Solving the car problem

Karlsruhe has an excellent public transport system. We live close to the town center and don't need a car every day. But we do need a car occasionally, and buying a used car just for this does not make sense.

At the advice of one of the graduate students here, we explored the possibility of car-sharing with Stadtmobil, similar to Zipcar in North America. Armed with the city-issued local address registration form, our residency permits (hence passports), California driver's licenses, and international driving permits, Glenda and I registered as members at the Stadtmobil office a couple of weeks ago. We paid the initiation fee of 600€ (and we will get back 460€ when we return to the US and terminate the membership next year), signed a few forms. From now on, we pay a monthly membership maintenance fee of 7€, and we can take out cars for hours or for days at a time. Most of the cars need advanced reservation (on the web or by phone), but there are also cars that can be signed out for up to 48 hours without prior reservation as long as they are at the lot. The cost for taking the car out each time is reasonable: a 1€ processing fee, a hourly fee (ranging from 0,98€ to 3,45€ per hour depending on whether you are checking out a subcompact or a transport van) and a mileage fee (ranging from 0,19€/km to 0,28€/km). The mileage fee includes gas and insurance. There are also special rates for daily, weekend or weekly check-outs. Each car also comes with a child booster seat (which means we only need to buy one booster). The car problem is now solved.