Driving in Germany

Interesting, what is, a post about driving in Germany, doing in my blog? Actually I recently went through process of obtaining a driving license in Germany and this post is mostly about to have a quick and easy reference to some related information. So, I decided to write this post even it has nothing to do with software engineering.

I actually took most of the information from online resources and just compiled those here. The original sources posts/videos links are in the reference section which you should check for more detailed info.

You can also find some information about Buying a car in Germany in this post. Let me know if you would like to see some more info on this topic.

AutoBahn

die Landstrasse

Before autobahn. You are usually allowed to drive faster than 50km/h. Max allowed speed is 100km/h.

die Autobahnauffahrt

Information about Autobahn.

No entry

No-entry sign indicate where you should not enter.

Acceleration lane

Its important to accelerate when entering the autobahn. The traffic which is already on autobahn have the right-of-way.

Emergency Telephone

Car breakdown

When you are dealing with car breakdown situation, its important to wear safety jacket and setup warning triangle accordingly. Its mandatory to have such vast and triangle in your car by the way.

Target Speed on Autobahn

Changing Lanes

Changing lanes is only allowed when there is a dashed line.

Overtaking

You are only allowed to overtake from left lane.

Freeway Exit

Each stripe represent 100m.

Detour sign

This sign will lead to another route you can take during traffic-jam which will end in original auto-bahn you were driving on before.

Exit Autobahn

Off-course you need to drive slow when leaving the autobahn. In this case max. allowed speed is 60km/h.

Loose gravel sign

Road signs

Parken

You can park your vehicle here.

No Stopping

You should not stop your vehicle in this area.

No parking

You can stop but you should not park or leave your vehicle in this area.

Speed Restrictions

The white circle with red outline generally means restriction or prohibition.

Overtake Restrictions

This sign means, that you are not allowed to overtake vehicle in front of you.

No Pedestrian

This sign is generally located near autobahn or highways.

Give-way

This sign means that you have to slow-down or stop and give way to traffic on intersecting road.

Pedestrian Crossing

This sign shows crossing where pedestrian have right of way.

Roundabout

Before entering you have to give-way to traffic on left. When you are in the roundabout, you must not stop.

No Entry

Indicates that its a No-entry road.

ALL vehicles Prohibited

The sign is clear but to be honest I am not sure how it is different from previous sign. If you have some idea, leave a comment and I will update the info 🙂 .

Do checkout other signs which are placed next to this one.

No Motor vehicles

No U-Turn

Mandatory Direction of travel

All traffic must go either straight or turn right (no left turn)

Stop Sign

When you see this sign, you have to stop completely and give way to traffic on intersecting road.

Wild animal warning

Shows warning. Also you should not use the beam lights in this area.

Dead-end Street

Autobahn sign

This sign indicates that you are entering autobahn. Hence, all the autobahn rules applies.

Urban Area

Priority Sign

This sign means that you have priority on all the intersections on this road, until it is cancelled by stop sign, give-way sign or a sign that shows end of priority road. Also, one is not allowed to park on this road outside urban areas.

Right of way (next intersection)

This sign means that you will be given priority a the next intersection.

Priority of on-coming traffic

Mock Driving Test Video

I found following video which shows a typical driving test. Coincidentally, my own real test happened in exactly same area and this was very helpful for me.

Information about how to buy a car in Germany

Here are some suggestions about buying a used car in Germany which were given to me from online community:

Service booklet. You can see if the car had its service at the recommended intervals or not.
HU/AU letters. Here you can see if some defects were found and they were fixed.
Condition of tyres. If the tyres (summer and winter) are included and in good condition, that can save you a couple of hundred Euros.
One not directly related information: I heard from a colleague that registering a car is taking couple of months nowadays! So you might have to deal with some issues like transfer of the car (if the owner deregisters it, you need to register it quickly) and beginning of insurance, where to keep the car as an unregistered car is not allowed to be parked on the streets etc. Do try to find out some more info as you might not be able to use the car for a couple of months.
You need to take the old car plate to get a new one if old owner didn’t deregister. Which means car is on the street parked without a number plate.
If the car is expensive, you can also consider having a TÜV Gutachten done before buying. They can check the car more thoroughly than us.
To avoid registration delay, it can also be done online (by yourself) and you receive new Teil-I/II by post within a week.
Search online for ADAC gebrauchtwagen check. They have a list of items to check for used car.
If it is de-registered car, then couldn’t be test-driven and always creates doubts.
Keep in your mind a car bought from dealership gives you 6months Gewährleistung. So buying a car above 10k is advisable from dealership. U need to explicitly ask this as many make a private contract and you get nothing…. if you hear any strange sound coming from car when testing, leave the car.
Check if the engine has “Zahnriemen” or “Steuerkette”. If its Zahnriemen they are to be changed at regular intervals of 70-80 thousand kilometers and costs like 500-700€. If the car has a Steuerkette then no need of changing/replacing.
While test driving check whether axle are functioning properly or not, make full left donut and full right donut to see .
Check Scheckheft is available.
One advice, if you yourself don’t know much about cars, than take someone with you who knows it very well. Otherwise some Handlers also have tricks to hide many things temporarily. And an expert can see those too.