The military will normally ship one vehicle per military member from your current location to The Netherlands. If you have never done this before it is a really simple but time consuming process. Vehicles are shipped from the nearest vehicle shipping port. The best resource for information about shipping your vehicle is https://www.whereismypov.com/.
It takes about 30-45 days to ship a vehicle from Baltimore to US Army Garrison Schinnen (USAG Schinnen). If you have a sponsor, great! Hopefully they have the time to drive you around for all your inprocessing and and other errands you will need to do. Otherwise, like me, you will have to rent a car. There is a car rental company on USAG Schinnen and they are pretty user friendly. Prices are in Euros but you can pay in dollars. It is not cheap to rent a car in Europe but the prices and service at Schinnen are probably better than what you will get off post.
Fuel is much more expensive in Europe than in the US and The Netherlands is one of the most expensive countries in the area for fuel. Diesel is cheaper than gas (called Benzine in Europe). Euro 95 lead-free benzine (95 Octane - Europe standard is about the same as 90 Octane gas in the US) is currently $5.01 at Schinnen. Driving in The Netherlands is mostly stop and go due to narrow roads and plenty of traffic jams (files in Dutch - pronounced fee-lahs) so you won't be getting the best mileage. If you have to refuel on the economy you will pay about $9.51 per gallon (2 May 2011). Oil and other lubricants are also correspondingly more expensive here than in the US. So, don't bring your big gas hog over here; you can't afford it.
Roads and parking places are sized for smaller, European cars. The first time I was here I had a Ford Windstar van. It was nice to drive but nearly impossible to park anywhere and driving through the small towns was nerve wracking. Speaking of parking, there is very little to no free parking in The Netherlands. You will need to carry a small bag of change or get a CHIP Card to pay for parking. Parking is fairly expensive when you consider the exchange rate.
Car repairs are also expensive. American car parts are often difficult to get. There is a repair garage at Schinnen but they mostly just sell and repair tires. There is an Auto Shop at the Joint Headquarters (formerly AFNORTH) at Brunssum. I have never used it so I have no advice to offer there. Auto Zone is the only American car parts store that I know of that will ship parts to an APO address. I had to have a master cylinder replaced on my car last year and the part would have cost $465.00 if I bought it through a Dutch garage but was only $75.00 through Auto Zone. But it does take about 10-15 days to get mailed here. I had great success on three occasions getting work done on the economy at local Dutch garages. The personnel were friendly (I do speak some Dutch) and the work was done professionally.
Car insurance from a stateside insurance company will be about twice what you currently pay in the US. You must have the "Green Card" from your insurance company to drive here. This is an international insurance card and all the insurance companies that deal with military members know about this (GEICO and USAA, for example). You might consider checking with a Dutch insurance company to see if their rates are better. There is a Dutch company right beside the library at the JFC in Brunssum.
The national speed limits in The Netherlands are as follows:
Highway - 120 kilometers per hour (about 74 mph) (soon to be 130kph)
Between City Limits - 80 kph (about 50 mph)
Within City Limits - 50 kph (about 32 mph)
The Dutch and Belgians generally disregard speed limits unless they know that there is a radar camera in the area. You should not. Speeding fines are expensive and progressive. The more over the limit you are clocked, the higher the fine. Roads are often very narrow and there are almost always bicycles to deal with. If you hit a bicyclist you are automatically at fault so you must be careful.
The Dutch do not do much in the way of snow removal in the winter. Snow tires are a good idea and mandatory if you are going to drive in Germany on snow. Drive as little as possible when it snows; the roads are bad and the Dutch don't do well on snow. I routinely saw cars in the drainage ditches or spun out in fields this past winter. There are no guard rails and nearly every road is bordered by a drainage ditch.
You will have to take the written driver's test at Schinnen to obtain a military driver's license. This test is pretty difficult and it is more common than not to have to retake the test at least once. You can pick up a study guide at the testing office, right behind the Schinnen MP station. Study, study, study. The testing office will give you a class but you will not pass the test if you just take the class without doing a good self-study. You will get a US Army and a NATO driver's license. I have never been pulled over by the Dutch police except for random Alcohol breath testing so I do not know how the Dutch police deal with US drivers. There are not that many of us over here so it is probably an unusual situation for them as well. Be very polite.
When I had to ship my car to Netherlands, there were hardly any good shippers. Now I see the market has evolved much. :)
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