Are "lassen" and "sich lassen", when used causatively, interchangeable?

Question

What I mean by that is the following: If I want to say, for instance, *He is having his car repaired*, I say in German, *Er läßt sein Auto reparieren*. But can I say the same (*He is having his car repaired*) with *sich lassen* instead: *Er läßt sich sein Auto reparieren?*

Answer 1

That's an interesting question! The difference is that "lassen" is a non-reflexive verb and "sich lassen" is a reflexive verb. You can say "Er läßt sein Auto reparieren", but you cannot say "Er läßt sich sein Auto reparieren", because having his car repaired is not something that he has done to himself, but to his car. This is different when he has his hair cut. In that case you can say "Er läßt sich seine Haare schneiden". You can also say "Er läßt sich reparieren", but that means that he is a robot ... ;-) ... or that he is joking about an operation and calls it "being repaired". Hence, you can only use "sich lassen" when it's something that is done to the person and not something that is done to an object the person owns.