Posted: Tue Feb 9, 2021 7:06pm
I would certainly recommend left-hand drive if you are here permanently. Although it will take a little getting used to (more so if you have a manual gearbox), it is safer for overtaking, driving in general and also for those little things like paying at motorway toll booths, using ticket machines in certain car parks, etc.
The second-hand car market is not as developed as in the UK for two main reasons: 1) company cars are far less common, so there are less 2-3 year old fleet cars being passed through to the second-hand market; and 2) traditionally, spaniards buy a new car and then hand it down through generations and basically drive it into the ground. So, all in all, you will find a smaller selection of used cars at higher prices than in the UK.
A lot of used car dealers tend to sell high mileage, older, cheap cars in poor condition. However, many main dealerships will offer low mileage (and remember it's kilometres when looking at the 'mileage' a car has done!) or so-called 'Kilometre 0' nearly-new cars that are often pre-registered to achieve a certain sales target, but not actually sold for 6-12 months - and this can result in them being 25-30% cheaper than their price as new.
One thing to watch out for is the pricing - commonly you will see a 'cash' price and a considerably lower 'finance' price. However, if you go for the 'finance' price, that is the price quoted without including the interest paid on the finance, which will often take the price significantly higher than the cash price.
Try www.coches.net which works like autotrader.
Hope this helps!