Car deadlines · for car owners in Germany and Japan
Autofrist is a car paperwork tracker for drivers in Germany and Japan who want every legal date for their car on one screen. Enter the first registration date and the date of the last inspection, and a row of traffic lights comes on at once: the HU (the test most people call the TÜV), the 30 November cut-off for cancelling German car insurance and the winter tyre season, or, in Japan, the 車検 (shaken) inspection and 自賠責 insurance. Red means a deadline has passed or an inspection has nothing logged yet, amber means a date is close, and green means it is covered. Everything stays on your phone.
Give the car a nickname, pick Germany or Japan, and type the first registration date and the date of the last inspection. The board lights at once, one lens per deadline, each showing a due date, a count of days or an open season. An inspection with nothing logged to count from starts red, so the very first screen shows what is missing.
When the car has been tested, enter the date. The lens flips to green and the next HU moves 24 months on from the month of the test, which is how §29 StVZO counts it. A late test is not backdated, and the screen says so rather than pretending you kept the old cycle.
Tell Autofrist the policy follows the calendar year, or enter the date its year ends. In the month before the cut-off the lens turns amber, a reminder arrives on 1 November and again on 23 November, and you mark the year as notice sent or keeping it. Autofrist never asks which insurer you use or what you pay.
Ask a driver in Germany when the next HU is due and they will walk round to the back of the car. The month sits at the top of the round sticker on the rear plate and the year sits in the middle, which works until the car is parked two streets away. The insurance cut-off lives in the yearly letter announcing next year's premium, and winter tyres live in the memory of the last frosty morning. Three dates, three hiding places, and nowhere that shows them side by side.
Japan has the same problem in a different shape. The 車検 expiry is on the inspection certificate, the 自賠責 certificate carries its own end date, and the two have to line up. Autofrist puts each of these dates for your car on one board and keeps it current from the dates you type in.
Every deadline gets one lens. Red means an inspection date has passed, or there is no record yet to count from. Amber means an inspection is 30 days away or less, or a seasonal window is open: the month before the insurance cut-off, or the winter tyre season. Green means the date is logged and still ahead. Each lens also carries an icon and a word, so the board reads the same for anyone who struggles to tell red from green.
The colours describe your records and nothing more. If the car passed its HU last week and you have not logged it, the lens stays red until you do, and a line under the board says the status comes from what you entered, not from any authority. Winter tyres never turn red, because Germany sets no fixed date for them. Nothing blinks and nothing beeps; a light changes only when a date or a record does. Tap any lens for the rule behind it, its source and the date that source was last checked.
HU (Hauptuntersuchung). A new car's first HU is due 36 months after it was first registered and every 24 months after that, as set out in §29 StVZO and its Anlage VIII. Autofrist counts from the first registration month until you log a test, then from the month of the last HU. The deadline is the end of that month, the same month your sticker shows. Reminders arrive 60, 30 and 7 days before.
Insurance cut-off (Kündigungsstichtag). Most German car insurance runs with the calendar year and can be cancelled with one month's notice, which is why 30 November matters: ADAC points out that the cancellation has to reach the insurer by then. If your policy year ends on another date, enter it and the cut-off moves with it. The insurance date is optional; leave it out and the item simply rests. Once you mark a year as notice sent or keeping it, that year is settled.
Winter tyres. German law has a situational rule rather than a calendar date: on black ice, packed snow, slush, ice or hoar frost, a car may only be driven on tyres with the Alpine symbol (§2(3a) StVO). The familiar O bis O, October to Easter, is a rule of thumb with no legal weight, as ADAC notes. Autofrist reminds you once in early October and lets you log the day the winter set goes on and the day it comes off.
Choose Japan for the car and the board changes to two items. According to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, the first inspection certificate for a private passenger car is valid for three years and each renewal for two. The ministry also notes that the renewal inspection, 継続検査, can be taken from two months before the expiry date.
自賠責, the compulsory liability insurance, sits beside it as a linked item. The ministry's glossary states that for vehicles subject to 車検 the insurance period has to cover the whole inspection period, so 自賠責 appears as a linked item that you confirm once it runs at least as long as the new 車検. Autofrist does not sell or renew insurance; it only shows whether you have recorded that the two dates line up.
Most of the year the board sits still, which is the point. In early October one reminder says winter tyre season has started. On 1 November the insurance cut-off turns amber and a reminder arrives, with a second on 23 November, a week before the deadline. Inspection reminders come 60, 30 and 7 days before the due date, which leaves time to get a slot at a testing station before the month runs out.
Reminders are local notifications planned on the phone itself. On the lock screen they say a car paperwork date is coming up and nothing more: no number plate, no nickname, no talk of fines. You open the app to see which date it is. If you sell or scrap the car, archive it and its reminders stop.
Autofrist does not compare insurance, recommend a provider, or work out what you might save by switching, and it has no field for an insurer's name or your premium. It does not book inspections or guess whether a car will pass. It is not a maintenance log either, so there is nowhere to record oil changes, mileage or repair bills, and no place to keep photos of your documents. Each item has one free-text note, handy for a testing station or a certificate number, and that is all.
There is no account and no server behind it. Your car's dates live on the phone, can be exported to a backup file and restored on a new one, and can be wiped from Settings in one step. Autofrist is not affiliated with TÜV, DEKRA, ADAC or any insurer.
Autofrist is a deadline organiser, not legal advice. Rules change and contracts differ, so confirm dates with your insurer, your testing station or, in Japan, the local transport bureau (運輸支局).
From two dates. A new car's first HU is due 36 months after first registration; after that, 24 months from the month of the last HU, under §29 StVZO. The deadline is the end of that month. You can check the result against the sticker on your rear plate or the date in your Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I.
No. Autofrist keeps dates and records. It does not judge the car, predict a result or make bookings. When an inspection is close it reminds you to book one, then waits for you to log the date.
Most policies follow the calendar year and carry one month's notice, so a cancellation for 31 December has to arrive by 30 November. If yours renews on another date, enter the date your policy year ends and Autofrist counts one month back from it instead.
No. The rule is situational: in wintry road conditions the car needs tyres with the Alpine symbol on all wheels. October to Easter is only a rule of thumb. That is why Autofrist shows winter tyres in amber or green, never red.
Yes. Choose Japan when you add the car and the board tracks the 車検 expiry, three years for the first certificate of a private passenger car and two years for each renewal, along with a check that your 自賠責 covers the same period.
No account. Everything stays on your phone and the app makes no network requests. You can export a backup file, restore it on a new phone, or delete all data from Settings.
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