Hello guys,

I am looking towards buying a car now. This will be my first CAR in Germany, and so I will be grateful if you could pour down your valuable advices on buying a car, where to buy and which insurance to opt for.
I would also appreciate if you could share your experiences (good or bad) with me.

Hi,

While buying a car insurance amount counts a lot. If your license is less than 3 years old or you dont have any noclaim certificate from previous insurance, the best is to buy a car with small engine. This will reduce your insurance.
You can buy any car of your choice but i recommend japanses car as i have found them to be very reliable.
It is better to buy the car from a dealer as they give 1 year warranty and dont forget to see how long the TUV is for the car. if you want to buy from a private seller, the best is to ask him to make complete inspection from any garage, so that you know what needs to be fixed after you buy the car.

Is the common (mis)concept that spares of foreign cars are costlier and hard to get, true?

I think ADAC does this "car-checkup" what imram mentioned.

I heard from a friend that an insurance company called MLP offers a better Schadenfreiheitsklasse if you drove a car in your country, but it muct have been in YOUR name:

http://www.mlp.de/de/sach/index.cfm?fuseaction=default

Others I have heard of are:
Direkt line
http://www.direktline.de/
and HUK 24
http://www.huk24.de/

"i recommend japanses car as i have found them to be very reliable."

Hmm.. I guess it is a good idea to buy German cars as this will support the German Economy in which we are working in and car spare parts should be easier to find for german cars than the japanase ones. ( German cars look better than the japanase ones anyway.. Who would buy a toyota, when a mercedes for the same price is available to buy

Ok.. apart from the jokes regarding the german and japanase cars. I would be very much interested in the general experience regarding "buying a car" in Germany.

Regards,

Lacrima

Are you buying old or new car?
How many km will you make per year?
How long do you have german driving licence?
How much will you spend on car?

I can give you one advice.
I translated my licence and few days later I bought car. I tried to make versicherung but guy wanted 200% since I am driver only few days. I showed my old licence which I had 10 years and I showed my old Versicherung from my homeland with 50% bonus translated to german. That did not impress him so I said good bye.
Next Versicherung took both: my old licence and my old versicherung and gave me 55% bonus. So I save 3000 DM every year because I started from 55% instead of 200%.

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1400331,00.html

There are many more like these.

Cheers

@DvD
"I showed my old Versicherung from my homeland with --50% bonus--" - What is the exact meaning of this?

* I also got converted my old licence from my homeland and got a new one in Deutschland. But my previous licence is still in custody of the Registration office. Can I get that? or a copy of that? Will it help?
* I got my licence here in Germany 3 years back and since then I am renting the car and driving it. Sometimes taking insurance(when I go out of Germany) and sometimes not(when in local city only). Will my 3 year old licence help in this case? - Will it reduce(upto some extent) the costs of new insurance if I plan to buy a car now?

you can try to copy your licence if they did not trow it. But 3 years driving in D could be enough to get 100%(I am not sure).

do you know what bonus is?
if Versisherung costs 1000€/year than guy that just made licence pays 250% meaning 2500€.
This percent is next year smaller, maybe 200%, or 150% but only if you do not make a accident.
After number of years you can reach min. which is ~30%, meaning you will pay Versicherung only 300€/year.

aah....Now I understand....I knew it but I couldnot relate it with the word "bonus"

But in my country there is no such bonus system related to Car Insurance or so. At the max. They can only write me that I never had an accident(and hence no claims) in last 4-5 years(the period when I drove in my home country). Would this be acceptable here in Germany?

Can I ask you that what is the name of the company from which you took your Car Insurance. The later one which charged you @55%

it is KRAVAG.
you can try in your Versicherung firma to get Bescheinigung that you had no accidents, and than translate it here, but who knows will they count it. From some lands they will count it and from some not.

@nsoni

If u are not able to get a 'no claim' certificate or ur old license from the authority, then try at MLP.One of my friend got 100% with a German license less than 6 months old.

If u are bale to get a 'no claim' certificate' then keep trying different insurance companies.I found one after few tries which offers me 55% as i had no accident in the last 5 years of driving.

100% with less than 6 months old driving licence. Sounds quite surprising to me(quite cheap too). I will check out MLP and the other one also(the one by DvD).
Because so far I found that if your driving licence is older than 3 years, then Versicherung will start at 140% otherwise at 240%(for a new licence).

Hi Guys,
One of my colleagues also told me the same about MLP.He got his license last April and bought a car in July. He got 100%.
Seems this is a good insurance company.

By the way I have a Indian driving license since 2000. Will this have an effect on my insurance?

I wonder if after giving insurance at such less rates(like 100% for almost new licence) will they(insurance company) later encash our accident claims or NOT(simply run away) ??

Also is this 100% the rate for Vollkasko or Teilkasko Versicherung?

Soni

I got a reply from MLP:


Sehr geehrter Herr .........,

vielen Dank für Ihr Interesse an MLP Car.

Bei der MLP Versicherung AG erfolgt unbeachtet der Dauer des Führerscheinbesitzes generell eine Ersteinstufung in Schadenfreiheitsklasse 1/2 (100 % Beitragssatz) bei der Eindeckung eines Pkw. Wird ein anderes über MLP Car versicherbares Risiko eingedeckt (z. B. Kraftrad) erfolgt die Ersteinstufung in die Klasse 0 (z. B. 70 % Beitragssatz)

@nsoni

I mailed MLP with your question, and got a reply:



Hallo Herr ........,

ja dieses 100% SF Klasse gilt auch für die Vollkasko.
Teilasko hat keine eigene Schadenfreiheitsklasse.

@fred - thanks

Any 1st hand experience with MLP - regarding claims ??

Soni

MLP again:

die Schadenfreiheitsklassen gehen jährlich nach unten insofern Sie keinen Schaden haben.

Hier die Schadenfreiheitsklassen in Haftpflicht und Vollkasko:

Haftpflicht Vollkasko

SF 1/2 = 100% SF 1/2 = 100%
SF 1 = 100% SF 1 = 100%
SF 2 = 85% SF 2 = 85%
SF 3 = 75 % SF 3 = 80%
SF 4 = 65% SF 4 = 75 %
SF 5 = 60 % SF 5 = 70 %
SF 6 = 55 % SF 6 = 65 %
SF 7 = 50 % SF 7 = 60 %
SF 8 = 50 % SF 8 = 55 %
SF 9 = 45 % SF 9 = 55 %
SF10 = 45 % SF 10 = 50 %
SF11 = 40 % SF 11 = 50 %
SF12 = 40 % SF 12 = 50 %
SF13 = 40 % SF 13 = 45 %
SF14 = 40 % SF 14 = 45 %
SF15 = 35 % SF 15 = 40 %
SF16 = 35 % SF 16 = 40 %
SF17 = 35 % SF 17 = 40 %
SF18 = 30 % SF 18 = 40 %
SF19 = 30 % SF 19 = 35 %
SF20 = 30 % SF 20 = 35 %
SF21 = 30 % SF 21 = 35 %
SF22 = 30 % SF 22 = 35 %
SF23 = 30 % SF 23 = 30 %
SF24 = 30 % SF 24 = 30 %
SF25 = 30 % SF 25 = 30 %

Die Teilkasko hat keine eigene Schadenfreiheitsklasse.

I got my first car while I still had a foreign driving licence - I had to start from 125% at Deutsche Allgemeine. Luckily, that was in November, so I had to pay 125% only for Nov and Dec and from Jan next year I started with lower rate.

I was at 45% until this year, when they raised it to 65% because I had a small accident (a bicycle ran into the back of my car - no damage, no injured). It's still not clear to me why they increased the rate, because the court of law decided that it wasn't my fault. I'm going to switch cars in the next month or two and then I'm going to dump DA for some other house - I've seen cases that some insurance companies offer good percentage if you are switching from some other company.

I had more problems with in Kreisverwaltung - they didn't want to switch my national driving licence for a German one, so I had to go to the driving school and take a *complete* course, like I never had any licence.

Pay attention that the monthly insurance is not the only expense - one has to pay steuer (yearly) to the state and it also depends on various car attributes.