Car Tips

Tips on buying a car and insuring it, as well as other useful information.

Buying a car from the dealer

Q: Do I have to have insurance to drive a car off the lot? Say I want into the city to a car lot and just put some cash down on the car, do the dealerships offer temporary license plates like they do in the States?

A: There are temporary plates, valid for 5 days. Some dealerships might do the paperwork for you (in that case you can usually also let them do the permanent registry, save yourself the hassle), others you have to do it yourself. You can also order them online.

You do need insurance for that. Just go to any insurance company and tell them you need a “Versicherungskarte” for the short term license plates. with that you’ll be insured for the 5 days those are valid. If you do register the car with the same company, the insurance for those 5 days will be free (most of the time), otherwise they will mail you the invoice later.

Registering a car in Germany is a time consuming process with lots of bureaucracy involved, so if the dealership offers to do it, let them.

Usually it goes like this:

You go to the dealership(s) and find a car you like.
You make an appointment for a test drive (often they have to get them ready. wash them, connect and recharge batteries, stuff like that). Depending on how much you trust the dealer and how technically adapt you are, you can take the car to TÜV or DEKRA or similar to get it checked (also make an appointment) or check it yourself for technical faults (some dealers will let you use their car lifts for that).
If you like the car and you’ve agreed on a price (and maybe haggled with them for some extra stuff like new set of tires or doing minor repairs first), you go to your insurance and deal with all the formalities there and you’ll get an insurance number to use for the car registration.
If you want personalized license plates this is also the time to reserve them (can be done online) - note that, unlike in certain countries, you can only customise your license plate within certain boundaries (for example, you cannot remove the city identifier). Then either you or the dealer will do the registering with all the documents needed and after that you pick it up and pay the money.
If the dealer is in a different area and you don’t have all the documents for the permanent registration, you have to get the temporary plates first, pick up the car (and its documents) and then register it yourself.

One more thing: I’d always insist on the dealer getting a new TÜV and AU and be cautious about the timing (serpentine) belt (“Keilriemen” and/or “Zahnriemen”) most cars should have theirs changed at ~100,000 km (some 80k or 60k), and doing so is a bit more costly, so a lot of people rather sell their car before doing it.

Insurance

There are three types of car insurance in Germany:

Haftpflichtversicherung (3rd party liability insurance). This covers any costs or damage you inflict on others with your car - e.g. if you damage another car in an accident, or hit a pedestrian. This insurance is mandatory.
Teilkaskoversicherung (partial first party coverage insurance). This covers car theft, broken windows, and damage due to wildlife and fire. This insurance is optional.
Vollkaskoversicherung (full first party coverage insurance). In addition to what’s already covered by the Teilkaskoversicherung, this also covers damage to your car where you’re at fault, as well as damage which cannot be attributed to another person (e.g. vandalism). This insurance is optional.

The insurance premium is determined mostly by three factors:

The car’s insurance rating
The car’s value when new
The driver’s insurance rating (Schadenfreiheitsklasse)

Each car has an insurance rating, which is based on the statistics for that car. e.g. VW Golf is a car often driven by young drivers which crash often, so the car is rated higher. Check Autoampel to see how the car you want to buy is rated.

The Schadensfreiheitsklasse is the number of years you’ve had insurance without submitting any claims; an SF of 5 means that you’ve had insurance and have not submitted any claims in the last five years. Beginner drivers start at SF 0 (i.e. 0 years of claim-free driving), which costs 200-230% of the baseline premium. The SF can be transferred between insurers (including insurers in other countries); if you’ve previously had car insurance in another country, ask your insurance company for a certificate which you can present to your German car insurance to get credit for the years you’ve had insurance abroad.

The Schadensfreiheitsklasse only affects your Haftplicht and Vollkasko premiums; Teilkasko premiums are not affected by the SF.

Other tips for lowering your insurance premiums:

If your parents live in Germany, see if their car insurance offers discounts for children.
Register the car as your parent’s secondary car, with yourself as a registered driver on it (you can still legally own the car physically, your parent would just own the right to drive it)
Play around with the Selbstbehalt (insurance deductible). By accepting a moderate deductible you can often reduce the monthly premiums.

To find a good insurance:

Check the rates at a comparison site (e.g. Check24. If you don’t know what car you want, make one up that’s roughly what you’ll be aiming for)
Have your parent call their insurance-guy and tell him the situation, then go to the one with the lowest price tag

Car costs

Both the ADAC and the Autokostencheck website have databases with total cost of ownership for a wide variety of car models. This database includes maintenance, fuel, and depreciation, giving you a broad idea of how much owning a car will cost. Due to comparatively high fuel costs and mandatory maintenance, owning a car in Germany can be surprisingly expensive.

Fuel

The vast majority of cars in Germany run on either diesel or (unleaded) petrol. The most common type of petrol is E10 petrol, which includes up to 10% bio-ethanol. Make sure your engine can handle this type of fuel; if you’re unsure, most petrol stations also offer petrol without bioethanol (although this tends to be slightly more expensive).

As a general rule, diesel fuel costs a bit less (mostly due to lower taxes) but road taxes are higher, so diesel cars are only financially attractive if you drive a lot. Additionally, diesel engines produce more pollution than petrol cars, and some diesel cars (particularly those with emissions ratings lower than EURO 6) are banned from entering certain cities with high levels of air pollution.

The clever tanken website maintains a database of fuel prices across Germany.

A few cars also run on LPG (liquified petroleum gas), which is available at most petrol stations. Electric cars remain rare, but the charging infrastructure is beginning to be rolled out.

Driving

For tips about driving in Germany, see the general travel advice page.