Running costs for cars in Germany

[Thud_Mcguffin]

Hello all,

much to my surprise I now find I will be moving to Bonn for a few years with the company I work for. Amongst other things I need to get a car sorted. I'll probably be looking at something like a Z4 or 2003ish 911. Before I get too carried away, can anyone give me a feel for what insurance and road tax is like vs the UK?

[JMGS4]

Road tax around 300-400€ p.a. Insurance depends on your insuarnce broker. I pay fully comp, all EU countries, greencard etc, paying only 55%, for a 996 Targa, around 1000€ p.a.. As a newbie you may have to start with 250% unless you have a recognise NCB form from your present insurers.
Starting at 150% as a newbie seems normal if you've no german ins experience
JMGS4

[dcb]

JMGS4 said:

As a newbie you may have to start with 250% unless you have a recognise NCB form from your present insurers.

+1

It is vital to get a document from your current insurers for your
NCB otherwise your German insurers will load you.

It's a few years since I've had any dealings in this area,
but a friend of a friend with maximum NCB of 22 years had
a quote of about 1000 DM for his 911. That was fully comp
over all Common Market countries as standard.

I'm not sure if the Germans still do NCB up to 22 years.
It seems much more sensible than the UK system of up to
five years or so.

[Thud_Mcguffin]

Thanks guys - I have full NCD in the UK so I will make sure I get some written evidence before talking to the German insurers. From looking at Mobile.de it looks like cars in general more expensive than the UK. This doesn't worry me too much as the company helps out with cost of living differences but are there any performance cars which are relative bargains compared in the German market?

[dcb]

Thud_Mcguffin said:

are there any performance cars which are relative bargains compared in the German market?

The Germans have technically just pulled out of recession,
but times are still pretty hard.

Expensive stuff isn't moving well, so there are bargains to be had.

Also, there are plenty of "Jahre Wagens" - cars built last year which
haven't sold and are clogging up dealer forecourts.

If you don't mind driving round in a German's idea of a unpopular
colour (Mud brown 911 for example), or with a bad set of options
(cloth seats and no CD player springs to mind), and you don't
mind shelling out tens of thousands of Euros on a LHD drive car,
then you could be driving a bargain.

Also, the non-German brands tend to be somewhat selective in
their sales numbers in Germany. So Japanese, English and Italian
performance makes can be quite cheap over there, because they
are much less popular in the marketplace.