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Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Old Oct 17th 2021, 8:58 am
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Default Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

I am considering starting a business buying Hungarian cars and exporting them for sale in Spain, where I will be living from December 2021. There appears to be sufficient margin to make this work as long as the export process is straightforward.
Can anyone provide an insight into the process of buying a car in Hungary and exporting it to another country? I have no connection with Hungary, this is a purely commercial consideration.
Thanks in anticipation of an informed response.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 9:21 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

What have the poor Spanish populous done to you that you would inflict used Hungarian cars on them!
I have never exported a vehicle, but I do know the Hungarian love of bureaucracy and paperwork so can't imagine it to be an incredibly simple process.
It is a changing market but second hand vehicles in Hungary are not generally bargain basement tho' I think lower than they used to be.
Other more knowledgeable opinions may say otherwise.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 9:45 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

LOL, the prices look appreciably lower than their Spanish counterparts so I'm hoping that I can make it work, as long as the export and import costs don't eclipse any margin.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 10:34 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Most people doing import of cars involving Hungary bring them here from Germany mostly. I would rather think you could do better buying the cars in Germany and taking them to Spain. Most used cars here are quite often used up junk by the time they go on the 2nd hand market especially if they are more than 7-8 years old. I think a few from here go to Bulgaria which is an even poorer country than Hungary. I know 3 people in my village that went to Germany and brought back vehicles and got them legally registered, inspected etc and the process takes usually 6-8 weeks at least here around Somogy County.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 11:23 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

My belief was that the cars that I have viewed on <snip> would be of a merchantable condition and as described. Well, as much as they would be in the UK on Autotrader. Caveat emptor of course, but I presume that not all vehicles are run into the ground and poorly looked after.
Your advice regarding Germany is good advice, thank you, and makes good sense if the values are similar. Second hand values in Hungary do look very good compared to other EU countries, it maybe just the currency that delivers the saving at the moment, in which case it's open to movement of course.

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Old Oct 17th 2021, 1:54 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Another factor to consider is the likelyhood a vehicle owner can afford to maintain the service schedule. Here in Hungary a good number of the people earn less than 200 thousand forints per month at their employment. That means if they have to skimp on something vehicle maintenance will almost certainly not be a high priority. In Germany wages are better and the likelyhood of proper maintenance is good. In all actuality I would venture than more than half the used cars in Hungary were imported from Germany France or Austria. My present car a 2001 BMW 525d was imported from Germany in 2017 and it only had 250K Kilometers on the clock and had full service history from new. Most older cars here will have little to no maintenance records unless it is a one or two owner vehicle. A good number of the vehicles on Haznalt auto and Jofogas will lack full service records especially if over 10 yrs old. That does not mean you will get a bad vehicle it just means you better do due diligence before handing over payment. If you are in the car sales business you already know most of what I said.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 2:23 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Originally Posted by MatthewT
I am considering starting a business buying Hungarian cars and exporting them for sale in Spain, where I will be living from December 2021. There appears to be sufficient margin to make this work as long as the export process is straightforward.
Can anyone provide an insight into the process of buying a car in Hungary and exporting it to another country? I have no connection with Hungary, this is a purely commercial consideration.
Thanks in anticipation of an informed response.

Can you speak Hungarian? Not many outside Budapest can speak English. Most Hungarians prefer to speak on the phone and not rely on emails or text messages (SMS)!
Prior to buying a new car I had a look at various Hungarian second hand car websites and thought for the kilometres they had on the clock they were far too expensive compared to what I'd have paid back in Kent, UK. I found that surprising considering I have a rough idea what the average monthly wage is here.
A local friend warned about clocking which happens everywhere.
My wife's family mostly buy their cars from Budapest. A brother-in-law's brother bought his newish Ford Mondeo from Germany.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 2:58 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Also keeping in mind that to buy a car in Hungary, you will need a Hungarian registered address / address card I believe ...
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 3:11 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Germany is starting to look like a much better option!
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 6:05 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Germany is also geared up to selling used cars for export. You can get 7 days transit insurance plus plates for a fairly cheap sum which any dealer will arrange for you.. So a couple of days on the road and you can be in Spain. Also the German MOT is a toughie so like friends of ours who bought there they had an TUV done so they knew it was OK. I would assume you should do this if you were going to drive the cars to Spain. The sanctions if you report a dealer to the authorities are pretty fearful so they do tend to be honest. The best site is mobile.de and the other good one is autoscout24

A friend wanted a 4x4 and the year/model he wanted showed that in Hungary the lowest km was over 200,000 and the price was higher. He bought from a dealer in Germany a 1 owner with only 58k km on the clock and with a new TUV and transit plates and insurance was 4200 euro cheaper than Hungary.

Apart from the other valid warnings about Hungarian used cars in our time over there they had a thriving trade in purchasing write offs and bodging them back on the road as there was no control or inspection of this type of car.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 7:05 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

Originally Posted by vorsman
Germany is also geared up to selling used cars for export. You can get 7 days transit insurance plus plates for a fairly cheap sum which any dealer will arrange for you.. So a couple of days on the road and you can be in Spain. Also the German MOT is a toughie so like friends of ours who bought there they had an TUV done so they knew it was OK. I would assume you should do this if you were going to drive the cars to Spain. The sanctions if you report a dealer to the authorities are pretty fearful so they do tend to be honest. The best site is mobile.de and the other good one is autoscout24

A friend wanted a 4x4 and the year/model he wanted showed that in Hungary the lowest km was over 200,000 and the price was higher. He bought from a dealer in Germany a 1 owner with only 58k km on the clock and with a new TUV and transit plates and insurance was 4200 euro cheaper than Hungary.

Apart from the other valid warnings about Hungarian used cars in our time over there they had a thriving trade in purchasing write offs and bodging them back on the road as there was no control or inspection of this type of car.
I would add Netherlands and Belgium to the list.
I bought a Belgium Ford Transit from a Dutch dealer that included temporary registration and insurance in the export price.
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Old Oct 17th 2021, 8:54 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

I have no idea what the Spanish car market is like, but it must be really bad if you want to send Hungarian cars there.

From what I have seen of Hungarian cars for sale, they have insanely high mileage for the price, and have often had the interiors replaced with some "interesting" non-standard stuff.

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Old Oct 17th 2021, 9:39 pm
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

To add to this...
apparently, more than 95% of Hungarian cars pass their műszaki the first time, without faults. Read into that what you will.
Personally, I would buy from Germany/Austria than a clocked Hungarian car with dubious, uncheckable history.
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Old Oct 18th 2021, 3:56 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

With the rush towards globalism I am really surprised that Europe does not have a branch of the US based CarFax(dotcom). It compiles data from car serial numbers from when a vehicle is manufactured,The data includes all the original equipment installed from the factory, the colour, interior colour/finishes etc, etc. when it goes into service from the original selling dealer. Each time the vehicle is at a factory authorised dealers service department a report is made into the system which includes the mileage, any service work or repairs done, the paint colour, If the vehicle has any codes showing when the vehicle computer is scanned, including any tampering with the computer data, It shows data from each year the vehicle has the US equivalent of a MOT at a state authorised center that includes mileage , vehicle repairs needed if failing the inspection, These reports also include any reported accidents and damage claims made to all insurance carriers including write offs, flood damaged vehicles, collision repairs, vehicles with theft history, washed Paperwork suspicion, I will explain that further below.

The purpose of these reports is to show discrepancies in mileage being claimed by sellers. red flag write off and flood history vehicles to allow a consummer to purchase a vehicle with knowledge they are not purchasing a piece of junk and that the claimed mileage is accurrate. As much as Brussels likes to stick their noses into things I am surprised Europe does NOT have a similar system operated by a reputable independent firm.

Washed paperwork is a technique used by disreputable car dealers and salvage yards to swap a vehicle with other dealers several times in a short period of time with the intent to get car titles (Ownership papers) in the US run through the system rapidly in an attempt to get the word "Salvage" removed from the paperwork. A dealer in one state will sell the vehicle to a fellow dealer in one state and then the 2nd dealer sells the vehicle to a 3rd dealer in a 3rd state and sometimes these vehicles end up sold and run through 4 or 5 states DMV systems and a clerk fails to notice or possibly intentionally fails to issue paperwork with a "Salvage Title". This can mean in some US states an insurance carrier has paid a write off on a damaged vehicle and the vehicle is required by law to be scrapped at a salvage yard. Often times they can be flood damaged cars, theft recoveries that were wrote off's. Other times, they were in a serious collision and a shop litterally cut 2 wreck vehicles in half and made one vehicle from the parts. (Yes, that really has happened).

I know about car dealers and salvage firms because I had a cousin living in the US who was a claims adjuster for a major auto insurance company.

CarFax(dotcom) then offers consumers and dealers these vehicle reports at a fee whch allows a buyer to read up on any issues with a vehicle. Some dealers actually will provide these reports free to customers whom are considering a purchase. It also allows consumers the opportunity to check out vehicles being sold privately.

Last edited by Jack_Russells4ever; Oct 18th 2021 at 4:08 am. Reason: added thought
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Old Oct 18th 2021, 4:57 am
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Default Re: Buying & Exporting Hungarian Cars

A slightly similar thing is available in the UK, free of charge. A check can be online to see a vehicle's mot history, including fails and mileage. It is also possible to check if a vehicle has been written off. Unfortunately, these checks only go back a few years.
I was told that a similar opportunity will be available in Hungary. When and whether there will be a cost, I don't know.
I asked a policeman that I know if it's possible to check a car's history and he laughed and said to expect all imported cars into Hungary too have been clocked. I asked as I believe my car has been accident damaged and clocked.
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