Transport to beaches

I can't comment on the public transport in that area, however, if this is just a holiday home, you will find that the economics of hiring a car far outweigh those of buying a car.

Car hire is very cheap - generally around €5-€7 per day.

New cars are similar prices to the UK; however, the used car market is very different to the UK. Used cars are either 'nearly new' (which can provide good discounts on the new price), or very old, high mileage and battered!

Then if you take into account depreciation, insurance, car tax, maintenance, MOT (ITV), safe parking, airport parking, then car hire is a much better bet.

Hope this helps!

That’s very useful advice but I’ve hired a family car for 10 days when we visit in late April and it’s cost £300 with insurance so that’s quite a bit more than £6-£7?

So in the long term I’m thinking wouldn’t it be beneficial to buy a second hand car for about £3k if I am wrong please tell me as I’d like to get it right and I’m now thinking you might be right?

Thank You

Trevor Stokes

Macclesfield Cheshire

Hire car costs vary significantly depending on car size, hire company and time of year. There are often bargain deals at a couple of weeks or so notice, although I appreciate that sometimes people want to book 6 months ahead for certainty. I've hired for as little as €2 per day for a fiesta-sized car 'out of season', but I've also paid €50 for a weekend in peak times. 

I use 'DoYouSpain.com' or book via the Ryanair / Easyjet websites. Hertz & Avis are expensive, but many of the other companies are fine to use (although I & many others would strongly recommend staying well clear of Goldcar & Interrent, for example). I use RecordGo or Drivalia. Prices for 2021 do look higher than past years - I guess some companies may be reducing their volumes of cars available and working together to drive up prices after what will have been a terrible 2020.

However, I've just looked at 'DoYouSpain' for 23/4 - 2/5 and you can hire a 5 door Fiesta, Focus or Seat Leon for c. €185 with RecordGo or Alamo. I also have an annual insurance policy through 'icarhireinsurance' which insures against excess charges (this costs approx. £60pa), so I don't pay for anything other than the basic insurance from the actual car hire company. I've only had to claim on this once and they paid out in full.

If it's a holiday home and you visit for 6 weeks a year, plus, say, a further 6 long weekends, then you could pay approx. £1200pa in car hire, for a new fully-maintained car each trip. I guess this is what you would spend on insurance, servicing, maintenance, MOT, car tax, etc. on a car that you own - then you need to factor in airport parking every time you come & go - the most basic long term companies are around €300 pa.

The other issue is what kind of car would you get for £3k? As I mentioned the spanish used car market is very different to the UK. Company cars are not common in Spain, so there isn't a regular flow of 3 year old cars onto the market and the Spanish tend to buy a car and then hand it down through the family until it's run into the ground. The equivalent of Autotrader is coches.net, so you can see what's available there (remember the 'mileage' is in kms - I forgot when I was first looking!).

I guess the best idea may be to try out car hire while you find out what car purchase options are available. La Tercia is about 30 mins drive from the Mar Menor, so I would expect that bus services would take considerably longer and I think the train lines don't run to the coast at that point - try google maps?

Richard

(Currently Glasgow, soon to be Zarzadilla de Totana, Murcia, was Wilmslow, Cheshire!)

Wow that’s a comprehensive reply Richard and one that’s helped us to make up our minds we are going to hire and shop around, so thank you for the help.

I think the first few times we visit we will hire a larger car to transfer things to the apartment but after that a Fiat 500 will be fine though I’m 6,1 and my son is 6,6!!!

Thanks for your help, btw I played football for Alderley Edge for 2 seasons back in the mid 90s and in the very late 80s as a young man I managed Peter Dominic the Wine Merchant for 15 months in Wilmslow.

Be aware that if your son is under 25 it will either cost a lot to insure him on a hire car, or even that he may not be able to be insured. The rest of Rich T's comment looks very sound advice.

I cannot help wondering why questions like this are being asked after buying a place...

What do you mean why questions like this are being asked after buying a place?

Are you one of those people who expects the whole world to go about life in the same way as you? And are you now about to tell me I should have asked this or that before buying?

I bought anyway and I’m learning on the job I like that I think it’s more fun than having it all laid out in front of me, I get that in England.

I’ve never owned abroad before or lived away from England so I think I’ll do things my way, after all I like to think anyone that has ever owned a holiday home would say “do it the way you are most comfy with” 

My son will not be driving he has autism and anyway that’s my role.

If you are going to use Hired cars consider having your own Car Excess Insurance will save you a lotTake photos and get them to note every single mark before you leave the depot,Single trip is ok, annual better valueWith us they marked the paper and knew not to cause a problems so hand over was easy, but you must allow time
Best of luck
BTWI do not know of any bus service

Great advice thank you and I’ll be looking at yearly insurance without question and almost certainly taking it out.

Hi, we have annual travel insurance through Staysure at about £120 for the pair of us and the car hire XS addition costs £25 annually. Had to claim once in 3 years and got my money back within a few weeks with a little admin and a phone call. The only "issue" doing it this way is the heavy XS deposit on a credit card, I just keep one specifically for this purpose. 

Regards 

Tim