General Info

[QUOTE=Forcharles;1289494]I'm planning on renting a car in October when I arrive in Frankfurt. The website where I reserved the rental explains that there is an extra charge of 11 Euro per day for winter tires. Are winter tires required for October? Anyone with experience or knowledge about this?[/QUOTE]IME I would say you would be unlucky to experience winter conditions around Frankfurt in October. Personally I would not have bothered. But if it is a concern, then just check the weather forecast a few days before you pick up the car and make a change on your car rental reservation if in doubt.

[QUOTE=Shark16;1289817]IME I would say you would be unlucky to experience winter conditions around Frankfurt in October. Personally I would not have bothered. But if it is a concern, then just check the weather forecast a few days before you pick up the car and make a change on your car rental reservation if in doubt.[/QUOTE]Some (not all!) car hire firms operating out of Frankfurt Airport do charge extra / day for winter tyres. Other firms make it optional. Certain Internet budget car hire sites always give the firms who run this semi-scam winter tyre thing first billing, unfortunately. Thrifty used to be a real culprit. If you shop around to e. G. Sixt, you might get a deal without the compulsory winter tyre tax.

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[QUOTE=Forcharles;1289494]I'm planning on renting a car in October when I arrive in Frankfurt. The website where I reserved the rental explains that there is an extra charge of 11 Euro per day for winter tires. Are winter tires required for October? Anyone with experience or knowledge about this?[/QUOTE]It's just a scam, a lot of the time during winter the cars will already have winter tyres on even If you've not paid for them, they're not going to remove them after every customer.

[QUOTE=Jerboa;1289837]It's just a scam, a lot of the time during winter the cars will already have winter tyres on even If you've not paid for them, they're not going to remove them after every customer.[/QUOTE]And the fact is, if you rely on winter tires for winter driving, you shouldn't be driving, period.

[QUOTE=OfficeMatt;1289887]And the fact is, if you rely on winter tires for winter driving, you shouldn't be driving, period.[/QUOTE]Wrong! If you drive with summer tires during the winter you shouldn't be driving, period. However, you will most likely not be needing wintertires in October in Frankfurt. But Mother Nature can still surprise us! You'd better watch the forecast as someone said.

[QUOTE=OfficeMatt;1289887]And the fact is, if you rely on winter tires for winter driving, you shouldn't be driving, period.[/QUOTE]About the worst post on this topic, since in Germany it is mandated by law that you need winter tires in 'Wintery conditions'. So if it happens to start snowing in October (not common, but not impossible) , you're breaking the law if you're driving around without winter tires; regardless of your prowess as a driver.

Reasons to use winter tyres.

Once temperatures start to get down to aroound 4 to 6 degrees celsius the rubber on summer tyres starts to lose flexibility and become much less effective for cornering, braking etc.

If you do not use winter tyres in wintery conditions and have an accident then you may find that the car insurance does not cover you and you may have committed a driving offence.

A perennial point of discussion in Germany is "have you put your winter tyres on yet?". This is because it is a matter of judgement. In general it would be very unlikely that people would be putting winter tyres on in October since the necessary weather conditions would be unexpected.

As for car hire companies: look very carefully at all quotes you get. Some companies (e. g. Budget) last year included winter tyres over the winter period whereas others charged anything up to 15 Euro a day extra! As Ortos says, avoid Thrifty / Dollar (franchised in Germany to Terstappen). If booking through a consolidator make sure they don't use Thrifty (I note that Auto Europe has recently stopped using Terstappen after it became aware of the numerous internet threads pointing out the many Thrifty / Dollar (Terstappen) scams

[QUOTE=Big30; 1289718]Thursday June 7 in (catholic) parts of Germany as NRW and Hessen is a Public Holiday, called Fronleichnam.

This [i]may[/i] Have some impact on the opening hours of the Clubs, although I am not sure for which clubs this is true.

B30[/QUOTE]NO impact for the mayor clubs like Palace, Mainhattan, Oase, World, Sharks etc.

HB

[QUOTE=Free Dude;1290036]About the worst post on this topic, since in Germany it is mandated by law that you need winter tires in 'Wintery conditions'. So if it happens to start snowing in October (not common, but not impossible) , you're breaking the law if you're driving around without winter tires; regardless of your prowess as a driver.[/QUOTE]Sorry, I live in a city / country where people think that if you have winter tires on your vehicle, you can somehow drive like a maniac and that you will never end up in the ditch. I drive with all seasons, because a) that's all you need, and be) I know how to drive responsibly in winter conditions. Winter tires do not make you safer or improve your performance if you do not know how to drive per the conditions.

What the hell are 'summer' tires?

[QUOTE=Hessen Bub; 1290082]NO impact for the mayor clubs like Palace, Mainhattan, Oase, World, Sharks etc.

HB[/QUOTE]Do not know what is a Major impact but for example GT, LR and PHG will have opening hours today as they have on Sunday / Public Holidays.

You could call that a minor impact : )!

Other clubs I am not sure about.

B30

[url]http://www.fkk-harmony.com/Deutsch/start.html[/url]

New FKK not far from Hamburg.

B30

[QUOTE=Big30; 1294346][url]http://www.fkk-harmony.com/Deutsch/start.html[/url]

New FKK not far from Hamburg.

B30[/QUOTE]Thanks,

I might check it out. It looks promising.

[QUOTE=Nille Copenhagen; 1294465]Thanks,

I might check it out. It looks promising.[/QUOTE]I thought you'd already checked it out, didn't you do the Danish translation on their website?

[QUOTE=Sucker17;1294625]I thought you'd already checked it out, didn't you do the Danish translation on their website?[/QUOTE]Nope I didn't do the translation, the translation is BTW pretty bad.

[QUOTE=Optimist;1290050]As for car hire companies: look very carefully at all quotes you get. Some companies (e. g. Budget) last year included winter tyres over the winter period whereas others charged anything up to 15 Euro a day extra![/QUOTE]I have pre-booked rental cars with Hertz for 5 trips spanning November (2 trips) and December (3 trips) this year and for each of those 5 trips the winter tyres were included in the regular rental cost of the car. The prices I pre-booked at were no more than the cost of a Hertz rental car during my summer time trips.

This was the same last year for winter 2011/2012.