steve01

Hi Benny Dorm,
love your exchange rates, can i have some - please !!!

I agree Portugues cars are still expensive.
However to answer the other question - yes the prices of minus 20k - or more are legitimate main dealers in the Algarve area - i'm not touting for them i just happened to be going to Mercedes and had a look at Audi whilst i was there.

I imported my French lhd car and mainly because of the annual road tax - 550 for mine 19 for the same age Portuguese car would never do it again.

Check OLX.PT or similar sites and you'll see second hand values are far more reasonable than a couple of years ago

KevandVal

On a side note regarding UK cars in Portugal, why are there some UK cars with PT. tax discs?

EsuriJohn

Don't quite follow the logic here €33,000 @ £1 to €1.25 would be about £24,800 so cheaper than the price you quote of £26,500.

peterfc

The rate you quote is what's called the Interbank rate. That's the rate that banks lend to each other.

Today for a £1 you would get 1.2265€. Rate correct at 6pm today

So 33,000€ divide by 1.2265 and you get £26905.829596413

As you see not to far away from the £26,000 that has been quoted.

Peter

EsuriJohn

I dont use a bank and my FX dealer gives me 60 clicks (their term for 60 thousands) off interbank rate. I place an order at the rate I want to achieve and when it hits 60 above that price they execute the deal. At 06.57 Tuesday morning it hit 1.2577 so had I placed an order say Monday morning the deal would have been done at 1.25. this is a method I have used often in the past and I note the best rates are often overnight or weekend when the Asian markets are trading. See

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/charts?s...rce=undefined;

I only bring over sufficient for my needs for say 3 mths so I want to deal at the most advantageous rate whilst keeping my powder dry in UK. It has been an "up and down and up exciting journey" for the past 8 years but it suits us. You do not have to be too ambitious in your targets but watching the graph most days I fully expected to get 1.25 at some stage this week.

I think we may get better yet but I note that the BoE and PM put the damper on about mid morning yesterday and it brought the rate down for now.

Benny Dorm

Not my calculations, I just put the figures in XE.com and quoted them, regardless of the slight disparity, cars here are ridiculously expensive even with €20K discounts

micmc47

Part of the reason that I only spend 180 days per year here is that I drive my UK MOT'd and registered car out for the duration, and know that if I exceed the 183 day EU ruling, my car is likely to be impounded, plus I would have to pay a massive fine. I pay a premium rate with a recognised, UK-based insurance company for the privilege, but the bottom line is that I am legal, and covered. Keep a non-Portuguese registered car out here for more than 6 months, and by law, you have to 'matriculate' (register) it locally. No use in my case, as I drive my car in UK for over 6 months, so legal problems if I tried to go home for that duration on a Portuguese registration.
Yes, you will see (as I have) UK-registered cars for sale out here, and the owners will give you the 'no problem' spiel as regards local insurance cover etc. However, if you choose to go down that path, pray that you have no accidents, and that you don't end up at the wrong end of a massive insurance claim, as the bottom line is that once the law is tested in court you will find that you are not covered, and that all the costs (and potential criminal charges) will fall to you. Your so-called insurance ain't worth the paper... So beware, and don't be fooled into making a quick decision for which you may repent at leisure..

nanna2holly

I am a British pensioner resident in England where I keep a small car for use at home. I have just sold my holiday home in Spain, where I had no trouble buying a camper van locally to keep there, fly over and use to travel round Iberia. It has never been to the UK. However I have now sold that property and bought a holiday home in Portugal where I now wish to keep my camper. As I no longer own the Spanish property where it is registered I need to re-matriculate a.s.a.p, but I have studied this whole topic and it appears I need to apply for Portuguese residency. Would this mean I would have to pay Portuguese income tax? I don't like it. I will only be in Portugal a few weeks each year. To register the vehicle in the UK where I live would incur the enormous cost of driving it over for MoT every year, which has already been mentioned. Any ideas anyone?

gedscottish

You will only need to apply for residency if you wish to import it "imposto automovel"(IA) free, but since you were not a resident in Spain... you will have to pay it! But not all doom & gloom, the IA is pretty low on camper vans, I just done a simulation out of curiousitity on a 2004 2.5 diesel and its 1100 euros... however if its petrol, forget it!!
Failing that, can't you just leave it on Spanish plates and take it over for an MOT every year?!

simulator...
http://www.e-financas.gov.pt/de/jsp-dgaiec/main.jsp

nanna2holly

Thank you, Gedscottish. Yes, I'd thought of leaving it as it is as it will be out of sight when left here and I am in and out of Spain all the time as my new place is near the frontier. However, when I get the MoT I have to declare my address, and since I no longer live there technically I am committing fraud. I just don't want any headaches. My old town hall is happy to continue receiving my road tax, of course! I will now make tentative enquiries as to the cost of importing as a non-resident, without alerting too many officials
that the van is in Portugal.