The salaries at the big car companies are not bad actually (compared to other German companies... compared to the US they are pitiful, of course). The problem is the company culture. If you look at the recruitment material you will immediately notice this attitude of infantilization they have towards IT. They don't attract that kind of talent who's in it for the thrill of problem solving. They end up getting all the morons who like the brand and IT salary but have no passion for technology and it really shows in the product. Zalando is exactly the opposite: They sell extremely uncool shoes and are 1000 times as innovative as BMW with their sports cars. MOIA is also much better than their parent corporation Volkswagen.