Das Auto

It’s no secret that Germans love their cars. Buying a new car in Germany is significantly different, however, than it is in the U.S. In the U.S., cars are manufactured and sent to a car dealer, where they sit on vast lots waiting to be purchased. A buyer goes to the lot, does a little test drive, negotiates the sale of the car (sometimes under high pressure), and drives away hours later with a brand new car and a big loan. The buyer has to basically choose from the cars in the dealer’s inventory, which sometimes means not getting all the features, or color of car, one really hoped for. The American car-buying system really plays into that American sense of “I must have it now, whether I can afford it or not.”

In Germany, car buying is a much slower process that requires patience. Dealers do not have vast lots of new cars waiting to be sold and driven away the same day. In fact, most dealers I have seen can be quite small. They usually have a showroom with a sampling of model cars that one can browse through and test drive. The buyer then negotiates the sale with the dealer. You order the car with the color and features you want, and the car is then manufactured based on that order. This can take months of waiting for your new car, but then one day it is delivered to the dealer and you pick it up. I like this idea of getting exactly what you want in a car, and it seems more efficient only to manufacture on demand instead of having vast lots of inventory.

Maybe we should have bought this Beetle?

This past summer The Mann and I decided it was time to get a much smaller and more efficient car than the one we had. We decided to go with one of the Volkswagen models. We also decided to try going car-free for a few months, so The Mann traded in the car in August. And we waited. And waited. Our new car finally decided to make its appearance in early December.

In this land of cars, we thought it would be fun to pick up our new car at the holy mecca of German cars – Autostadt in Wolfsburg, Germany. Autostadt means “car city” and it’s a car theme park built next to the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. Indeed, there is nothing else in Wolfsburg except a breezy ICE stop for the trains headed to Berlin.

When you buy a new car from Volkswagen, you have the option to pay a bit extra for the option of picking the car up at Autostadt, and staying in a swanky hotel, instead of picking the car up at your local dealer. For car enthusiasts who just want to visit Autostadt, there is no need to spend so much money on a new car just to visit. You simply show up, cough up 15 Euro, and you’re in. For non-car enthusiasts, it might be a boring place.

The car museum at Autostadt

Autostadt includes a groovy car museum with mirrored ceilings, and showroom pavilions for each of the Volkswagen car brands: Volkswagen, Audi, Lamborghini, Skoda, etc. You can take a factory tour and do other fun things. Since it was December, there was a little Christmas market on the campus that included an ice rink where kids could skate by day, and by night, it featured some kind of freakish Bavarians on ice show with a firework happy ending.

But first, we had to pick up our new car at the customer center. You sign in, and once you see your name on the electronic reader board, you meet a Volkswagen representative who greets you and leads you to the car. Except our greeter dude did that thing where he assumed we were married, and he greeted me first by bellowing out a Guten Tag, Frau The Mann! Ummm….that’s not my last name, greeter dude. I’m Frau Resident Evil Resident on Earth.

Anyway, he led us down to the showroom floor where our car was eagerly waiting for us. Then the ceremony commences. They take your photo with your car, and you are met with congratulations, a pat on the back, and in true German style, a thorough explanation of the features and buttons of your new lean, mean, German driving machine. Then you drive out of the building with a happy little wave, and you take your new wheels for a speedy lap around the autobahn.

Though it appears new cars in Germany do not come with a full tank of gas, like they do in the U.S. This fact rather astonished me. After buying thousands of Euros worth of new car, the least they could do for you is give you a tank of gas! The Mann said they were generous in that they even gave us a quarter of tank. He says usually they give you enough to just get to the nearest gas station on fumes.

The Volkswagen pavilion at Autostadt

The next day, we hit the other features of the Autostadt. I was amazed at the sleek design and style of the showroom buildings (something dearly lacking, I think, in the U.S.). The showrooms usually featured a few models of pre-versions of their cars. Some were really interactive, where you could sit in the cars or do other fun things.

And then there was the Lamborghini pavilion. You were ushered into a dark jail cell, and as you cling to the bars, you see a yellow Lamborghini mounted to a wall. Yes. Apparently the lights dim, they fill the room with dry ice smoke, and the car appears to vanish, but in reality it’s mounted on a circular disk that flips around so the car is on the outside of the building. BUT, not wishing to be in a dark jail cell crowded with smelly teenagers, we broke out and fled the premises. It was so not our thing. You couldn’t even get close to the car. Pffft…. And jail? Come on.

One of the car towers

My favorite part of the Autostadt included two experiences. First, on the site there are two temples of cars – glass towers that hold the new cars until the owners come and pick them up. I was really amazed at the engineering and style of it. Basically, an arm picks up a car with a plate that slides beneath the car and places it on a bigger plate. It then lifts the car up through the tower and deposits it in a slot. A car vending machine, of sorts (see my video at the bottom of this post). When a car is ready to be picked up, the car is removed from its slot and placed on a conveyor belt that moves the car underground to the customer service center, where it is polished one last time, given its license plates, and then given to the new owner. For 8 Euro, you can book a tour to ride in a box that takes you to the top of the tower. I giggled with glee the whole ride up.

Also, on the campus there are tracks for off-road driving. You can drive a Volkswagen SUV around a track that includes fun things like driving up stairs, driving over railroad tracks, driving through pipe tunnels, water puddles, steep hills, and other adventurous things. You pay 15 Euro for a small SUV or 25 Euro for a bigger SUV. An employee sits with you in the car to show you how to drive and to make sure you don’t do anything too stupid. It was a total blast.

Tower of Cars from Resident on Earth on Vimeo.