muffd
Member Since: 20 Jun 2007
Location: Glasgow, Scotland OR Cumbre del Sol, Spain
Posts: 325

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one or two words of warning. If buying a used car privately in Spain, you need to pay a transfer of ownership tax to the government. This is also set by the government and can be very expensive. The process of buying and registering a used car is a nightmare and you need a fiscal representative to do this (seriously, I'm not kidding). Also, any debts that the previous owners has incurred such as speeding fines, parking fines stay with the car - not the previous owner. If there is outstanding finance on the car, this is registered against the car on a central government register. Worse still is the car can be used to settle debts of the previous owners such as income tax.
I bought a used VW Golf on Spanish plates for using at my place in the sun. People are right in their observations that depreciation in Spain on cars is slow. My 2003 Golf cost me £5,000 (5,500 euros). The same car at a dealer would have been 7 or 8k euros. In the UK, the same car on right hand drive would have been £3k. However, the tax to transfer the car into my name was 500 euros (for a 6 year old car!). This price is set by the government. To investigate the cars history and make sure no HP or debt and fines outstanding was 70 euros. To actually transfer ownership took 3 visits to separate government offices by my Gestoria which cost me another 300 euros (ish). Not straightforward at all. The bureaucracy is probably why cars depreciate so slowly as people are reluctant to change their cars very often due to the complexity of their system. Another thing to watch out for is the scammers and the corrupt. Don't put your trust in a third party agent that you don't know.
Sorry for the length of this post.
Good luck
Muff
If you see a bandwagon - it's too late.....
Java Black HSE TDV6 O7, alpaca, FF sunroof, adaptive Xenon headlights, SC grill, black privacy glass, clear indicators, tow-pack, colour-coded all black.Gone, but forever in my memory. Until my new one comes...
In the stables:Mercedes CLK 230K Cab W208; BMW 318d; VW Golf (LHD) 1.6 SE in Spain:New RRS to come soon...
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