Living
Buying A Vehicle
There are very few brands of vehicles you can’t get in Berlin and the ones you can’t get you wouldn’t want anyway. You’ll mostly see German cars careering through Berlin’s streets, but there are also plenty of foreign makes and models from elsewhere in Europe, Asia and North America.
Buying a car is similar to buying any other large consumer good, and is open to anyone with big enough pockets. Once you’ve found the car you want, you’ll likely be asked to make a cash down payment of about €500 until you arrange financing, show up with the balance in cash or transfer the full amount from your account to the car dealer’s. The Volkswagen Golf is by far the most popular car in Berlin and will cost you around €20,000, while the popular Audi A3 starts at just under €30,000. However, if you like the two-seat Smart you’ll only have to shell out about €8,000.
If you’re looking for anything from the Volkswagen family, which includes VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bugatti and even Lamborghini, check out its flagship store at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse in Mitte. Up Unter den Linden toward the Brandenburg Tor is Peugeot’s flagship outlet. Go three blocks toward Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse from the VW showroom and you can pick out a Mini. BMW has its main dealership on the elite Kurfürstendamm shopping mile in the former West Berlin. The Smart is sold in a massive store on Unter den Linden near the Technical University with an equally giant Mercedes dealership next door.
If you’re bringing a car with you as part of your move, German officials will see it as part of your household and not levy any fees. If you buy a used car in an EU country, you can also bring it in free of charge with little hassle – just be sure there’s a written sales agreement. However, if you buy a new car in a European country and then bring it to Germany, you’ll have to pay 19% value-added tax at your nearest Finanzamt within 10 days of purchase and then register it like you would any other car once you get it to Germany.
Buying a car is similar to buying any other large consumer good, and is open to anyone with big enough pockets. Once you’ve found the car you want, you’ll likely be asked to make a cash down payment of about €500 until you arrange financing, show up with the balance in cash or transfer the full amount from your account to the car dealer’s. The Volkswagen Golf is by far the most popular car in Berlin and will cost you around €20,000, while the popular Audi A3 starts at just under €30,000. However, if you like the two-seat Smart you’ll only have to shell out about €8,000.
If you’re looking for anything from the Volkswagen family, which includes VW, Audi, Seat, Skoda, Bugatti and even Lamborghini, check out its flagship store at the intersection of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse in Mitte. Up Unter den Linden toward the Brandenburg Tor is Peugeot’s flagship outlet. Go three blocks toward Checkpoint Charlie on Friedrichstrasse from the VW showroom and you can pick out a Mini. BMW has its main dealership on the elite Kurfürstendamm shopping mile in the former West Berlin. The Smart is sold in a massive store on Unter den Linden near the Technical University with an equally giant Mercedes dealership next door.
If you’re bringing a car with you as part of your move, German officials will see it as part of your household and not levy any fees. If you buy a used car in an EU country, you can also bring it in free of charge with little hassle – just be sure there’s a written sales agreement. However, if you buy a new car in a European country and then bring it to Germany, you’ll have to pay 19% value-added tax at your nearest Finanzamt within 10 days of purchase and then register it like you would any other car once you get it to Germany.
