German Rent a Car history

The earliest records of car hire can be traced as far back as 1904, when a bicycle shop in Minneapolis started offering cars for rent.

Godfrey Davis UK, the first British car rental company, was also established back in 1920.

By 1923, the company grossed $1million, a remarkable number for its time.

By 1926, Saunders had expanded to 56 cities.

Joe Saunders’ three brothers and father started taking part in the business and by 1927, the Saunders System had branches in over 85 cities.

The next Sixt innovation was a fleet of Radio Taxis, equipped with radio gear from the United States, introduced in 1948.

The business was relaunched after the war and an export taxi fleet set up for the US Army but it wasn‘t until 1951 that „Auto Sixt“ Rent a Car was established.

Saunders’ company was bought by Avis in 1955.

In the UK, Arnold Clark Car & Van Rental was established in 1963.

In 1966, Sixt opened branches at Munich and Frankfurt airports.

In 1969, the German car rental market was dominated by seven major national and international players, with around 2,000 local businesses competing for the remaining crumbs.

The year 1977 marked another important step for Sixt.

Another license for Germany was acquired by Sixt in 1979 from Carey-Limousine Service, and its company was included in the world's leading driver limousine service network.

The French company Europcar bought this company in 1981.

The importance of this alliance is reflected in the fact that in 1982, when the company was renamed Sixt Autovermietung GmbH, the Budget logo became part of the Sixt logo.

In 1990, Guardian Rent-A-Car was established in Pensacola, Florida.

'Sixt greift nach dem Spitzenplatz,' Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 15, 1991.

In 1994 the company entered an agreement with the leading German air carrier Deutsche Lufthansa, becoming a partner in that company's Miles & More program.

In 1996 the first Sixt rental station opened at Vienna airport.

However, in April 1999 the Oberlandesgericht Munich found Sixt AG guilty and ordered the company to bear the cost of the lawsuit and to pay damages to Budget.

In the spring of 2000, Erich Sixt confided to the correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Karl-Heinz Büschmann, that information technology was one of his responsibilities and that he spent many hours a day on the Internet.

In February 2001 Sixt lost the appeal when the German Bundesgerichtshof rejected the revision Sixt had asked for.

About ten percent of all car rental revenue went online; the company expected to sell cars, spare parts, airline tickets and insurance contracts over the internet by 2003 for DM 300 million.