AvromShalom

I hope no one minds me bringing back an old thread.. I'm planning on bringing in a One off Harley based Chopper when I move to Spain.. am I facing any particular hurdles and does anyone know what the taxes are liable to be
Thanks
Avrom

Casa Santo Estevo

Bring in any vehicle from the USA will involve you paying more taxes then if you imported from the EU.
If the machine is modified in any way you will have to reverse those modifications. So if we read you correctly the bike is a modified chopper so it may not comply with the manufactures details. To register any vehicle here you have to supply certain details, like weight, HP, certain measurements.. it seems the list is endless! The only way to prove some of the details the authorities want is to provide the manufactures details.

We imported a car and a bike from The Netherlands. The car is over 40 years old and the manufacture does not exist any longer. The data asked for was provided by an official manufactures repair manual and an engineer taking some measurements. The bike was a baby being something like 20 plus years old. It is a Honda made for the American market. When imported into The Netherlands there were no changes required. But here they did not like the amber running lights, so they had to be changed to suit the law.

We don’t know if you can read Spanish but here is a thread written about importing a car from the U.K. The actual car was a development car so not all of the details were the same as a manufactured car. The car was made in the U.K. the owner, who seems to know his way around the process of importing a car into Spain had a great deal of difficulties providing the correct information to the Spanish authorities.
http://www.clubmg-rover.com/foro/index.php?topic=4129.0

So to sum up. Yes expect a lot of hurdles, but if the bike is worth it you should try. Please get official advice before you have the bike brought across the pond.

HTH

AvromShalom

Thank you!

sgoodman29

With regards to the headlight, on my Suzuki VL800 the beam in the UK was a shaped beam, i.e. it had an angled bit at the side (for reading road signs apparently).. Consequently just turning it to the right was not acceptable as that bit then ponted at oncoming drivers. A new lens was required.

However, the ITV station at Algorrobo wouldn't accept an Aerican one even though they drive on the right. They insisted it had to bear the European E symbol. The Suzuki dealer in Malaga (Moto Sport) were able to source me one.

As for insurance, try www.amv.es They are bike only insurerers in Madrid. Fully comprehensive insurance is expensive but third party, plus breakdown cover, for an 805cc machine is about 300 euros. Only third party but it gets you on the road, legally. You can apply on line but they still send you a form to complete and return before the insurance takes effect. Fortunately it has you name and address and bike details filled in so at least they get your name spelt correctly. A bonus!

Ride safe

MnM

Hi all you bikers out there!

I noticed no one is from Costa Blanca

What I need to find out (becaused i've googled and googled and googled until my fingers have gone numb) is would it be possible to take a motorcycle test in Spain (Alicante in our case) with a translator. My husband, who is among other things also an airbrush artist, has decided he wants to trade in our little 125 scooter for a proper bike (he wants a Honda Shadow and I want a small Harley cruiser so we're still undecided on this issue) which he will then proceed to airbrush and flaunt

Anyway back to my question. Does anyone know of an autoescuela in the Costa Blanca North with instructors that speak English and can arrange for a test with a translator.

I know this is probably a long shot......

squelch

HI we are hoping to bring two motorbikes over, can you tell me what ITV stands for, you are saying one is needed to register the bikes also if you have a private plate in England how does that stand in spain? The plate cost a lot of money and would be awful to have to change it

Thanks

Rosemary

ITV is the same as UK's MOT.

Rosemary

torie

ITV is the spanish equivilent of the MOT. Basically, to import your bikes, you'll need to take them for an extended ITV at the local ITV station. Jump through a few hoops (kidding - it's not THAT difficult!). Then go to the traffico, with paperwork and export certificate (or, in my case, just bring the whole, darn logbook... heyho.). Fill in more paperwork. Pay some money. More paperwork. And then you'll get the paperwork that you can take somewhere to get your plate made up.

Plates aren't age related when you import a vehicle. Meaning, if you have a 1979 XS650 (like me), the spanish plate will be from the year you imported it, rather than the year it was made.

As for personalised plates - well, you'll obviously lose those. You can't keep the same number. I don't think they even have vanity plates here in Spain. At least, I've not seen any (on purpose...).

A good gestor can also help you with importation - although ours panic'd when we said we had 5 to import. (Have so far only imported 2 in the end!)

Good luck!

t0rie

Rocky Balboa

I have a 3 year old bike, 800 miles on the clock and cost £6000 new

I want to legalise it fo Spanish roads, I will need a gestor as my Spanish isn't great (yet) any ideas on what the total cost will be?

sgoodman29

My bike had about 1800 miles on the clock and was 3 years old. Did it through a Gestor and bill came to about €900 (euros) including taxes. Only extra charge was for the ITV test that is paid straight to the ITV station €105 and the cost of a new headlamp unit to comply with Spanish Euro requirements.

You will need an engineers report to comfirm all the bike details, the manufacturer can supply this. However, although they should accept it in English the reality was the ITV station wouldn't take it. The Gestor arranged a Spanish engineer and that was included in his bill.

Talk to your gestor and he/she will tell you all about it and give you a rough estimate of what your costs will be.

The longest delay for me was getting hold of an appropriate headlamp. You can't just re-direct a UK headlamp as it is a shaped beam, and a US one won't be acceptable as it needs the European E symbol on it. Your local main dealer in Spain should be able to get one, but explain what you need as my dealer originally got me a US one.

Good luck

torie

I've imported two bikes and they both cost me about 300 euros each. But they were older than yours and I believe that makes a difference. The Honda was about 6 years old when we imported it. The Yamaha was 26 years old. The yamaha should have been cheaper, but had to get a private engineer's report (Twice. Long story. Crappy engineer!) as it was the first one in Spain and didn't have a homologlacio number (or something like that.)

I didn't use a gestor for the Honda. And only got the gestor involved with the yamaha as they had connections with a BETTER engineer than the one that I had the number for before.

But then again, I'm a glutton for punishment, and enjoyed (!) running around like a headless chicken. I feel like the folks at the ITV station are family now, too, I went there so many times. Hehe.

(Which reminds me, I need to take the honda for it's two yearly checkup this month. WooHOO.)

t0rie

jdr

ITV for a bike is much dearer than a car then ?

torie

Gosh - not at all. I think it was something like 20 euros..? But the extended ITV (for importation) was, i THINK, about 80. The car, I think, is about 45 or 55 if I remember right.

The 300 euros was the total cost for importing, not JUST the ITV...

t0rie

jdr

Yeah, I was thinking of post 25, 105€ ;-(
My car was 32€.16 cents, lol

sgoodman29

The initial ITV on import was €105. Subsequent ones will be alot cheaper. The initial one is dearer as they go through the rigmorole of getting a tape out and checking measurements etc, even though that is all on the engineers report.