The first car registration. Driving your own car for the first time. Getting to know the protection certificate and European accident report. Don't wash your clothes, air them instead?

November 18, 2024.

The alarm clock rang at 8:30am. The alarm was set because I had an appointment with yesterday's salesman at 9:30 a.m. so that he could help me register the car.

A few minutes before our meeting, I went outside and waited for him. At 9:30 I texted him that I was already outside waiting for him. 1 minute goes by, 2 minutes 3 minutes, 10 minutes. I get a feeling that I have been deceived despite the trust. But at 9:42 sharp, the salesman calls me.

“Hi, I'll be with you around 10:00,” he says with a slight Arabic accent.

"Good morning! All right, just call me as soon as you get there. I'm inside,” I reply with relief and go back into the apartment to wait in the warmth.

He picked me up at 10:00 a.m. and we drove to the registration office. It was basically a container outside. The woman at the counter asked me for ID, the vehicle documents, the EVB number, the IBAN, the telephone number, the address, a license plate number and whether I needed an environmental sticker.

I said goodbye to the nice salesman and he then drove off. I had to wait about half an hour for the car plates to be ready. I was so nervous that I went to the Lidl next door and bought a pack of cigarettes to calm down a bit. I never thought in my life that I would ever drive a car. I used to be dead set against it. But soon I'll be driving it and even living in it.

I sat down at McDonald's, had a coffee and a vegan burger.

I got a call at 10:54. The license plates are ready. After I finished the coffee, I went to pick up the plates full of excitement. The registration cost me about 70 €. I got a new registration certificate part 1 and part 2, which were rewritten in my name. I also got a fine dust sticker, which I apparently have to stick on the windshield.

Full of joy, I texted the seller that I had received the plates. When I got to the car, he helped me attach the plates. He told me again that he does not guarantee the car. I told him that I trusted him to give me a proper car.

“You can drive the car now,” he said after we'd put the signs up.

“What, already?” I ask, slightly excited. I still have a workshop at the Jobschmiede and actually wanted to drive it later because I don't have the confidence to drive a manual car straight away.

“You can bring the car to you,” he replied.

And so I got over myself and got into the car. Before I wanted to drive off, I of course forgot to release the handbrake...

After driving off, I steered in the wrong direction. The seller showed me with a hand gesture that I should drive in the other direction. Then I didn't know how to engage reverse gear. He showed this to me. So I drove backwards and then steered in the right direction. Carefully, in second gear, I felt my way through the narrow one-way street. I drove around the block once and then ended up at the first red light. Full of nervousness, I wait for the green light. I can see the drivers behind me in the rear-view mirror.

“Just don't stall, just don't stall”, I thought in my head and engaged first gear to set off as quickly as possible so as not to make the drivers behind me honk their horns. With a few jolts, but without stalling, I was able to pull away. In the middle of the junction, I waited until the oncoming traffic had passed and then I turned into the street where I live. A broad grin unfolds on the face because I realize that I can drive the manual car reasonably well. As soon as I get used to the manual car, I'm sure it will be even easier. The fears I had were totally unfounded. It's much more relaxed to drive without the driving instructor because there's no one to nag me.

I parked in a forward parking spot right in front of the apartment and went home only to realize I forgot to lock the car.

I sat down in the car to have a proper look inside for the first time. I found the owner's manual for the car in the passenger drawer. I leafed through it a bit, then loaded up the spacious car with the rest of the household items I wanted to sell or give away before I went to the workshop at the Jobschmiede.

I still had an hour before the workshop. So I sat down outside in a sunny spot at Sterni, ordered a Turkish chai and studied the Dacia Logan owner's manual. From time to time, several people came up to me and asked me for cigarettes. I gave one or two cigarettes to the three people who asked me. I had a whole pack there, which I didn't want to use up myself.

When I arrived at the Jobschmiede, I was told over the intercom that today's workshop had been canceled due to an internal event. So I went back to the car.

Sitting in the car. Do I dare take the car to Borsum now? What if I stall at the traffic lights? (An embarrassing feeling rises in me). What if the car does break down and stops in the middle of the road? Fears come up. Oh, come on, Alexander. The world won't end if you stall or break down.

I turned the ignition key.

The tank is still half full.

Good, luckily I don't have to fill up yet. I probably wouldn't even know how to unscrew the fuel filler cap. I put the car in reverse and carefully drive out of the parking space. Good thing the street where I live is a quiet area.

The first traffic light turned green as I approached. I turned left. At the second set of lights, I was behind a Mercedes. I managed to turn left at the lights without stalling. A car honked behind me after I turned. I don't know why.

I accelerate further and shift into fourth gear. I'm grinning.

The speedometer pointer on the speed display drops to 20 kilometers, while I'm probably driving around 70 km/h. What is that? My broad grin disappears. He's not serious, is he? Did the seller hide this defect from me?

At the next set of traffic lights, when I changed back into fourth gear, the speed display seemed to work again.

When I arrived in Borsum, the first thing I did was to park forwards. That worked well. But I wanted to park in reverse to get the trunk closer to the garage. That turned out to be very stressful. Not only because I'm a novice driver. The fact that the car doesn't have a reversing camera like a driving school car, is much longer than a driving school car and is also manually operated didn't make parking easy either.

I almost knocked over a garbage can that was on the passenger side. I cleared it away first because otherwise I would have been too overwhelmed by the situation. A car waited until I cleared the road. The two in the car looked at me like wild animals. It was kind of embarrassing. Maybe I should have put “DRIVING BEGINNER” in capital letters on the windshield and rear window? Never mind. I managed to park!

I got all the documents out of the car's drawer to digitize them and take a closer look. I wanted to open the hood. The two pedestrians looked at me funny as I fiddled with the hood to open it somehow. Then - finally done.

I had a look at the technology under the hood, but I couldn't really do much with it - apart from removing a few withered tree leaves around the edges.

I checked all the lights. Sister helped with that. The rear brake light works on the left and right, but not at the top of the rear. The indicators work. The parking lights and dipped headlights work. I think I now know why the guy behind me was honking his horn. He probably wanted me to switch on my dipped headlights. But I didn't know how to do that at the time.

I took the heavy winter tires out of the trunk and put them in the garage. I found a jack and the rest of the tools for changing tires on the side of the trunk. Perfect, then I'll learn how to change tires soon.

In the evening...

I first looked into the additional benefits of the car insurance I have taken out. The cover letter is a fairly inexpensive additional benefit that comes into play if the car breaks down - even abroad. Towing, rental car, return journey are all included. It even includes repatriation from abroad, even if I'm not traveling by car. I simply call the breakdown service and they help me.

I have also printed out a few European traffic accident reports as a template. This is a standardized form for recording the course of an accident. I can then send this to the car insurance company. I have prepared the accident report by entering the insurance policy number and all the vehicle details. These forms will go in the glove compartment of the car tomorrow.

After today's sweaty day, I started an experiment that I got as an idea a few days ago: Don't wash clothes, just hang them up to air. That way, I'll need even less water when I'm in the car as I won't have to wash clothes. Hopefully - if I succeed in the experiment - it will get clean by itself. I already defined what clean means to me on November 13, 2023. Clean means: no dirt stains and no unpleasant odors.

I do the experiment with just a T-shirt at first. So I took the T-shirt off and smelled it. The sweat-inducing ride has caused the merino shirt to smell. I turned it inside out and hung it up indoors. I'm curious to see if the smell in the armpit area of the merino shirt disappears the next morning. If the indoor experiment doesn't work, I'll try to improve the airing strategy next. For example, I could hang the T-shirt in the sun, in the wind or at least outside overnight.

Even if the clothes-not-washing experiment doesn't work or only partially works, then plan B comes into play. The T-shirt hung up for airing today only smells in the armpit area. So it makes sense to wash the T-shirt ONLY in the underarm area. So I will only wash the parts of the clothes that are not clean, i.e. that are dirty or smelly. This dries the clothes faster because I don't wet the entire garment and also reduces water consumption.

• For the fact that the man who sold me the car helped me at the registration office.
• For the fact that I still have half a tank of gas to drive.
• For having the courage to drive the car straight away, even if I didn't want to at first.

Continue Reading