Any advice on buying a car in UK or Spain ?

Hi All,

Hubby and I are just buying our pals place in Quesada and can't decide whether to buy a left hand drive car in UK and drive it over or to visit a recommended* dealer/ship in the locality when we get there (car to stay permanently). Any one had any experiences they would care to share?
* We are not naive, as I am sure we need to have our wits about us whether we are dealing with UK or Spanish car salesmen! But any experiences or advice would be great - Cheers

Debslav

Hi debslav,
There have been quite a few postings on the forum about the merits of owning a car in Spain. Do I take it you have decided to purchase but unsure whether to buy in Spain or Uk?
Second hand cars in Spain are more expensive than in the Uk. I bought about 4 years ago in Spain and whilst it great not to be handing out money to the car hire people every time you visit it costs me around €800 to €1000 a year to run it ( including parking at airport etc )
I am afraid I cannot comment on what the costs are to bring a car from Uk into Spain and if there are any issues driving a left hand drive car. Quite sure someone will advise accordingly.
There are plenty of second hand cars available around Quesada.
I purchased from Costa Cars in La Zenia and found them excellent.
They have a very good website and worth a visit just to give you an idea of cost.
Wherever you decide good luck.

The Boundary

Hello,

We have lived in Quesada for over six years and bought our UK car with us as it was relatively new. My husband was a bit nervous at first of driving a right hand car but as I had often driven in Europe with a right hand drive, I was confident. Nowadays we just get on with it and don't really think about it. The things to think about are: Approaching motorways from the slip road, unless you have someone with you, there is a blind spot. Car parks are a problems when collecting a ticket or paying into a machine - you have to get out and go around to the machine itself. Toll roads present a similar problem if you are driving alone.
We have a Honda made for the UK and recently had a problem with the electric window on the passenger side so needed a new part. This became a huge problem as the mechanisms are in reverse order. Spanish dealerships and local 'English' garages had problems sourcing the part and after six weeks and no joy, we contacted the UK Honda dealership we purchased the car from, told them our plight. They ordered the part (by the way from Belgium) and sent it to us within 5 working days. Carriage cost for the part was only £30.
The other thing to check out is how much you might have to pay on Spanish Import Tax if you register it here - which by law, should be done (I believe within 3/6 months). Spanish Road Tax is a lot cheaper than the UK so is Car Insurance.

If we had our time again we would have bought a Spanish car when we first arrived, not so much red tape and of course easier to drive. Cars in Spain are a little more expensive though.

Hope this helps - gone on a bit but thought it worthwhile.

debslav wrote:Hi All,

Hubby and I are just buying our pals place in Quesada and can't decide whether to buy a left hand drive car in UK and drive it over or to visit a recommended* dealer/ship in the locality when we get there (car to stay permanently). Any one had any experiences they would care to share?
* We are not naive, as I am sure we need to have our wits about us whether we are dealing with UK or Spanish car salesmen! But any experiences or advice would be great - Cheers

Debslav

Hello Debslav,

We have thought about this often and, as Theboundary has said, there are a few postings on this subject here on TalkQuesada. I know it isn't directly answering your question but the topic on this link is interesting and makes some good points about owning a car in Spain : http://www.talkquesada.com/quesada-general-discussion-f9/car-hire-or-car-purchase-t1320.html

Also these may help too:
http://www.talkquesada.com/post7382.html?

http://www.talkquesada.com/post201.html?


Jan

We bought our second hand Matiz from Alhonso's garage just across the roundabout from the Arches and received excellent service.

I know I recommended Costa Cars in my last post but have been using Alhonso's garage for some repair work and found them excellent. Always have a good selection of cars in stock.

Buy one in Spain. Bringing a UK car over will cost around €1,000 when you take into account the registration fees, matriculation costs, changing headlights and fog lights and so on. It can be done cheaper if you look on eBay etc. However, you still have the problems of blind spots, parking and toll booths etc. New cars in Spain are slightly cheaper than UK (all depends on the exchange rate, of course) and second hand cars up to about 3 or 4 years old are comparable. Anything older and they are more expensive in Spain but, on the plus side, you get a better return when you sell it. Goldcar sales in Torrevieja do some excellent cars at reasonable prices. Also, if you wish to upgrade in the future, selling a UK spec car with Spanish plates can be problematic.
Whilst you can keep a car in Spain for up to 6 months as a visitor, if the car is to remain in Spain you should register it within 30 days as you are not supposed to drive a foreign registered car in Spain (obviously, the "up to 6 months" applies to holiday makers). There may also be a 12% import tax (based on the current value in Spain) if you are not taking up residency. This is waived for those taking out residency as it is classed as personal goods providing you re-register it within the 30 days.
Here's an example:
Spain -Ford Focus 3 years old at €7,500. Possible registration fee of €180 (Goldcar don't charge that fee).
UK - Ford Focus 3 years old at £6,000 or around €7,000 at current rates. 1,000 for new headlights etc and rematriculation. About €800 tax if you aren't a resident.
Of course, buying an older (and therefore cheaper) car in UK and the prices are much lower. For example, you could pick up a 10 year old Seat Ibiza in UK for about 800 quid but could pay around 3,000 euros in Spain. The import tax on the older car is less but the headlight changing and so on would still be the same. And you'd still have the steering wheel on the wrong side (as said, not a great problem. I drove a RHD car in Germany for years and had no problems except at the parking garages but I now have the same problem (but reversed) if I visit UK in my Spanish car).
You can also save on the registration and matriculation fees if you do it all yourself but you will need a good knowledge of Spanish and someone who knows the correct procedure but I doubt if you could do it yourself for less than 6 or 7 hundred euros.

Hi we brought over a lefthand drive Modus as we thought it would be easier to drive over here, when we got here after a few months and looking at the merits of changing to a Spanish Plate we found it was easier to do a deal and by a car over here.
The costs involved to change to a Spanish re car were:-
change headlights = 300 euros
change reg = 1000 euros
ITV = 50 euros

Also to be taken into consideration is they would not except different tread tyres on the same vehicle and for convenience re chipping the car KMPH from MPH if this cannot be done by yourself.
Also if you purchased the car less than 6 months after arriving and selling in Spain you will have to pay import taxes.

I finally decided to swop my car for a Spanish reg car and chose a Focus , we did have issues with the car and would not recommend you use CARS'RUS as we later were told that the car had had issues prior to the sale which we were not told about

We have friends with right hand drive cars, and some of them managed well - but they can be "fun" when you are alone in the car and go into a pay car park!! You have to be quite agile to get to that ticket machine!!!

I have a left-hand drive car in Spain, and it was a lot easier to drive than I thought it was going to be! I was really worried about sitting on the "other side" of the car - but you quickly get used to it! My biggest worry is to remember to put diesel into the car ..... as my one in England takes petrol!!