Automobiles in Your Vacation Home Exchange?

Your decision whether or not to include automobiles in your exchange is one you will want to think about as you consider doing a Vacation Home Exchange! Do you have a brand new car? How reliable is your car? In theory, I think that exchanging automobiles is an excellent idea, and a huge money saver.  Much of your decision about including cars in your exchange will depend on how your communication about the exchange "feels" and is proceeding. If, in your various emails, your exchange partner seems to use common sense, is “no nonsense”, and practical, exchanging cars might be a very good idea. But, if you have any questions about doing this, “when in doubt, don’t”!

As a part of your planning process, I’d suggest you draw up a list of questions about the entire process; this would be similar to the interviewing process (which it actually is!). So under the Automobile section, you would want to know such things as “What is the make and year of your car? How in your country do you maintain your car?  You could explain the prescribed car manufacturer’s schedule of maintenance, which they may not know or follow. What is the car inspection process where they live? Remember that most European cars do have a manual shift.

Some people will never want to include automobiles in their Vacation Home Exchange, of course. Then you will be exploring your car rental options. I have used www.AutoEurope.com when renting cars in Europe, since they are based in the US(Portland, ME).  So if I ever do have a problem I can deal with it in English. AutoEurope will also match prices. But you may ask your exchange partner about some local car rental companies, if you want do some comparison shopping.

Several years ago, automobiles were included in my exchange in southern France. I knew that I would be driving a ten year old car, which was fine. I had my car checked before I left, and found I needed new tires and new front brakes: my car was in top shape when I left. When we arrived, our exchange car was fine for around town driving. However, when we headed out to Arles and Avignon for five days, we learned that the tires were bald. Unfortunately we learned that after we had a blowout on the highway on a Saturday morning when everyone was heading to their vacation! (Every car in many European countries carry a vest such as I was wearing here while I tried to explain to the police where we were. there was a number on a nearby bridge, so he could spot us!)

I won’t bore you with the details of having the tire changed (expensive) or replacing the tire so we would have a spare tire(challenging in French!), but that has made me very leery of including cars in my exchange. I have heard since then that some people decide to give each other €500 in the event of problems such as this. (in the course of our many, many emails, I knew that my exchange partner was “difficult” and had “issues”, but I was committed and VERY excited about our exchange! I certainly never thought that I would have the sort of car problems which I did.) And by the way, my car was in good shape, except that I was left a $15 parking ticket.

IN theory, including automobiles in Vacation Home Exchanges is terrific! In practice, you will want to weigh your options, and do ask lots of questions! (I recently heard someone say they had exchanged 40-50 emails getting ready for her Vacation Home Exchange. I am sure that I’ve exchanged many more than that, as we’ve sorted out details as well as sightseeing information about the area.)

AND PLEASE, send me any questions that you have about doing Vacation Home Exchanges! Thank you…