British Cars in Spain

 

I'm still thinking about keeping and taking my beloved car over to Spain with me

Does anyone have any links to car dealers in Spain, to get an idea of how much a replacement would cost for the same model and age in Spain, obviously a left hand version

I drive an Mercedes Benz SLK230 in the UK as my weekend run around

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Lee sell it in england and buy one out there m8, its worth more over here, who wants a right hand drive merc in spain ya dumpling

 

Same car and age in Spain, left hand drive is £5000 more than the UK price for the same model

Plus I know the service history and reliability of the one I own and drive in the UK

Thats my line of thought, plus the fun of driving it over

 

you hav to change it when your over there for any length of time

 

Forget bringing it here, only legal for 6 months then you have to 'Import' it legally and change it to Spanish plates, for a Merc it'll cost you a fortune plus it'll still be RHD and worthless if you try to sell it.....get rid now.

 

Well there's one bloody good reason to sell it eh

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"The doom of a nation can be averted only by a storm of flowing passion, but
only those who are passionate themselves can arouse passion in others." - Adolf Hitler

 

A quick update on this.
The car made the journey down from the UK in one piece
My UK insurers would only cover it for 30 days and then only for holiday purposes.
A couple of phone calls and the car is insured fully comp in Spain along with break down/ recovery thrown into the deal, for not much more than I was paying in the UK

So we were informed today, there are only three Spanish Insurers who will cover right hand drive cars.

I have also turned into a wimp. What I would have considered a good roof down day in the UK, is now considered bloody cold and thermals day

 

Another lesson learnt the hard way.
If your going to drive a car down on British plates, buy a left hand drive in the UK. The can be found cheaply enough
Right hand drives in Spain are totally worthless and selling them can be hard. Finding a dealer that takes right hand drives is like finding rocking horse shit.

There are a few dealers about, but you have to search high and low to find them. To chop my Mercedes in and find a car I liked in the same place, was a search and a half.

We ended up doing a three hour round drive on two occasions, each time loaded up with paper work etc on the hope something would be there. Second trip we struck lucky and I now have an American imported lhd Ford Explorer Sport, still on English plates, but with better resale value and easier to get on Spanish plates

Dealers don't like right hand drives. We even went to a Jeep main dealer in Elche and got told to come back when we had sold the right hand drive car else where

I also learnt that Spanish roads are not best suited to cars with sports suspension, even the motorways caused the odd dent to my head as the car bounced off the lumps and bumps on the roads along with my head bouncing off the roof of the car. We wont even go as far as the side roads, since pot holes are only on the good side roads. Over taking was found to be a complete nightmare

If you are thinking of bringing a British registered car over and face a big loss selling in the UK, take the loss and bring cash over for a new car.
You can also strike a better deal with cash in your pocket

Importing a car into Spain can also be a bit misleading when you see the adverts in the papers. I might be wrong on this though. As well as the 500 euro charge you see, you will also need to payout for new headlights and import tax. The garage I have just purchased my car from, quoted about 1000 euros all in for this on my Ford Explorer

 

I'm in the process of getting my Explorer put on Spanish number plates and already a costly lesson has been learnt at my expense

If you buy a British reg car here in Spain and the sales man talks about owning a car for six months prior to importing it, to save on import tax, do not send the log book to the UK, trying to register your Spanish address on it. The UK will only put a UK address on the log book and not a Spanish one and at the same time, class the vehicle as being exported.

The way round this is to put your details on the log but use a British mainland address, the vehicle log book gets registered in your name.
Ie use a friends address in the UK and get them to forward the log book to you

If not, you will get stung 12% import tax, on the value of the the car plus the normal 4% tax on the value of the car which every one pays in Spain on buying a car

At present I have been quoted between 1800 euro and 2500 euro to import my Ford Explorer and thats with only a reverse light needing to be fitted and no headlight changes, which on a lot of cars can bump the price up a lot more

My car starts the process of pre ITV etc to go on Spanish plates on Monday, so with in two weeks, I will have more of an idea of costs incurred etc

 

I think this story shows the value of selling up in the UK and buying in Spain. I find that alot of expats are surprised by the difference in the used car markets between UK and Spain. Here's a few pointers which you might want to bear in mind.

1. Used cars in Spain hold their value far better than they do in the UK and while it might be annoying to think that you're having to pay a premium over what you would pay in the UK, bear in mind that when the time comes to sell the car, you'll get more money for it too!

2. The system in Spain is so annoyingly and unecessarily complicated that by just buying a car in Spain and avoiding the hassle, you'll save yourself some years off your life! Would you rather pay EUR 2,000 on a used car in Spain, or go through the nightmare of doing it yourself and grow a few more grey hairs. Like the property/mortgage situation ain't bad enough; Finally

3. When you bring your car over (particularly if its RHD) you're going to have to spend money if you want to do it properly, which means that in effect you will be spending that premium in any event, just getting even more hassle thrown in to the deal! When you come to sell the car, the net result of your efforts will have been: payment of fees and duties equivalent to premium of buying used car in spain; lowered value of car come sale time even if it is LHD because your market will be reduced by virtue of the fact that it is a foreign car and a proportion of your target market will have an issue with that; and finally, all the hassle and stress associated with registering the car in Spain!

Buy yourself a car here in Spain, live a little

Cheers

Selwyn
Buying a car in Spain - We're here to help