Hi everyone,

I just wanted to tap into your knowledge and experience. My wife and I are in the process of selling our home with the intention of moving to Spain on a NLV visa early 2026.

my question to you all is: do we sell our UK car before moving to Spain or is it no more hassle to keep it? Our car is only 5 years old and if it is feasible would prefer to keep the car for the next few years but we don’t know the hoops that we would have to jump through, to enable us to do so.

Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation.

if you are moving here its always better to replace with a left hand drive car. theres arguments for and against, and you´ll get all sorts of answers... it´ll cost thousands of euros to put on spanish plates is the one major disadvatage.

if it were me i would sell and get something here.

Everything on the road is set up for Left hand drive and as mentioned, getting new plates and putting Everything back to standard for the ITV (even altering the headlights etc) could cost thousands. Sell it and buy a LHD car here.

Steve

Sell - I was in the same position years ago but glad I sold and bought locally.

I would agree with all that has been said. In addition in the future difficulty selling it in Spain. So i would sell in UK and start afresh in Spain with LHD.

A know someone (Spanish) who bought a UK car in Spain, the reason was he said it was very cheap - you'd get more for selling it in the UK. He said toll booths were a pain when travelling alone and when it goes to the garage for repair work or ITV (MOT) the milage that is recorded on the car's history is incorrectly annotated directly as if they were km instead of converted from miles to km first.

Unless it’s a valuable classic don’t do it. As a resident you will have to transfer it onto Spanish plates which is costly and another bureaucratic nightmare which on top of all the other problems of becoming a resident you really don’t need. If you ultimately sell it it will be next to worthless.

As all have said !
Sell it and buy a Spanish car, automatic “if” any of the drivers would have an issue using their right hand to change gear (many do)
Having said that the bulk of cars nowadays are auto’s.

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Your feedback is really appreciated.

Just as an added comment, if going the opposite way, then sell in Spain and buy back in the UK, many UK reg cars sold in Spain haven't been very well looked after as well. My BiL drove his Spanish reg car back to the UK, then found out how much it would cost to get it road legal in the UK, so he drove it back to Spain, sold it and flew back to the UK and it was still cheaper than trying to re-register it in the UK.

If you want to find out the cost then talk to these people.
https://www.car-registrations-spain.com/


I wanted to bring an old 1968 Mk2 Cortina 1600E with us, but decided that it would be far too expensive (and that was before brexit)
Im not associated with them, but they gave me free and good advice when I wanted to put the Moke on Historic. In fact, they told me to wait until the new system came in as it would be far cheaper..

Selling your home in the UK before getting a NLV is not the way to go. The car is at the bottom of the list... I hope that it is...
Sell it as it will always "stick out"and be an easy theft risk - either interior or the whole car...on Spanish plates or UK plates..

Definitely sell and start afresh here without the gigantic headache of bringing the car over and trying to get it registered locally...

Once here look around at various brands of automakers as deals and conditions can be VASTLY different across countries, even within the EU. Recently my dealership informed me that the manufacturer is now offering a free 10-year warranty on their cars in Spain... and that it will also apply to current owners and not just new purchases. What a nice gift - thank you very much!