Our last trip started in Munich and straight away posed a problem: most German cities have a system of pollution stickers for your car. The newer the car, the ‘greener’ the sticker and the closer you can get to the city centres without coping a 40 euro fine (if discovered by a member of the constabulary). Here’s the catch 22: foreign registered cars are NOT exempt and there are a limited number of issuing offices (2 only for Munich and only open business hours). You can get the stickers over the internet for 6 euro, but you need the rego papers, which on a Peugeot, Renault or Citroen lease car, you don’t get until you pick up the car – you see the logic fail? So, unless you pick the car up (German pick up) during business hours and go straight to the testing station, you may be driving illegally. If you pick up the car outside Germany but travel into that country, you may be caught unawares.
Our hotel had a solution: drive the car into their underground carpark and don’t use it until you leave.
This was advised to the depot at Munich and their response was that the French car companies were not interested.
Interestingly, I spoke to the depot manager at Frankfurt about clarifying an insurance coverage issue and he said he gets e-mails from the three companies in French. It then costs him money to get them translated into German. He then replies to the e-mails in German! Who said the EU was some big co-operative enterprise?
Cheers
HARRY