Rosemary

Firstly, if you have a european licence you do not need to change to a Spanish one. We decided to change our european licence to a Spanish one because of hearing that some people were having problems if stopped by police as they do not all seem to know the law. In order to do this we talked to a gestor who took us for the driving licence medical which involved using a computerised thing which tested your ability to drive along a road, an eye test, and blood pressure was measured. Filled out some forms and in two months the new licence will arrive. Totally not necessary but may save hassle at some point.

Secondly. re importing your car we found an import agent rather than a gestor and this only took a total of two weeks.

Thirdly, you mentioned driving illegally. If you do not import your car you cannot tax or insure it which is not only illegal but also would become a major problem to yourself and the other vehicles involved if you have an accident.

I know there are a lot of cars in Spain that are not legal but surely you do not want to be in this group. Find someone who can really sort things out for you it will give you peace of mind when on the road and you will not be forever looking over your shoulder.

Rosemary

Big_john

Sorry to hear that you are having so much trouble, that it is making you think about returning to the U.K.

scampicat

No, we don't want to be illegal which is why we are trying to import the car. It just gets very disheartening when people make up the rules as they go along and think that they can treat you like cr@p.

I will NOT change my driving licence when it is a perfectly legal one, this just encourages them to not apply/learn the law! Although I can understand why you have done so.

Thanks for your post.

scampicat

Thanks for your sympathy. It is actually giving me anxiety symptoms now. Every time I think about it I feel sick and I have actually cried about it.

Anyway, you don't want to know all that.

I love my village and I love my house and neighbours, but I can't stand rules just being made up, and applying them differently to foreigners.

Rosemary

Like you I love my house, town and neighbours and like you I have been driven to distraction by the paperwork and not being able to get things done. It really drags you down and colours your whole existence to the extent that any additional problem even if it is small becomes a huge molehill.

We will get there in the end I am sure but it is a very hard route and lowers your spirits on the way.

Rosemary

scampicat

Thank you Rosemary.

We are going to leave it till the end of next week and if nothing has happened by then, we'll go to Granada ourselves.

Another thing I have just remembered, a lady here had to have her car repaired after an accident and it took nearly a YEAR at the Renault dealers.

I don't think for a minute they'd have treated a Spaniard like that. Also being a woman on her own didn't help.

Rosemary

We were surprised in January when my OH took the car to the garage for a full service and the mechanic said to save our money as it did not need it. So that is the opposite to what would have happened in UK. Looks like it depends what and who you are dealing with rather than everything.

Rosemary

scampicat

Rosemary you are right.

Our lovely Miguel and Jose Miguel (builders) renovated our house for us at half the cost a British builder would have charged. And wouldn't have any money at all until the job was finished. The charged us less than they had quoted because 'they didn't work every day'.

I mustn't forget the good things just because I'm depressed about the car.

Thanks!

Big_john

Normally the licensing authorities are very helpful ( or they were to me in Malaga & here in Galicia ) the biggest problem when you do it yourself is the queueing and jostling for position at the various counters

And obviously it is sooooooooo much cheaper, and some of the uncrupulous gestors do charge like a wounded bull.
If all goes well for you with this gestor ask for a proper breakdown of his/her breakdown of time spent at the offices before you agree to pay them ......don't let them treat you like dirt.
I would actually go in to them tomorrow and tell them that you have friends all over Spain and local to you and that if something is not done rapido then you will put them on the public www ....it makes me so mad :curse:

I have to let them know in no uncertain terms that if it wasn't for us Brits they wouldn't have any work and Spain would still be in the dark ages riding donkey's :curse:

Mercedes

Hi Rosemary, the car has Belgian plates on, so I just got it transported straight down to Spain as all the moderifcations are for Belgium and the dealer told me it wasn't worth registering it in UK and chaging the specs to be rechanged back again and then registering in Spain. The transporter than I used has given me a dealer in Malaga who is often sending cars backwards and forwards, so will ring him as was told if he couldn't help me, he probably would know someone who did. So will go down that route shortly as insurance companies will only insure the car in whatever the plates are on, country.

This is probably a bit of a warning to others going down a similar route. Tesco's insurance gave me insurance on the car, and green card, and I paid the premium on it. Some of the details were wrong and I rang up and spoke to another rep. He told me that the girl shouldn't have given me a green card as the vehicle was only insured for journeys to get it registed and MOT'd in UK and I shouldn't have been given a green card, let alone insurance on the Belgium registered car. So it's worth being careful with some of these insurance companies who say they will insure another plated car and had I not rang up and had an accident the insurance wasn't worth the paper it was written on.....

mikelincs

That could be due to the insurance. I've recently been told that if your car is insured via a broker that uses a a UK firm, then the garage will NOT repair until it actually gets the money, this is due to delays in UK firms settling up with Spanish garages. If you insure with firm here in Spain, such as Linea directa, then it should be done straight away, at least that was the experience of a froiend of ours who could have had the repairs done the next day, and that was also the explanation given to him by Linea Directa when he spoke to them at renewal saying he cold get a cheaper quote using a broker who would insure him via a UK firm.

Fred James

For tax purposes an 8 year old car should be valued at 24% of its new cost.

Hacienda has lists of almost every car made with the relevant cost new and also publishes the depreciation figures.

At a rough guess your car should be valued at about 5000 euros.

The special registration tax on a 1.9 diesel is 7% so that makes about 350 euros.

scampicat

Her car is Spanish! Bought here in Spain and Spanish registered. I personally think he was delaying because she is a foreign (German) woman on her own.

You can't insure with Linea Directa anyway unless your car is on Spanish plates. (Tried it).

Ours is insured with Liberty Seguros via Expat Insurance.

scampicat

Thank you Fred, that is very helpful.

mikelincs

Perfectly correct, you shouldn't be able to insure a car NOT registered in Spain with any insurance company here, it's likely to be illegal. My friend is English and he was driving a Spanish plateed car which was hit by a hire car, he said he wouldn't have bothered even to claim if it hadn't been a hire car that his him, the damage wasn't very much.