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Expensive fun: driving license (symbolic image)

Photo: Michael Bihlmayer / picture alliance / CHROMORANGE

The barrier to driving is getting higher.

As “Welt am Sonntag” reports, the cost of a class B car driving license in Germany has risen above 3,000 euros for the first time.

On a nationwide average, learner drivers had to pay 3,070 euros last year, the newspaper reported in advance on Saturday.

This is eleven percent more than in 2022. The numbers come from a regular industry survey by the Moving International Road Safety Association, an association of European traffic publishers and driving schools.

According to the report, the main price driver is the increased costs of driving schools for fuel, personnel and vehicles.

However, other factors such as the fees charged by offices and testing associations are fixed and stable.

TÜV and Dekra, for example, charge just under 23 euros for the theoretical test and around 117 euros for the practical part.

The information corresponds to an ADAC survey from autumn, which does not give an exact average.

In it, most of the novice drivers who had had their driving license for a maximum of six months stated that they had paid between 2,500 and 3,500 euros for it.

However, for a good fifth it was 3,500 to 4,500 euros, and for four percent this sum was not enough.

A lot depends on the number of practice hours required, which varies from learner to learner.

A lot of extra hours were necessary, especially in the city, but fewer in the country.

In Munich, up to 4,500 euros are normal

Regionally, the average numbers can even seem surprisingly low.

“Die Zeit” reported in the summer that the Hamburg driving school association put the cost of driving licenses at 3,500 to 3,800 euros, and a Munich driving school even quoted up to 4,500 euros.

On the other hand, it was said from Cottbus that 2,300 to 2,500 euros could be expected there.

The numbers underline the concern that driving licenses are increasingly becoming a luxury item - just like owning a car.

According to the ADAC, the proportion of learner drivers who were able to pay for their driving license out of their own pocket fell from 47 to 22 percent in just over three years.

The family often helped out.

However, inflation apparently hardly deters the urge to get behind the wheel.

"The need to acquire a driving license is higher than ever before, we are currently experiencing a rush on our testing centers, which are working at high capacity," said Richard Goebelt from the TÜV Association to "Welt am Sonntag".

With 1.7 million initial and repeat exams per year, the number is 200,000 higher than in the mid-1900s.

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