Learning to drive in Munich

Has anyone here learned to drive whilst in Munich?

I am looking for a driving school and want to see what kind of prices are out there. So if anyone has any info I'd like to hear from you.

Thanks in advance.

Hi
I've heard that this woman is good.
http://www.fahrschule-christine-timmer.de
She's in Georgenstr.
Katrina

Thanks for that Katrina. I've already written to that woman asking for specific information.

It seems that the whole process is rather costly. For the normal B license you have to do a mandatory 14 theoretical lessons, 12 practical lessons (4 motorway, 3 nighttime & 5 cross-country [normal roads]) and then however number of actual lessons are required for the actual driving process. Then you've got some extra costs for the test itself and getting the license.

From the couple of schools I've checked this seems to clock in at around €1400 - €2000 before you get your license.

Am shopping around looking for something less frightening at the moment.

Hey Keydeck, my boyfriend is interested in getting his driver's lessons done too. Ask if you can get a discount for a group sign-up.

One place I spoke to today said that they would definitely do something of a discount (I always ask) if more than one person was involved.

I'm going to keep looking around for another week or so before making a final decision. I'll let you know what I come up with and perhaps we can take it from there.

So, I've found out that it's a bloody expensive business this learning to drive in Munich.

Here's the average costs for anyone who's interested:

Registration & Theory classes... €130-199
12 Special lessons (mandatory)... €420-495
Theory Test... €49-66
Practical Test... €130-160
KVR application... €45
TUV exam... €87.81

Those are the items that you must pay. The 12 special lessons involve 5 on normal roads, 4 on autobahn and 3 at night.

Normal driving lessons range from about 25 to 32 euro. Most of the schools I spoke to guesstimated about 10-20 lessons for the first timer learning, but then obviously it's different for everyone.

Assuming no outside assistance and let's say 15 of the normal lessons, you're going to be looking at approximately €1500 (but probably more) and about 3 to 4 months to get onto the road.

So, if anyone knows or has heard of somewhere in Munich that's undercutting all these prices then I'm all ears.

The figures above were based on the following driving schools:

• Christine Timmer
• Peter's Fahrschule
• Robert Rittmaier
• Fahrschule Feichtmeyer
• Fehr Fahren
• Stefan & Marco Fahrschule
• Fahrschule Eck
• Fahrschule Harzer

Well, honestly I´m affraid you can not really cut these prices, in Munich, at least.
10-20 normal lessons to me it´s always a euphonious amount from driving school, but in my opinion far away from being realistic, especially if your driving school is located near the city centre.
One way to save a bit is looking for a driving school outside of Munich, maybe within the SBahn area.
I guess the price for a normal lesson is a bit lower there, plus you do not waste your time and money with trying to drive in the city centre before you feel prepared to do so.
Good luck with it!

prices stated above are normal.

I recently passed with "christine timmer". Recommended as she speaks good english.

Brilliant advice. Thak you all. If I can get off the beer long enough to have the required level of sobriety, I may be learning over here too. Damned expensive though. Might be cheaper to go stay at my mums for a couple of weeks back home and do an intensive course there?

As far as I am aware there is a certain amount of hours you have to do in Germany before you can have your license. And seeing as you aren't allowed to practise at all (in that you aren't allowed to drive in the accompaniment of anyone except a qualified instructor until you have your license), all of these have to be paid for...

There are 12 mandatory driving lessons and 14 mandatory theory lessons. These have to be done and have to be paid for. However, for someone who has never driven before, you could at least save yourself some cash by getting an obliging friend or relative to help you out. For example, on any given Sunday you'll see plenty of people in the Olympia park carpark spluttering around in cars. Just need to find a big open empty space and you can at least learn the basic and have a practise.

back home..very popular/common amongst the more boisterous younger generation you just nick a motor and joy ride thus learning to drive in the process...

much cheaper and quicker.

given time and persuasion i am sure this will catch on over here (unlike greyhound racing) ..given the exhorbitant cost of motoring and such like..

good luck anyway keydeck. happy motoring.

I learned to drive here from scratch - i.e. never drove before, and the whole thing cost about Eur1400.
I did it through the Christine Timmer School everything was through English.

You *could* get some practice by jumping in someone else car in
some carpark somewhere, but if the police catch you, you're in deep
doodoo. (Which, in all likelihood folks, WILL happen, as curising
local car parks looking for evil is probably high on Munich's Criminal
Activity Agenda.)

What about refresher lessons?

I passed my test emm quite a few years ago now and havent driven since - well not legally anyway, and certainly not on the wrong side of the road I now have access to a car and would like to take some lessons to get my confidence back. I dont want to spend lots of money on it all either...any ideas?

According to the inimitable Christine Timmer...

"You have not driven a car for a longer period. Traffic is too much for you and you feel increasingly insecure. Practical classes especially for women with little driving experience will help you regain your confidence"

http://www.fahrschule-christine-timmer.de/english.htm

Hello All! Just a quick question.
I need to learn how to drive and have decided to do it in Munich despite the cost. A number of driving schools have been mentioned to me including the Christine Timmer Fahrschule. Has anyone been to her or to any of the other driving schools in Munich? If so, would very much appreciate a quick note of your experiences, trials, tribulations, etc.
Thanks a mill.

Hiya
I went to Christine Timmer for a returning to driving course as I had a huge frontal smash (not my fault before anyone starts that one) nearly 5 years ago.
I hadn't driven since.
Christine got me back behind the wheel (in only 4 hours in total) and I am very grateful to her - she is a lovely lady, knows her stuff, has a very nice calming voice and speaks fluent English.
I'd recommend her, she isn't the cheapest but she is great (and say hi to her from me).
Katrina

Hi Katrina,
Thanks for the info. Yeah, I was talking to her on the phone the other day and she seemed really nice. She said I can just come along to the lessons whenever I want and register then.
There is another one near the Hauptbahnhof called Stefan and Marco's and their prices seem good. Is there a catch I wonder???!!

I also did the driving license from scratch at Christine Timmer’s driving school and I would also recommend it. She speaks very good English and am happy to say I wasn’t ripped off and managed to get through both the tests in one go. And another thing, I’ve heard that the failure rate in the theory test is about 25% and on the day I did it, there were 10 of us and 9 made it, one guy even got all of them right.

My one recommendation would be to really learn your theory. I did my test here, and that was by far the worst. I thought it would be fine, I’d read the book loads of times and went to all the theory lessons, but it's very specific. If you get a maximum of 3 or 4 questions wrong, out of about 40, you fail. Some of the are really tricky (equations for braking and stopping distances, millimetre density of winter and summer tyres, trailers, motorbikes, automatic cars, etc) and the multiple choice questions are also sneaky, the answers can be A, B or C, and any combination therein (ie, A & C, A & B & C, just C etc.).

I failed my theory the first time I took it (by one point grrrr). About 50% of the people doing it with me failed (which did not make me feel any better - though it should have), for those who’d made the appointment to do the practical directly afterwards, it was a nightmare. My advice would be get the theory done as soon as you can, then concentrate on the rest.

By the way, I went to
Fahrschule Schlappner
81543 München, Pilgersheimerestr. 54 tel 652246
81669 München, Franziskanerstr. 16 tel 482455

at the recommendation of several english-speaking colleagues, and can definitely recommend it.

I must agree with LFF, The theory test should not be taken lightly. There are about 60 mock test papers each with 30 questions, but some questions are just repeated. The good thing is that the actual questions you'll get are going to be one of the above 1800 so it wont be a total surprise.

What I did was I did all the 60 papers and marked out the ones that I got wrong and repeated the cycle but this time only doing the ones I got wrong the last time and repeated that till I got all the questions right, and on the day of the exam I got up early and did another dash through the papers.

My advice to anyone who wants to do it is get the appoinment for the practical test *after* you pass the theory one, and do take the theory exam seriously.

So I don't get it... the test is way hard (sounds 100x harder than any state DMV in the US)... YET if you have an Arizona (or a few other states as well) DL then you can exchange it with no written or driving test. Here's the strange part... Arizona has the worst drivers in the US (which defacto means the world)... because of all the old folks there the test is basically are you blind, can you tell me what those four round things on the car are call... good here's your license.

Sounds like it would be cheaper to fly to Arizona, rent a apartment for a month, get a AZ license and trade it in.

I just got my drivers license finally yesterday after a long process. The theory test is really hard. You dont have to think or anything, just memorize a huge amount of tedious detail. I had to put a lot more time into it than any uni exam I have ever passed. And even then I only just passed.

Driving test I thought would be easy, as I had been driving already for over 10 years. But nope, it was even harder than the theory, BECAUSE of all the bad habits I had picked up. If my only driving experience had been a few hours with an instructor I would have found it a lot easier. I failed the first time driving normally, severley underestimated how picky they are. And the brakes, clutch, size of the driving school car was vastly different to mine, which caused a few embarassing difficulties too. Had to do about 5 hours worth of lessons with the instructor to unlearn my bad habits, and learn all the driving test style of driving, with the head turning and looking at the right mirrors at the right times, and both hands on the wheel etc..

Just passed it the second time though, yesterday All up it cost me around 700 Euros Still pissed off that certain countries can simply swap it over, and others have to do the stupid tests...

I went to the same school as LFF. They were great I have to say.

The theory test is nasty...don't underestimate it. Astonishingly, I managed to pass it with no mistakes and the first time too but need ed to take a day off work beforehand to memorize, memorize and memorize some more, as many of the questions involved zero logic and referred to bizzare nonsensical situations.

Like LFF, I'd also recommend taking the practice part slowly whilst concentrating on getting the stupid theory part out of the way. (At Schlappner the theory evenings were 2x a week and we needed to do 14 in all.)

Good luck with it all.

I also thought of doing an intensive course at home (Northern Ireland) but I've heard that you still have to do tests in Germany (after a year or something) in order to transfer the license. Also, in NI you get a restricted ® license for 9 months or so (at least they did 10 years ago). Could I drive with this in Germany or get an international license with this R license? Thanks
Tara

If you already have an EU license, a new German license is not required. If you have any possibility to do your license somewhere else (ie-Poland, Czech, Slovenia, etc) you can save thousands of €. I know right across the boarder in Poland there are companies that specialize in courses for residents of Germany. These courses are only in German though. I would check around to some other countries and see about courses. It may be cheaper if you go outside the city as well into a smaller town

Taking the theory bit seriously is one thing, but is it REALLY obligatory to actually sit though hour of bloody lessons?!?
I learnt at an early age to pay no attention whatsoever in any classes, as reading the book was a darn sight quicker, and for me, gets better results to be frank. Surely this is just stuff to memorise and regurgitate at the exam, there is no concet to grasp or anything atall difficult. I am dreading the idea that I will have to go to effing school between 8 and 10PM every week, and cannot for the life of me imagine that I will learn anything that a book could not tell me.

You may not learn anything in the classes... but you at least need to show up,
so "The Man" knows you've attended these classes.

Some of the shadier driving schools will say you've attended the classes
if you throw some cash their way.
If there's one thing worse than sitting through driving license theory,
it's teaching it for the umpteenth time ... so they are happy enough to
make some shortcuts.

Of course... finding a school that does this won't be easy in Toytown.

Well, I offered the driving school a bung last night, and it was a no go. Fucking unreal. The instructor was informed I was English, and said that was fine, she and her husband spoke English, the exam was available in English etc. What actually transpired was rather different, and I was lectured on the fact that if I live in GErmany, I should expect everything to be German.
Fair point, but when one has made a choice on a school based upon their statements of how they could easily cater for a student who would not speak German, it seems a little odd.

As the offer of a bung was not readily accepted, I tried the next step, intimidation. I am not at liberty to name the school here, but if you see a news story about a firebombing, its that one...

You might also consider a two week learn to drive holiday in
England or Ireland then convert this licence into a German one.
Sorry I do not have any links but I have heard it is a good idea,
and cheaper.

I learnt to drive here, the theory lessons are mandatory unfortunately as is the first aid course, I just used to try to stay awake through the lessons. I don't think anyone takes them too seriously that is probably why they weren't so interested in doing them in English, I would look at it as an oportunity to improve your german in a driving related way.

You can learn everything you actually need from the practice papers in a couple of evenings, they are simply rote learning don't think about it just keep going through them.

Has anyone had experience of Fahrschule Stefan & Marco ?
http://www.fahrschule-stefan-und-marco.de/preise.html

They are considerably cheaper than the others. Any experiences good or bad?

As already stated a licence validly obtained in any EU country must be recognised here, and does not have to be converted. The important word is validly. If you're registered as a resident here, and pop over to your home country to do the licence, it is officially not valid as you are not a resident of your home country at the time of the test. I think you have to deregister for over 6 months to lose your resident status here. In practice no one will really know this if you're over 28, as you can say it's your second licence (in Ireland they have to be renewed every 10 years and I guess it's the same in most other countries).

What exactly is a "restricted" licence? Do you get it before or after you do the test. In the south you can get a "provisional licence" before you do the test. This is not valid outside the jurisdiction. If a restricted licence in the north is the same, then it won't be recognised here either. If it is only a sort of probationary period after passing your test, then it should be recognised. They have a two year probationary period here as well.

Here's a tip for study materials and those who are somewhat german-able:

BUY THE CD. This replaces buying paper test questions, and is, as far as I know, quite a bit cheaper, unless you can get them from a TTer.

You will be able to study W-A-Y faster on a computer, and you will be able to cover every possible question, many times. With paper, you'll probably just get tired. The programs track which questions you've answered, and where you have weak spots. They also scramble the positions of the answers, so you don't rehearse answers-by-position.

You can get a CD for about 15 EUR at Huegenduebel.

Drawback:

I've only found the CDs in german, but there *may* be english versions. While my german is OK, this is all in "govmint german", so you'll [have to] learn some nice phrases for your next trip to the KVR. However, questions rarely have more than three lines of text, and you'll avoid the "bad translation" factor on the test that some folks experience when taking it in english. In the end, you learn the right answers, almost rhytmically, so language drops out of the picture to some extent.

Hi does anyon eknow if its possible for a non-driver to learn how to drive here/get his driving license in Munich and preferably through English??? Is it possible? Info? Suggestions appreciated, thank you very much

Topics merged by admin

I want to learn how to drive, any idea and suggestion on

where to get quiet an affordable price and any general tit bits and recommendations preferably everything in english.

thanks

miriam

Topics merged by admin

Anybody know of a reputable Fahrschule that instructs in Portuguese (ie: Brasilian)? We've got a friend who would rather do the driving practice in her native language. Written test etc. is no problem in german though.

Could anyone kindly tell me Fahrschule that can give instruction in English in Munich (preferably in the north part)?

thanks!

Topics merged by admin

Check the first page of this thread. Many of us did at Christinne timmer. Try to get the driving practicals with the new guy there (forgot name), he is quite good.

Anyone wants the book for the theory exam as well as the question & answer set in English? It's the latest edition "Auflage 5/2005 from Verlag Vogel Heinrich". I have just finished the exam and want to sell it at a cheap price. (Paid EUR110 for the whole set!) Just send me a message.

Carol

Online List of Driving Schools in Munich, many with websites.

i got my licence here (well, near passau because thats where my hauptwohnsitz is) a couple of weeks ago. took me forever because i had to fit it in around work, and then obviously head down to passau for a couple of days at a time. and there were a few breaks in lessons which cost me loads of time.

the whole thing cost me in total around 2200 euro.

failed the first theory test (youre allowed 10 fehlpünkte, i got 11 :/ ) but passed the practical first time.

you can do it in english (theory, lessons and test - check with your driving school) but i did it in german just for the craic.

i had considered doing it in ireland for the cheapness, but the missus drove around in ireland for two years and was horrified by the standard of driving so to be allowed drive her lovely golf I Karmann sport line cabriolet, i had to do it here.

bear in mind, you will have a probezeit of two years (there are courses you can do to drop that to 1 year) after you get your licence where your legal alcohol limit is much lower than normal and if you get caught speeding/messing around youll be suspended and sent back to driving school to spend another few hundred/thousand euro learning why what you did was a very very very bad idea.

Hi,

I am sure that this topic has come up before but I am going to ask anyway. I am Australian and have been living in Germany for quite some time (over 5 years). I have an Australian drivers licence which to my understanding isn't valid and not possible to change. This being the case I have decided to take the plunge and enroll in a German driving school to fianlly get my german licence. I live in Schwabing at the moment, can anybody recomend a good cheap driving school in the area?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Topics merged by admin

I just passed my driving test and thought I would share some info. Cost me just under €2,200 in total (I took more classes than average because after a bad experience when I tried first time in Ireland 13 years ago I was particularly nervous - scared shitless in fact - and had avoided getting a licence ever since.

Here's an overview of the costs. I did everything in German, you'd have to allow for a couple of hundred more to do both the theory and the practical in English I reckon (theory I think is about €35 extra, interpreter for the practical about €150 in my school).

FEES Total: €527.58
KVR Registration fee: €43,40
Driving school registration fee: €99,00 (special offer, their normal price was €199)
Book and Theory Test Papers €85,00
Driving school theory test fee: €80,00
KVR Theory test fee €10,35
Practical test TÜV fee €79,83
Driving school practical test fee €130,00

CLASSES Total: €1,612
Normal class per 45 minutes: €32
12 Mandatory classes (je 45 minutes at €44): €492

Also paid €20 for the mandatory first aid course - 6 hours long, a bit boring but you learn some good stuff too.

My school was not the cheapest, I know, but I wanted a very small school and of the places I visited this one just clicked with me. There can also be hidden costs if you fail a test - make sure you ask before you agree; you may have to pay the school registration fee again if you fail - that is not the case with my school.

The theory test is perfectly manageable - it does require A LOT of time and concentration though but IF you put that in you will pass; it is pretty much common sense and learning by heart. I was a nervous wreck in the pratical test because I just turned to jelly on the day but I somehow pulled it off - having my teacher with me helped and the examiner was incredibly nice and understanding and calming. A world away from my experiences at home. It is expensive here but it really is an excellent, thorough and effective process - I have so much confidence now and I am great at parallel parking... something I never thought possible! They taught me a foolproof set of rules and guidance points for every position, I tried them out and the job was done!

Crikey...that's not cheap

For German prices I think thats pretty reasonable. Its always been FAR more expensive in Germany than UK!

My son (18 yrs) recently completed his driving course and passed his test. Total costs were 1970 Euro. We were satisfied with the local driving school (that up here in Schleswig-Holstein).

Have to say that he's been driving cars on the local airfield since he was 14 so he had a bit of a flying start (ouch) and on first practical lesson was able to get car moving, change gears without stalling the engine. Had to learn everything else - and in his case there wasn't a language difficulty.

Just got my License in Munich and wanted to put in a good word for Christine Timmer. She spoke very good English and was very flexible with scheduling. I took 2 lessons then my practical exam. The exam was almost the same route as one of my practice rides.

As far as the written exam, I just bought a set of exams on TT. Studied them and took the exam - no problems. No reason to spend money on attending classes.

http://www.fahrschule-christine-timmer.de/

I can also second that recommendation. I passed first time, which was all you can really ask for.

Someone told me last night that the NZ-German conversion is now just a straight swap with no need to sit the exams. Damn...I only recently spent ca €500 to do the exchange with all the exams etc!!

Hi,

I am looking for a driving school especially who can teach me in English in the city. If any one of you know could you please let me know?

Thank you so much

regards,
sensan

Topics merged by admin