I also worked in the German car SW industry and can confirm what he said. They just don't value SW development. The only way to make decent money there was to become a manager and climb the corporate ladder. Programming was never valued and always under the pressure of off-shoring or throwing the work to talent on a visa from abroad who won't have high expectations. The closer you were to the money, like financial controller as said by the sibling, or upper management, the more you were valued, while the closer you were to "the trenches" the less you were valued.