Sixt Rent a Car: BMW i8

Last month, I rented the BMW i8 from the Sixt Rent a Car in Munich (München Stachus – Karlsplatz 3 location). There are just 2 locations in Munich in which premium cars can be booked which are the airport and Stachus (near the main train station/Karlsplatz stop on U-bahn). I booked it at the beginning of June as they didn’t know what there fleet would be back in April when I first attempted to book it. The daily rate was  EUR 242.85 with 250 km included and EUR 0.92 per km after that. They do put a EUR 2,600 hold on your credit card at the time of the rental but is returned upon returning the rental. Ensure you bring your passport and driver’s license. I used my AMEX Platinum card as it has the premium rental protection which offers $100K coverage for USD 17.95 per rental. It would’t cover the entire $150,000+ sticker price (most expensive car I’ve driven) but I didn’t plan on totaling it. Sixt Rent a Car is notorious for charging for small damages so I was very detailed when marking damages on the agreement but I wanted to have coverage through AMEX so I didn’t have to deal with any discrepancies.

We rented the i8 along with a M550d for the day to check out the Neuschwanstein Castle which is located about 120km southwest of Munich near the Austria border and Swiss Alps. Off we went on the autobahn (interstates in Germany). Be sure to put the i8 into Sport mode so you get both the gas engine and electric motor providing power. The handling was amazing and I eventually hit 248 km/h which is 154 mph! The fastest I had driven before was 225 km/h which was in a 5 series a few years ago on the autobahn. We took the A95 route and stopped by Lido Beach & Burger for a lunch break and to swap passengers. Beware you can only fit 2 people in the i8. It was a nice lakeside restaurant although parking was very difficult to find in this small town.

The Neuschwanstein Castle draws thousands of visitors a day so when we showed up without tickets the earliest entry was at 6PM but it was worth the wait. The walk up the mountain was a challenge but if you plan ahead you can use the bus for about EUR 3. By the time we finished the tour it was time to rush back to Munich to return the cars by 9PM so we didn’t have to pay for overnight parking at the hotel. Driving at night had it’s limitations but still a blast. We made it back to Munich just in time. There is a gas station right before the entrance to the garage to return the cars so we fueled them up right before returning them. The Sixt employee checked both back in and reported zero damages 🙂

The car was a blast to drive! I’d highly recommend it if you are an auto enthusiast. If you can’t make it to Munich, I did discover today that Sixt has an i8 at their Miami Downtown location for $499 per day with 175 miles included.

Sixt Miami Downtown