Dtpalmer555

We are looking to relocate to Spain next year. Trying to work out whether to buy a car over there or buy one in the UK and drive it over there and register it etc.

Loafing Along

Go hassle free. Sell your car in the UK and buy something when you get to Spain. All the relocation issues will keep you occupied enough.

Notdunroamin

Are you talking about buying a Spanish regged car in UK to bring over?

If so then unless you know EXACTLY what you're doing and are FULLY AWARE of all the potential pitfalls of such a purchase my advice would be to buy in Spain.

Buy in the UK and you wouldn't be the first person to find they had bought a car which they could neither drive nor sell in Spain!

If you must buy in UK safer to make it anything BUT Spanish.

There is also the not insignificant issue that as a UK resident, which you will be until you actually leave the country, you cannot drive a foreign registered car in UK nor will you find a UK insurer to insure it with.

spainrico

Been discussed loads of times - and the verdict is always. Buy in Spain. End of...

SanNico

You probably won't need a car in Spain. The public transport system works very well.

Rosemary

Very much depends on where you live in Spain. Cities are usually excellent for transport but rural areas often have little or no transport links.

Rosemary

Listen Very Carefully

I assume that unless you or your spouse have EU passports that you have checked out whether you can get a Visa?

Notdunroamin

Talk about veering off topic!

Fred James

No it’s not off topic. The first sentence of the original post refers to relocation to Spain.

That will inevitably involve a visa and it’s entirely possible that the OP has not taken that into account.

Loco

It is often, but not always, cheaper to import a UK registered second hand car and matriculate to Spanish plates once here than buy here.

This is especially so if you are moving here with a high value car and can meet the criteria for not being charged the import tax.

Best
Loco

bfg69bug

they are cheaper, but much rustier (is that a word??) Hahah

We have an imported lexus in our parking, that the local mechanic refused to work on, it's that bad. He wouldn't even drive it back to our parking, he condemned it. We haven't moved it, it's been there for a month now.

astera

Not sure I'd let just a "local mechanic" (in *ANY* country) touch a Lexus.

I agree with others though, sell there and buy here to save yourself a lot of hassle.

On a side note, isn't there some great scheme available for UK nationals who move back to Britain with their car? Something like being able to register it in the UK without all the fees/duties as long as you have owned it overseas for 1-2 years or something along those lines?

Loco

Something like that. It's called relief on transfer of residence. It applies to anyone not just UK nationals. The rules are complex.

​​​​​​If the car was on UK (ex NI) plates at some point you can avoid most of the residency rules and just use the reimport relief rules. Again it's complex.

You will find the links to the rules for both around half way down this page :

https://www.gov.uk/importing-vehicle...k/telling-hmrc

Best
Loco

airways

Buy in Spain. They wanted 41,000 euros in duty to import my car. I took it back to the UK and its sits in my garage there. I bought another one here!

Ironically it needed nothing done to it to make it acceptable here as all the lighting etc is all self adapting based on GPS location it was just the importation and duty costs that made my eyes water!!

UKMS

your car must have been of significant value ? … how much was it worth ?