Buying a new or second car in Spain

Hello everyone,

Some clarification from others who have gone through this process would be a huge help and much appreciated. I have done a bit of Googling but am getting conflicting information with respect to taxes buying a car in Spain.

We will be moving into our new house in April and high up on the shopping list is a car. We may buy a new one or a nice second hand one. The web is telling me there are transfer taxes in the purchase if a car. Between 4-8% depending on the area you live. [We bought in Lo Crispin so Algorfa council]

Who pays this transfer tax, the buyer or the seller. Are there any taxes to be paid if buying a new car or are these all included in the sticker price for the car as in most other countries? I have seen some small registration type taxes mentioned which I am not concerned about. It’s the larger taxes and who pays them that I need to know about as this will influence whether we buy new or second hard. I am constantly being surprised by all the stealth taxes here in Spain.

Many thanks.

John & Angie.

Hi, First car we bought was second hand back in 2016,from autos direct San Miguel,we just paid the screen price,what that included I can’t remember but there was nothing extra to pay,knowing Spanish beaurocracy there was probably add ones,if so it was all in the screen price.A couple of years later we traded it in for a new Dacia Sandero which wa only €2k more than we paid for the12 yr.Old second hand one,best thing we did,knowing what we know now I would buy new,obviously depends on what you buy,but we’ve been happy with the Dacia,probably one of the cheapest new cars you can purchase.Still only paid the list price.Good luck.

suzi wong wrote:Hi, First car we bought was second hand back in 2016,from autos direct San Miguel,we just paid the screen price,what that included I can’t remember but there was nothing extra to pay,knowing Spanish beaurocracy there was probably add ones,if so it was all in the screen price.A couple of years later we traded it in for a new Dacia Sandero which wa only €2k more than we paid for the12 yr.Old second hand one,best thing we did,knowing what we know now I would buy new,obviously depends on what you buy,but we’ve been happy with the Dacia,probably one of the cheapest new cars you can purchase.Still only paid the list price.Good luck.

Hi Suzi,

Many thanks for your reply. Fingers crossed the sale prices include these taxes. My web searches are telling me the Spanish don’t seem to look after their cars like in the UK and Ireland. Might be sensible to buy a basic runaround and not care too much if it’s dinged in a car park than buy something fancy that you are always looking over your shoulder at.

Regards.

John & Angie.

Yes it’s true they don’t but the second hand car we bought was nothing but trouble even though it had only around 40,000 Kms.on it,maybe we we’re unlucky,second hand in Spain are very expensive,long term we were told not to buy & buy new,just wished we’d taken that advise,Just beware what you buy in relation to the new emission sticker rules coming in this year or you’ll find there are places you won’t be able to access,not too restrictive at the moment but you can bet it will get worse.

suzi wong wrote:Yes it’s true they don’t but the second hand car we bought was nothing but trouble even though it had only around 40,000 Kms.on it,maybe we we’re unlucky,second hand in Spain are very expensive,long term we were told not to buy & buy new,just wished we’d taken that advise,Just beware what you buy in relation to the new emission sticker rules coming in this year or you’ll find there are places you won’t be able to access,not too restrictive at the moment but you can bet it will get worse.

Thanks again Suzi. My wife is leaning towards a Hyundai Kona hybrid. They are reasonably priced and have a great warranty. We would consider an electric car but I am not sure if the house power could take it. We rented two apartments short term in 2022 while we were looking to buy and if you turned on 3 power hungry items, the breaker tripped. Crazy stuff!

Cheers.

John & Angie.

Duty and IVA (VAT) will be included in the ticket price. The only extra could be the transfer and registration tax which is about 180 euro. If you buy from a dealer they generally included the registration fees in the price. Buying privately you would be responsible unless you make an agreement with the seller.

When you buy a property, make sure you know the power contracted. 5.75Kw should be the standard for a modern house which gives you 25A. Many other properties are on 3.3Kw which only gives you 15 Amps hence the reason things trip.

A property with 5.75Kw should be able to handle electric car charging, 3.3Kw would take virtually all the power to do so. This would be the same for a PHEV (plug in hybrid).

marcliff wrote:Duty and IVA (VAT) will be included in the ticket price. The only extra could be the transfer and registration tax which is about 180 euro. If you buy from a dealer they generally included the registration fees in the price. Buying privately you would be responsible unless you make an agreement with the seller.

When you buy a property, make sure you know the power contracted. 5.75Kw should be the standard for a modern house which gives you 25A. Many other properties are on 3.3Kw which only gives you 15 Amps hence the reason things trip.

A property with 5.75Kw should be able to handle electric car charging, 3.3Kw would take virtually all the power to do so. This would be the same for a PHEV (plug in hybrid).

Thanks for your detailed text Marcliff. I actually have a picture of the consumer unit in the house and have checked and it’s got a 40A main breaker (pic below) so I should be good to go. That’s a relief about the transfer tax being included in the sticker price. I have been looking at a 2 or 3 year old Merc but my wife is being sensible looking at the Kona with a 5 year warranty. Thanks again for taking the time to reply.

The pic is shown in the message when I edit it but not in the post when submitted. Sorry about that.

Cheers.

John.

So you are contracted for 9.2kWh and are good to go. You shouldn't get any cut outs with that. You will also get the reduced tax as it is under 10kWh.
3.6Kw is recommended for electric car charging at a decent rate.

marcliff wrote:So you are contracted for 9.2kWh and are good to go. You shouldn't get any cut outs with that. You will also get the reduced tax as it is under 10kWh.
3.6Kw is recommended for electric car charging at a decent rate.

Thanks Marcliff,

Very good if you to post again with additional info.

Regards.

John.

marcliff wrote:So you are contracted for 9.2kWh and are good to go. You shouldn't get any cut outs with that. You will also get the reduced tax as it is under 10kWh.
3.6Kw is recommended for electric car charging at a decent rate.

I'm not sure about the 9.2kwh, ours also has a 40amp breaker and our contracted power is only 5.75kwh.