bess

Hi I have been told it would be far cheaper to buy a lhd vehicle with Spanish plates in the UK and then drive it over. Can anyone tell me how I would go about insuring the vechicle so I am covered to drive from this country to Spain. Also how would I go about checking if there is any debt on the car from this end. How long have I got to have owned the vehicle in this country so I don't pay import tax. I heard its 6 months but does that mean I have to buy the car 6 months before we move. We will be moving in Feb. Very confused.

pwwm

you wont pay import duty as it is already on spanish plates, but if you buy in UK can be very difficult changing ownership, not like in UK where you just sign a slip of paper and send off. The car has to have road tax and you need copies of the owners details. and so on

Why not buy here, the cars I have seen are not that expensive

bess

Hi Pwwm we could buy there its just that I thought second hand cars held there money and were generally overpriced and not well looked after. We don't want to spend loads so there cheaper the car the more likely it is to have problems. We thought we could get a newer car here and then drive over with some of our belongings. What about it we bought a lhd on English plates. How easy would that be? Any ideas. Also another reason is that I know it is not as easy to buy a car from a paper which means we'd have to buy from a dealer. They are obviously much more but I know they do the paper work. We really dont know just what to do.

Dxf

Hi

There is a tax to pay on transfer of ownership - and yes it would be difficult to know any outstanding problems with the authorities if you bought a Spanish car in England.

If you buy a non Spanish car then you should have owned it for a year - they changed the rules recently - but not all Hacienda's know !!!

You must change the car within the first 60 days of living here as defined by the date on the empadron.

But you are opening a can of worms to try to save a possible few euros - you could lose out.

Davexf

Loco

It is not that difficult to find out the ESP history of a car..

All you need to do is obtain a Tráfico Report.

Most Spanish I know use a Gestor to obtain one.

You can also get one via various online sites for around 50 Euros.


Well worth doing and also doing the usual vin checks.

Best

Loco

snikpoh

A friend of mine bought a Spanish car in UK and is now having loads of problems with ownership and tax.

He went to the local town hall to pay the tax and was told that he had to go to Trafico to sort out ownership before the tax situation could be cleared up. Because he's now late with the tax, there will be a penalty to pay as well.

This is going to take weeks to sort out - perhaps would have been cheaper to buy here in the first place?

Rotor

Dont buy a Spanish car in the UK if you want to bring it to Spain, you are setting yourself up for a nightmare ,its that simple

pwwm

a friend of mine bought one then told me, he planned to drive it over for his tenent, didnt realise the problems, was owned jointly, anyway it got sorted with the use of a bilingual speaker and a gestor, but it took some months.

I agree with OP that cars do not tend to be looked after as well, but have seen quite a few around here at a reasonable cost.

As you see most people say dont do it. We bought LHD on UK plates when we forst came over and transferred the plates. as the car was aged, it didnt cost too much, that is another thing to be careful of. If you buy UK car the import tax, oh sorry admin fee lol is very high and age dependant.

I personally would now buy here, look at SUR in English for cars maybe

Razorbill

I have bought 2 LHD cars in the UK and re-registered them in Spain. It is quite painless as there are several companies advertising in the Costa Blanca News that will change the registration for a few hundred euro's. You have six months in Spain to achieve this. It is best to do this early as you need to change it when completing the "padron" to reduce import duty to zero. Have a look in the CBN and make a few calls to the advertisers.

snikpoh

I think you may have missed some of the salient points to this conversation.

• In our experiences (me and others on this forum) it can be very painful and time consuming to register the vehicle having bought it in UK (when on spanish plates).
• Matriculation is not the issue as it is on Spanish plates already
• Because it's on Spanish plates, there is no import duty to pay so the padron is not an issue.

bess

Thank you everyone. Sounds like the consensus is buy in Spain. Only problem is where. We will be moving to the Javea area. Who is trust worthy and offers good deals?

lynnxa

avoid the English second hand car dealers - I can say no more without naming & shaming & that's not allowed

snikpoh

I would second that especially the one with a 'worldwide' sounding name!

Much better, and safer, to buy from a Spanish company in my opinion - there are plenty around.

lynnxa

very good

Rotor

Dont think the friendly Spanish dealer is any more honest! Make sure you get a proper bill of sale stating the full purchase price , guarantee period and the vendors NIE/CIF numbers
, if they are not S.L ask for a photocopy of their NIE/passport, if they wont supply any of this ...walk.