How much does a driving licence cost in Düsseldorf?

We can't honestly give you one total figure, because most of the cost depends on how many practice lessons you need, and that's different for everyone.

Your money goes to two quite different places. Part of it goes to the driving school: the base fee, your driving lessons and the fee for taking you to the test. The rest is fees you pay straight to others, namely TÜV, the driving licence office (Straßenverkehrsamt), the eye test centre, the first-aid provider and the photographer. So if you only compare driving school prices, you're only comparing half the bill.

There's no official price for driving lessons. Each driving school sets its own, which is why prices across North Rhine-Westphalia vary a lot from town to town and car to car. With us a lesson lasts 45 minutes, and you'll find the price on our price list. We only publish it there, so you never come across two different figures with one of them out of date.

Practice lessons and mandatory drives (Sonderfahrten) cost the same with us. That's worth knowing, because the twelve mandatory drives are required by law and nobody can skip them.

We charge for each lesson separately. That way you pay for the driving you've actually done, and not for a package you had to pick when you registered, before anyone could know how much you'd need.

A driving lesson lasts 45 minutes. A double lesson is two of them back to back, so 90 minutes, and it costs exactly twice the price of a single lesson. There's no extra charge and no discount.

We didn't choose the 45 minutes ourselves. It's the unit of training set by the German regulation on driver training (Fahrschüler-Ausbildungsordnung), which says in so many words that the mandatory drives count at 45 minutes each.

Under Anlage 4 FahrschAusbO, at least one of the country road drives and one of the motorway drives must each last two 45-minute lessons. For those appointments you pay for two lessons, so expect double the price per appointment rather than a higher price per lesson.

Nothing extra. We don't charge for theory lessons one by one, because they're all covered by the base fee you pay when you register.

For a first licence you have to attend twelve double lessons on the general topics, plus the lessons that are specific to your class. A double lesson is 90 minutes, and our theory timetable shows which topic is on when.

The theory test costs €24.99 for every licence class. TÜV Rheinland charges you this fee directly, so it isn't included in any driving school's price.

Nobody books the theory test for you. You simply go to the test centre yourself during its opening hours. Before that, the driving school has to clear you for the test, and we do that once you've passed our mock test. Clearing you for the test costs nothing with us.

In Düsseldorf the official testing body is TÜV Rheinland. In other German states the tests can be run by a different organisation.

The practical test costs €129.83 for classes B, BE and AM, and €162.67 for the motorcycle classes A, A1 and A2. This is also a fee charged by TÜV Rheinland, not our price.

On top of that comes the driving school's fee for taking you to the test. It covers the appointment and the use of our car, since the examiner sits in it with you. You'll find that price on the price list.

You pay the test fee directly to the test centre, and you pay it again every time you take the test.

You take the eye test at an officially approved test centre, which in practice usually means an optician, an eye doctor or a company doctor. There's no fixed national price, because each place sets its own, so it's worth asking what it costs before you go.

The test itself only takes a few minutes. You get a certificate, and you'll need to hand in the original at the driving licence office. If you wear glasses or contact lenses, you wear them for the test, and the fact that you need them is then noted on your licence.

Watch the timing here: by law, the eye test certificate can be no more than 24 months old when you apply. So doing the test too early really can cause a problem.

There's no official price here either. Each approved provider sets its own, so it's worth comparing the German Red Cross (DRK), Johanniter, Malteser, ASB and private providers. The law only sets the length: at least nine teaching units (Unterrichtseinheiten) of 45 minutes each.

That usually takes up one Saturday or a long weekday. You have to do the course with an officially approved provider or a public body. A purely online course doesn't count, because the training includes practical exercises.

The German driving licence regulation (Fahrerlaubnis-Verordnung) doesn't give the certificate an expiry date. So if you've already done the course for another class, you normally don't need to do it again.

When you register, you pay a one-off base fee rather than a regular charge. You'll find the current amount on our price list.

We leave the figure off this page on purpose. The base fee is the price that changes most often, because it's the one our promotions usually include. If the same number appeared somewhere else as well, that copy would sooner or later be out of date, and with prices that isn't just untidy, it's a legal problem.

One thing applies in every case: the amount shown when you pre-register stays the same for the whole of your training.

The City of Düsseldorf charges €45.90 for issuing a first driving licence. At Höherweg 101 you can't pay in cash, only by debit or credit card, Google Pay or Apple Pay.

There are no exemptions or reduced rates for this application. You pay the fee whether or not you pass your tests in the end.

Our checklist for the driving licence office explains which documents to bring, what order to get them in and how to book an appointment.

There are five things you pay to someone other than the driving school: the TÜV test fees, the application fee at the driving licence office, the eye test, the first-aid course and your biometric passport photo.

Together they don't come to a huge amount, but they're fixed costs that everyone pays, whichever driving school in Düsseldorf you choose and however quickly you learn. That's why any honest calculation has to include them.

Because the law only fixes a small part of the training. For class B, what's fixed are the twelve mandatory drives: five on country roads, four on the motorway and three at dusk or after dark, each lasting 45 minutes. How many practice lessons you need before those depends on nothing but your own driving.

That's where the big differences come from, because the number of practice lessons is different for everyone. An instructor who tells you how many you'll need before your first lesson is just guessing.

If you retake a test, you pay the full test fee again: €24.99 for the theory test and €129.83 for the class B practical test. For a practical retake you also pay the driving school's fee for taking you to the test again, and you'll usually need a few more lessons to prepare.

You also can't retake it straight away. A failed test can only be repeated after a reasonable period, which is normally at least two weeks.

That's why we don't put anyone in for the test just because the date in the calendar has come round. Taking the test too early is the most expensive shortcut there is in learning to drive.

You save the most by needing fewer lessons, far more than by finding a lower price per lesson. If you keep your theory and your driving lessons close together instead of leaving weeks in between, you need less repetition, and every lesson you don't need is money you keep.

The second big factor is the theory. If you've really understood it, you don't have to pick it up in the car while you're also trying to drive, so you become a steady, confident driver sooner.