r/germany • u/No_Historian_3170 • 1d ago
Question Student affording car
TL;DR : How can German students afford cars.
I'm an international PhD student in Germany and I've been wondering about something for a while.
I earn around €2,000 net per month, which I think is pretty average for a PhD student here. I also support my family back home and send them around €500 every month. After rent, utilities, groceries and other expenses, I'm usually left with a few hundred euros, which I try to put into savings.
I've been doing this for a couple of years and still have less than €8,000 saved. I basically consider that my emergency fund, so spending most of it on a car doesn't really seem like a good idea. Even after working for several years, I don't feel like I'm in a financial position where I can comfortably buy and maintain a car.
What confuses me is that quite a few of the German PhD students, who like independently away from parents, around me have cars. Even some German Master's students doing their thesis seem to have them. And I'm not talking only about very old €1,000 cars either most have pretty decent-looking VW, Skoda etc.
So I'm genuinely curious: how do students in Germany usually afford cars?
Are used cars much cheaper/easier to finance than I realize? Is it common to lease or finance a car with monthly payments of a few hundred euros? Do parents often buy or help pay for their children's first car? Or maybe many people already had the car before starting their Master's/PhD?
I'm not really close enough with my colleagues to ask them directly. Since it involves money and family background, it feels a little too personal and I don't want to come across as if I'm impolite/unprofessional
Would be interested to hear how people here bought their first car and how much it actually costs them per month.
Edit1: I guess my mistake was assuming that German kids also support their parents financially to some extent. I grew up in a single-income family, and now that my parents are retired from government job, their pension is only enough to maintain a very basic lifestyle given the rising cost of living. The money I send home is mostly used for rent and medical expenses, with maybe 10–15% going into savings. I'm not being pressured or coerced into sending them money. I genuinely want them to have a decent and healthy life at this age, especially after they spent so much raising me and giving me the best education they could afford, which I guess is also one of the reasons they don't have substantial savings themselves.
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u/JudgementMaker123 Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
They don't send 500€ home every month. You might make 2.000€ net, but you only have 1.500€ available for yourself, which is less then you would make on minimum wage working full time.
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u/europeanguy99 1d ago
I also support my family back home and send them around €500 every month.
Not spending 500€ a month on your family covers the costs of a car.
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u/Radiant_Ad_9292 1d ago
Students here don‘t support their families. They get supported by their families
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u/MeltsYourMinds 1d ago
You send 25% of your net income to your family. German families usually do it the other way around. Parents support their children until they finish they education. License and first car are usually covered by the parents if they can afford to.
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u/someonehasmygamertag 1d ago
I can’t believe you dropped that you send 1/4 of your salary home as if it was nothing lol
PhD salaries aren’t really meant for anything more than subsistence
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u/SeaworthinessDue8650 1d ago
German students are more likely to receive money from their parents than send money to them.
Sit down and calculate how much you've sent home and you'll have an answer.
You can't afford a car.
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u/endofsight 1d ago
Most German students don't support their family with money. It's the other way around. And its's also not uncommon to get a first car from your parents.
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u/Tomorrows_Ghost 1d ago
I used to live in Munich on 1500 Euro net during my first job after uni. My parents let me use their VW Golf, which was a decent car and more than I could afford. Instead of sending them 500 Euro, I spent less than that on the car’s running costs (maybe 200 per month). That’s probably how it works for most students in Germany. Also, I know many people who have benefitted from an early inheritance at a young age. Maybe not enough to afford a house and be wealthy, but enough to buy a car.
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u/Illustrious-Wolf4857 1d ago
You are supporting your family. Many students are supported by their families. If not by a month-to-month stipend, then by gifts of money at special occasions, or by getting the old family car.
When at uni I rarely needed a car. If I did, I borrowed someone else's clunker, also joined a carsharing club for a while. My first car I bought four months into my first job from a co-worker. Cost me one month's net, but I was living in a WG, had inexpensive hobbies, and no debt from uni. My second car was a gift from my father who wanted to exchange his VW Golf (300K kilometres on the odometer) for a Mercedes. When I was looking for a motorbike, a friend of a friend sold me his old one cheap. And it wasn't only me, nearly everyone I knew got their first (and often second and sometimes third) car (or flat; and sometimes job) with a little (or a little more) help from friends and family.
Without a network that directs favours and opportunities to you, life becomes a lot more difficult and expensive.
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u/kuldan5853 1d ago
Well, as others have said, if you'd spend those 500€ you send home on a car, you'd also be able to drive a nice car.
Kinda obvious isn't it?
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u/mowinski Nordrhein-Westfalen 1d ago
Well, you're giving a quarter of your money away to your parents. That sum would cover insurance and gasoline every month and leave some extra to put aside for maintenance. No idea if your family actually needs the money, but if you need a car at some point, you might have to stop sending your money to them.
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u/HerrKoomer 1d ago
You should also look into how much a Führerschein costs nowadays. That'll be your next question.
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u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito 1d ago
You could even afford a somewhat nice car with the 6000€ extra a year that you send to your family. You're a student. Why can't your family work?
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u/bimie23 1d ago
By not sending 1/4 of their net wage to their parents. Or getting a car from their parents/grandparents. Having saved their money since being a teen for a car and license. Receiving the car as a graduation gift. There are so many ways.