Talk Quesada forum

Hi amigos thinking of buying a car instead of renting 3 to 4 times a year as this is costing me alot of money' and I am wondering how much is tax and insurance per year for a car and can anyone drive once insured

Car tax depends on the engine size, CO2 emissions and other factors. As an example, our Ford Focus was €38 a year and our larger SUV is €46 a year.

Car insurance is slightly more than UK (Paying £270 a year in UK fully comp and protected NCD and just over £300 here) but includes breakdown cover. It also included full cover when taking it out of the country unlike UK which reduced to 3rd part only unless one paid extra.

Cars are insured for any driver over age of 25 but make sure anyone driving it has a letter from you giving them permission to drive.

I thought about this however I do not think that the costs add up.
Tax, Insurance and ITV (like the MOT but every 2 years) which will probably add up to around Euro 400 for a year for an average small car.
Then you add depreciation in value of the car itself, probably around another Euro 500 a year.
Finally add the cost of either parking at the airport or getting to and from the airport at around Euro 300 to 400 a year (for 3 or 4 trips)
This gives a minimum cost of Euro 1200 a year, not forgetting that you will have to spend Euro 5000 or more to get a reasonable roadworthy vehicle, and I would expect that your 4 rentals a year would actually cost you a lot less.

We pay €200 a year to leave our car at the airport. Autoairport. It is very convenient. We come out 4-6 times a year so we feel it is good value and very convenient time wise. We just pick up/drop off in car park. When renting there is always the wait and the query about extra drivers or insurance. On the downside, is any necessary repairs and servicing. You need to do your "sums"to work out which is best for you .

Victor wrote:We pay €200 a year to leave our car at the airport. Autoairport. It is very convenient. We come out 4-6 times a year so we feel it is good value and very convenient time wise. We just pick up/drop off in car park. When renting there is always the wait and the query about extra drivers or insurance. On the downside, is any necessary repairs and servicing. You need to do your "sums"to work out which is best for you .

Thanks for your reply, very interesting, is the car under cover or out in the open and do they run the engine every now and again to keep battery working? Euro 200 is worth considering.

We never wait for rental cars nor have queries on people and insurance as we use Aeroautos.

Would you agree with my other estimates of costs or do you find it cheaper, am interested in your experience.

It costs extra to keep car undercover. Car is kept near Orihuela and delivered to the airport carpark so obviously battery is working. Company owned by a garage so they could sort any problems.

We always hired cars in Spain until we bought holiday home in Quesada and decided for convenience that we wanted to buy our own 2nd hand, family can use it and we can keep car seat etc in car.

Obviously biggest cost is car purchase. For our 1st car our daughter lived in la Zenia and used it as a second car when we were not out. She is back in UK and we are on our 2nd car now.