Paperwork

To have a car registered in Germany is quite simple. At least if you know how to do it. Here is a short description on how you can save about 120,- Euro (year 2014) on the price of a car by doing a few things yourself.

Insurance

A car needs to be insured. Cars are cheap in Germany, but it still represents a value. In Germany the insurance is split in 3 types:

• Liability
• Half Comprehensive Insurance
• Comprehensive Insurance

Liability is dictated by law, the other two are volunteer. Half Comprehensive means that if a window is broken this is covered. The Comprehensive Insurance covers everything on your own car. No doubt - I went for the last and had to contact my preferred Insurance company. You bring your contract with the car dealer. The numbers on the contract are typed into the computer and you get a price and a few options. In case of a window breaking, I have to pay 150,- € and if I have to use the Comprehensive Insurance I have to pay 300,- €. As my experience is calculated differently in Denmark and in Germany, I have had a lot of problems getting my insurance set right - well - in Germany they are of the opinion that I've only driving 17 years without accidents. This means that I have to pay a relatively high price for my insurance - 800,- € a year. People in Germany do not understand that I laugh about this price. In Denmark it would have been almost 3 times higher. Well - anyway - I am handed over a piece of paper with a code which I later can hand over at the office where I have to register the car.

In Germany you can chose a license plate with a number of own choice - at least almost of your own choice. This kind of licence plate costs 11,- €. This would have been 100 times higher in Denmark.

Getting the right papers

The day before you want to register the car, you drive to the dealer who then hands over a lot of paper. You have to be German to understand the need for these... These papers are all needed to get the car registered. You also get a COC document. This is very important in Germany as this tells you what you are allowed to do with the car. If you haven't got this piece of paper you won't get the car registered. Simple as that. At the day where the car is to be registered, you drive to the "Bürger Buro". This is where everything is handled. You get a number, and then you have to be a little patient. The number of cars being registered here every day is way beyond what you can imagine. Germans change their car fairly often...

Bürger Buro

When your number is called you have to be ready with all your papers. I mean all the papers for the new car and also the ones for the old one (if you have one). Most important is though that you bring your Bank Account number. Furthermore you have to bring your passport. Then you as for a reregistration of the old car, and you then have to get the old license plate which then are made partly unusable. This means that you can use them the rest of the day - or in other words - you can drive to the dealer to get the new car you just bought. Then you have to cross the street to a show where the new license plates for the new car are being pressed. Back again to the Bürger Buro where the new plates are fitted with several stickers. These stickers tell in which state the car is registered and when the car has to be checked and examined the next time by TÜV. Ordnung muss sein!

After you have paid for the registration you can now drive to the dealer who then mounts the new license plastes. It will be his task to remove the old plates from the old car. How difficult can it be?

Environment sticker

In Germany there is a law saying that you need to have a sticker in the window of the car telling how the emissions of the car are. This also goes for turists from foreign countries. The colour of this sticker grants you rights to drive in certain cities. The best is a green Sticker - a Red will leave you outside any larger city. If you buy a car in Germany make sure this sticker is part of the price of the car. You will then save another 6,- €. If the dealer does not want to pay for this, you have to get this sticker at the Bürger Buro the day you get your new license plates.

Nothing in this world is for free. To register my car the price ended at a price of 43,- € (2014). Furthermore the license plates costs 37,- €. This is a grand total of 80,- €. In my eyes this is simply cheap.