Buying a car in Spain

Looking to buy a private car in Spain.

What should I be aware of?

Thanks
Deb

Scam merchants

Ensure this years Suma has been paid on the vehicle. Use a reliable gestor to do the transfer and hope the car is not lemon. You will be surprised at the cost of a used vehicle in Spain. Beware of imported vehicles that's not to say they are all bad but there is a whole industry in roadside sellers doing this. Due diligence is required and finally, good luck.

As Kingy alludes to - beware of the car's history.
A few year's ago I got into an interesting conversation with a chap in Mercadona car park.
I had gone to a well known car sales site nearby and was parked next to a certain car. The owner was putting his shopping in the car and I remarked that I had just been looking at an identical model at this site. He shrugged and said "yes I got this from there" He told me he had a problem with it and when he took it back for repair he found out that the car he had been assured was from Spain had in fact come from Morocco.
A few years back and I cant remember the exact details but I assure you this happened.

My friends just bought a car from a dealership just up from where Iceland was in Torrevieja, looks brand new got a new MDG reg but it's 4/5 years old and originally from France. Apparently they import them from France and re-register them. She's happy with it.

Diesel is a lot cheaper than petrol here !

I would use Carfax to check out any private car purchase, you just put in the cars registration and it gives you a report about it's total history.

It costs 19.99€ but that works out very cheap compared to buying a duff car.

https://www.carfax.eu/es

Chrisdee wrote:My friends just bought a car from a dealership just up from where Iceland was in Torrevieja, looks brand new got a new MDG reg but it's 4/5 years old and originally from France. Apparently they import them from France and re-register them. She's happy with it.

we bought our car new in 2012 when we lived in .France. In 2016 we had moved to Spain and re registered our car in Spain. To look at it you would think the car was new in 2016 as that is the only history on the Spanish database, there us nothing to say the car was originally French.

Thanks Everyone for your comments. Think I will use Carfax - and use a gestor.
Kind Regards,
Deb

Just to be clear there is nothing intrinsically wrong with buying a car which has been properly imported from another country and registered in Spain, even Morroco.

Carfax will not necessarily give you a cars full history, accident damage for instance will not always be recorded and especially if repaired other than under insurance.

There is a free app which will tell you the year any car was first registered in Spain

Matriculas espanolas

There are also sites which will decode a vehicles VIN number and tell you the year of manufacture.

e.g.

Vin decoder by ViApps in the Play Store.

The primary language a vehicles handbook is in (if multi) is a strong indicator as to where a vehicle has come from.

If you shop with your head not your heart there should be no real reason to worry about being tucked up.