Who owns the car
Ownership in Germany is evidenced by the Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil II — the document formerly called the Fahrzeugbrief. On a financed vehicle the lender holds it until the final instalment is paid, because the document stays with the owner, not with whoever is driving the car.
This is why we insist on seeing the original before money moves. German law does protect a good-faith buyer, but that protection falls away where the circumstances should have raised doubt — a missing original is exactly such a circumstance. A cheap car with a story about the document being "at the bank" is not a bargain; it is an unfinished sale.
What the seller has excluded
Private sellers in Germany routinely exclude liability for defects entirely, and that exclusion is generally effective between private parties. A commercial dealer cannot exclude it in the same way when selling to a consumer. Which of the two you are buying from changes what you can do if something is wrong after the car has left.
We tell you plainly which regime applies to your purchase before you sign, rather than after.
The translation
You get the contract in your language, clause by clause, with the parts that carry consequences flagged rather than smoothed over. Where a term is a German legal concept with no clean equivalent, we say so and explain what it does, instead of picking a comfortable-sounding word.
Sources
Public references for the rules described above. Requirements change — we confirm the current position for every car we handle.
- ADAC — Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil II as proof of ownership
- Good-faith acquisition ends where suspicion begins