klarika

Can anyone tell me Is it cheaper to buy a car in hungary or Spain?

Klarika

Rural Hungary

Hi Klarika, Spain I believe as vehicles are expensive here. We had friends who recently moved from Spain and purchased a vehicle before moving. Being a fairly new car and not having a huge engine it wasn't terribly expensive to import.

anonimouse

About the same, ridiculous prices in both places the only thing is, in Hungary you can get some really old cars that although they are ridiculously expensive for what they are, you will have a huge choice below say €1000 if you want something cheap

Mitzyboy

I dont know the prices in Hungary I'm afraid, but I can tell you that cars in Spain are very expensive second hand. I understand there are good deals for new cars.
I have seen a few people who have bought second hand in Germany, where there are some good deals, and cars in the UK are certainly cheaper by far than in Spain.

I Eat First

I brought mine over from the UK

littlelambfound

Hi Klarika,
We live in Spain, but spend around 3 months each year in Hungary (wife's family).
I would come down in favour of Hungary. Both the new and secondhand markets are practically dead. Many places are desperate to move stock and create some sort of cash-flow. Though "cash for clunkers" is still running in Spain if you have something to trade in, the difference between the countries still makes for a better deal here.
Also, the luxury market has totally died in Hungary, thanks to the introduction of a "luxury tax". Many people just re-register the car over the border in Slovakia where the tax is at a lesser rate.
A good starting point: http://www.hasznaltauto.hu/ or http://www.expressz.hu/auto/
Hope this helps.

fidobsa

Would they not need an address in Slovakia to do that? I've still not decided what to do when I come househunting. I might fly to Budapest and hire a car or I might drive down in my UK van. For me it's a long drive as I live 660 miles from Folkestone then it's another 900 or so miles to Hungary. I had wondered about buying a car in Hungary as I will need one anyway when I do move but I assumed I would not be allowed to do so without an address there.

littlelambfound

Since writing the above, the new government has scrapped the luxury tax (no-one was paying it!).
Of course the real question is where you want to use/keep the car? For example, we use our Hungarian registered cars whilst in Spain, as the Hungarian insurance covers us completely whilst there, and we return to Budapest each year to make the road worthy tests. Re-registering in Spain would cost us around 700 Euro per/vehicle...though it's much less if done before going on the Padron (see the Spanish Forum for lots more info on this).
A quick phone call by my father in law to the local garage, .......and yes, you would need a Hungarian address in able to purchase a car. Of course, this being Central Europe, all things are pretty flexible here!

fidobsa

Thanks for the reply. I suppose another option might be if I look for a UK registered LHD vehicle on Ebay. These are usually in England rather than Scotland but I could fly down, pick up the vehicle and then take it to the ferry. It does seem that UK is one of the cheapest countries in the world for used cars.

Mitzyboy

We should point out though that you cant legally do this if you are a Spanish resident, as cars have to be matriculated on to Spanish plates in those circumstances within a relatively short period of time.

Rural Hungary

The problem is that you don't only have to have an address in Hungary, you must also have residency as, unless things have changed, within the EU you can only register a car in the country in which you are permanently registered. (We are currently looking for a legal around this as friends of ours are due to arrive in March and hoped to buy a van for transporting renovation materials, I believe in some EU countries either proof of residency or a passport is acceptable when registering a vehicle, hopefully it might be the same here, if we find I'll let you know) Once the vehicle has been in another country for, I believe, 6 months, it must be registered there. Of course, this is difficult to enforce and many expats keep a UK registered vehicle in Hungary - without returning to the UK as required - a point to note though is that though you may pay your insurance and appear to be insured, your insurance will in fact be invalid once you have been out of the UK for, I think, 3 or 6 months.

Hungarian vehicles are expensive compared to the UK but if it's just a cheap run around, you should be able to pick one up and insurance is very inexpensive here.

fidobsa

Thanks for that information, although it comes as a bit of a blow Looks like you might want to go into the van hire business.

riahun

Just a word of warning, they won't let you register the vehicle here unless you owned it prior to your move. I don't know if they are looking at a period of time as a minimum or not though. This is only for vehicles from UK, I think it's because of the stirring wheel being on the other side.

My partner registered his van here and he needed his passport, Hungarian address card and registration card. You also need to have the vehicle MOTed here first. You don't have to pay any import duty on commercial vehicles.

Mitzyboy

I think it's to do with making sure it's a personal import. In other countries they allow it, but you have to pay extra charges. Its always best to check on individual laws, as for instance in Spain you can't import a RHD commercial vehicle / van

anonimouse

Does any body know the correct procedure when selling a car over here please?

Where do we have to go to, to put it in the new owners name, and how much does it cost about, what do we need to take, and what would the new owner need? Thanks