Recently, I bought a second hand auto in Germany. As a foreigner, there were some non-trivial steps. In this post, I will share my experience about how I had selected my auto. Here, I discuss the criteria. In the next post, I show the procedure in a step-by-step way.
If you want to find an auto, you have to check following information for each candidate. The first set “Essentials” are very important.
For instance, if you are goring to buy an auto which has only a few month till next technical inspection, you may find yourself in a trouble of changing a katalysator (about 1000 Euro).
The fuel consumption is also very important consider the current price of one litter Benzin (about 1.5 Euro). So I tried to avoid old autos and big engines. And the last critical parameter for me was the mileage.
Essentials:
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Erstzulassung (EZ) or age
Vorbesitzer or number of previous owners
Kraftstoffverbrauch or fuel consumption
Kilometerstand or mileage
HU-Prüfung (TÜV) or date of next inspection
Hubraum (cc) or motor capacity
Motorleistung (kW/PS) or power
Schadstoffklasse or class of pollution
Feinstaubplakette or emissions sticker
Unfallfrei? or any accident?
Klimaanlage und / oder Sitzheizung? or Air conditioning system/ seat heating?
Benzin/Diesel?
So I narrowed down the search to small autos, not too old, and with as little mileagespossible AND without accident. Such autos are usually cheap as new, so if you find a good second hand one, it is like an ideal choice. In addition, they are not old, so use new technologies, e.g., for better performance of engine. Done with Essential parameters, I the concentrated on other information:
Information:
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Zylinder
Gänge
Schaltgetriebe oder Automatik?
Sitzplätze
Leergewicht
CO2-Emissionen
Zustand Mechanik?
Zustand Elektronik?
metalic color?
And finally, you have to see which equipments are on the auto. That can balance the price significantly. Since many years, ABS is mandatory in Germany. Hence all autos do have it. Also almost all autos do have a central locking system. In contrast, things like ESP or board computer only appears in modern and not too cheap autos (e.g., Toyota Yaris). You can in principle run an auto without any of the following except for central locking (Zentralverriegelung). And remember, having such a central locking is also mandatory.
Equipments:
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ABS
Airbag
ESP (electronic stabilization system)
Elektr. Fensterheber (electric windows)
Klima
Radio/CD
Servolenkung
Zentralverriegelung
Wegfahrsperre
Lenkradhoeherverstellbar (adjustable steering wheel)
navigation system,
sunroof,
leather cover for seats
You can add other things to this list but they are not really important for autos in cheap range. Hope this was useful for you, it was helpful for me.
Micropore 