russnradd

Me and a mate are considering doing a road trip around eastern europe this summer and was wondering if anyone knew anything about buying and insuring second hand cards in slovakia, more the insuring side than anything. My friend that will be doing the driving is 21 and has a british driving licence and we're only looking to get insured for 2-3 months at most. Not sure how registering the car would work either if anyone has an idea.. is this more trouble than it's worth?

Mitzyboy

Welcome to the forums

Don't get me wrong ..... I dont know anything about the second hand car market in Slovakia .... but if it were me then I'd be thinking very carefully about buying a car in the UK (or using one you already have), having it fully professionally serviced, and using that for your road trip. Because ....

a. You aren't buying in a market that you know absolutely nothing about
b. in many countries now you have to be a resident to register your car
c. You'll be starting off driving around Eastern Europe in a car that at least you may know some history of maintenance ... and I wouldn't want to be breaking down in some of the places you might be visiting.

Alternatively, look at hiring a car there, which means you will have backup

I was considering doing such a thing in the US. I cant hire because I have to return to hire point and I was going straight across the US. Where you are going, you could plan a round trip

russnradd

Yeah it looks like registration is going to be a major ballache, but the reason we want to buy second hand in eastern europe rather than in the uk is so that the trip would be affordable to do in the first place.. re buying second hand i think there are enough resources online to inform ourselves of what we should be looking out for, the aa have a decent second hand buying guide so i'm not as worried about that part.

I suppose the question is what eastern european countries in the EU don't require residency as a prerequisite for registration, if any

Edit: and yeah thanks for the rental tip that's our slightly less romantic back up plan

Mitzyboy

Have you checked out the prices of cars there?
Just wondering ... cars arent always cheaper then the UK Don't forget you will be saving your flight costs which you can put towards your costs of driving from the UK, and you will also see plenty of great places on the way

russnradd

I'm situated in Vienna at the moment so eastern europe is right on my doorstep (hence the idea), and I found a decent slovakian second hand car website in english, it's just the grittier details... I appreciate your words of advice though!

Mitzyboy

Ahhhhhh ... you didnt say that originally