Buying a car

Sunnyspain wrote on Sat Jan 14, 2023 7:11am:

Hi ref q3 we bought ours from carsinspain. They have a website and are based in Torre Pacheco Paul sorts out all the paperwork and insurance. Highly recommend. We decided not to bring our car from uk due to the expense. 

2nd hand cars are not cheap here though. You don't say if you are resident with spanish licence. If you live in uk with UK licence make sure you are not on the padron because the police will assume you live here and fine you if you get stopped. The fine can be appealed....

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crissywissy wrote on Sat Jan 14, 2023 10:41am:

I bought from Paul at Cars in Spain too he has a good choice but you might have to up your budget! Liberty Seguros has been the best for insurance. Approx the same cost as uk but includes breakdown cover 

Danboy1980 wrote on Fri Jan 13, 2023 9:30pm:

Evening all and Happy New Year. 

I have finally decided to take the plunge and buy a car after figuring out I have spent almost £2500 on car hire in the last 15 months.

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Could someone please help with a few questions?

1. Is it better to buy a Spanish car or one in the UK and import?

2. If it is better to import what are the taxes and are they on the value I pay or the value of the car when new?

3. Can you recommend anyone in La Tercia/Mar Menor/San Javier areas and close by who sells cars that you have bought from. 

4. Can you recommend anyone who I can take insurance out with that is reasonably priced?

Thanks in advance, any and all help is appreciated. 

Dan

RichT wrote on Sat Jan 14, 2023 5:22pm:

1. Buy a Spanish registered car in Spain. Firstly, you need to be left-hand drive if driving here regularly - ease of use at car park barriers, toll booths, etc.; but more importantly safety, particularly when overtaking. You could buy a LHD car in the UK, but there will be very little choice and...

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... you will still have to pay the import duty and matriculation costs (see below).

2. If you did import a car, (unless it is a one-off import on your permanent move to Spain, which it doesn't sound like you're doing) you need to pay import duty which is based on a depreciation at 10% per year against the original cost of the car when new, multiplied by a % tax based on the car emissions {e.g. (not real rates, but close) - car £30k new, 5 years old, so £15k x 19% tax = approx. £3k tax}. You also need to have the car matriculated onto Spanish registration, take an ITV (MOT) and potentially change the headlights - average cost for this is around £1k. So, unless you have a car that you have a special attachment to, it's generally not worth it!

3. Used cars are generally more expensive in Spain than in the UK. www.coches.net is the equivalent of autotrader, so you can get an idea of prices there.

4. I've used Linea Direct (directline) for car insurance and they seem to be fair. Most insurance in Spain covers any driver over 25 years old, which is handy.

Hope this helps!

Barbara50 wrote on Sun Jan 15, 2023 9:47am:

Hi, Dan.  We took the plunge last year and bought over the Internet from caroutlet.es as we live in England. The service was fabulous and the sale was based on us approving the car when it was delivered to us at Alicante Airport. 

All the paperwork was taken care of.

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We use Linear Direct and they have been excellent. I've used them already when the car battery failed due to extreme weather conditions last year.  Premiums are OK, breakdown cover is included in all car insurance in Spain and its the car that's insured not the drivers.  So anyone over 25 can drive our car including visitors from the UK.

Don't accept the first quote, though, and they'll negotiate with you. We got ours down by €80 at renewal a few months ago.

We ended up with a 13 year old Ibiza with low mileage, but it was all we wanted/could afford due to used cars being far more expensive over here.

Good luck with your search!