They have the doors and back open so huge improvement. I sit down, I bonk my head, not once, not twice but three times on various things (the ceiling of the car, the edge of the sunroof, the visor…this is not going to work. I try to lower the seat but can’t without power to the vehicle. I look around – no salesman. I ask about the guy Miles was working with and he tells me that when he said he wanted to look at the E class wagon for his wife he merely wished him luck. Oh! I get it, these guys don’t work on commission! No wonder they are all sitting at their desks twiddling their thumbs…but no, they do get commission! What?? Never mind, who cares, find someone who can get a key in this car so we can decide if we rule it out or what. I hit my head getting out. SO then it takes literally 10 minutes to get a key to the car. And it does not fit. I cannot figure out how to get the bobby pin shaped device into the big circular hole that is the ignition. The woman shrugs and says she needs to get a salesman...Kate has figured out to go around trying doors and found a car w/o a sunroof for me to sit in. Much better. Good job Kate! Of course I am sitting in a 51,000 Euro ($80,000) car so this really isn’t comparable. A new salesman comes over with a key as we are about to leave, I am fed up with their service, or lack thereof…I lower the seat in the car and fit and so that is a good thing. We decide to head over to the Audi dealership. Ridiculous. WE find like 2 A6’s on the whole lot that are even remotely near our price range. Luckily one was open though and so I am happy. It is nice, comfortable and big and I notice cup holders and heated seats and the trunk looks much deeper than the Mercedes. We have been there at least 20 minutes and no one has come to us (which our relocation consultant has explained is not totally abnormal as Germans do not want to be pressured at the car dealership) so we head off in search of a salesman. Nothing. We eventually find one and he says he doesn’t do used cars and there should be 2 men outside to help us. We explain there are not and NOTHING! He doesn’t help or anything. This really is ridiculous. Eventually we are just fed up and Diana, the relocation consultant has managed to find someone who tells us there are 2 cars on the lot for us to look at and directs us to the part of the lot to look in. He does not show us! And they are locked when we get to them! This really is just over the top. We hate the one and the other is ok. We walk next door to the KFC with a play land for lunch – no dice everything has Milk. In the car…we decide McDonald’s won’t be too bad two days in a row and head there. We will go from there to the Volkswagen dealership. Lunch was uneventful, although no play land so Kate wasn’t real happy. It is after 12 now and we are hoping Lauren will fall asleep in the car. She does but right at the end and wakes as we open the doors – we all freeze and look ahead. She goes back to sleep but we still have to put a window down…she awakes again but we are lucky, falls asleep again. Miles stays in the car with her as I head off to look, Touran (mini minivan like thing) and Passat wagon. We find a touran, locked and only Passats belonging to people. We find a sign with an arrow pointing down for help with used cars. We are outside and the sign is on a grassy knoll. A hint perhaps? So we wander around and finally ask in the service garage and they tell us to go around front and inside. AHHH! Unlocked vehicles! So I sit in the Passat and don’t fit. I am really starting to get a complex – and this time it is serious – I am too wide. My hips are too wide for the seat. It has cushioning on the edges that is terribly uncomfortable and will not work. I like the car otherwise. We look at the Touran – Kate loves it. They have a table like on a plane that comes down for her and Lauren in the back seat – she is sold. It is comfortable and has enough legroom and a lot more space in the trunk, not to mention the glove box is actually a cooler – with refrigeration! – and the back three seats go forward and backward it is pretty nifty. So, off to find the used cars, turns out there are 4 floors in the next building over and we need a salesman. So we actually walk right up to one and ask him to find us the Passat and Touran. He asks our price range and promptly tell us there are no Passats in our range and so we have to look at the van only. Fine, whatever. He finds four to look at and we head upstairs… I sit in the one we are most interested in and I realize it is stick – I ask and he replies they don’t have any automatic. We leave. Back down to Miles. This really is quite ridiculous. So I decide to show Miles the two new ones so he can at least know what I am talking about when we discuss them later. Sounds reasonable. He sees the practicality of the Touran and (thank goodness) also does not fit in the seat in the Passat. Turns out it is a sport model and since it goes over 200km/hr the seats have to be molded to keep you in. But of course, we are in the country with the autobahn…
So this useful tidbit and actually a lot of others comes from a wonderful man who came up to us and asked if we had any questions. He knew my Sienna and even spoke some English. I asked to drive the Touran. He walked away and came back with a different salesman’s name and said he would be waiting on the second floor in used cars building. NO! I want this guy to help us. No luck. So we walk to the 2nd floor and find tons of Passats in our price range. Only 3 were automatic, but when that guy said none, he didn’t know we were looking only automatic… typical used car salesman. Well, we don’t see a soul for a while and so I try to reach in one of the cars and open the door..loud car alarm…well that seems to be a good way to get help…or not. Diana has since gone downstairs and we realize that we have forgotten a simple fact in Germany – the first floor is the one above the ground floor. We have been wandering around on the 1st floor not the 2nd. Up we go. I think we are going into our 2nd hour at this dealership and we haven’t even sat in a car that we could consider taking home. The girls are doing less than stellar (but much better than the bank and city hall yesterday) and so I head downstairs to get them water from the bathroom. It is very impolite to ask for tap water in Germany, but I have no problem getting it myself! J Well, I pass 4 salesman doing nothing as I head back up the stairs and unfortunately one is the sales man from before. I don’t make eye contact and dash back upstairs. They have still not gotten anyone to help. I realize this is the floor we were on earlier and find the Tourans from before and miraculously find an automatic – crazy blue color, but still. The guy appears, he has followed me up. Fine. I have Diana tell him I found the touran and he says it is many years old. It is not. I get him to open it and sit in it. It has all the airbags I want and so I want to drive it. We have to make an appointment. Ok, I can see that, it is on the 3rd floor and in a corner, could take awhile to get it out…Thursday. Excuse me? He can make an appointment for 10am Thursday. He must not realize tomorrow is Wednesday…or that it is only 3 o’clock? No dice. Fine, Miles is incredulous. This is a far cry from him walking in the Mercedes Dealership, looking at the car, test driving it on the spot and then agreeing to buy it. We have been looking at cars all day and haven’t test driven a single one and really only sat in two cars. We are leaving when I ask if we shouldn’t drive the A6 since the Audi dealership is attached? We head over and believe it or not…need to make an appointment. New car or old, in the warehouse or one the sales floor, nothing matters we can’t drive a damn thing until Thursday. And he couldn’t even confirm Thursday, would call us later. That is it! They didn’t have one to sit in and so we didn’t even get to do that! We decide to go test drive the Mercedes…they will let us do that. On the drive over Diana will call and see about the Audi dealership that was right there. So Miles plugs the address in the Navigation system and off we go. I swear we did 10 circles around Frankfurt before it told us to turn down a closed street. Miles drops the F-bomb and swerves to avoid hitting a roadblock and we are all fine – except Kate wants to know why Daddy said F. Daddy tries to play it off and she wants to know what it means…she finally drops it and Miles and I are just laughing cause this really is just all too ridiculous to do anything else. He tells me I can have whatever Mercedes I want just drive it off the lot and take the darn thing home. We get to the dealership and have trouble getting anyone to help and then the guy who sold Miles his car appears – thank goodness. So we want to drive the car I hit my head on, and so I do. Drives like a slow boat. I don’t know if it was way too heavy or too small an engine or rear-wheel drive or what, but it was sluggish! Oh, and the best part! We had to stop at the gas station and get gas before we could go anywhere, there was NO gas in the car - - and didn’t get reimbursed! I paid for my own damn test drive and I didn’t use 3 liters of gas! Thank goodness that was all we put in! But I do feel it is important to note I paid for the gas all by myself and with exact change! J So despite my intense desire to just like the car and be done - I didn’t. And NO CUPHOLDERS! Evidently this is an add on feature in German cars and is in no way standard. I am sorry but you all know I had around 17 cup holders in my van and almost all of them held a bottle of water at all times! J
So on our way into the Mercedes dealership again I noticed a Toyota Dealership and ...