# cost of transfering to spanish plates



## nicbax (Jun 14, 2012)

Hi, I have recently moved here with my Audi. I have been told by various people that as from the first of this month the gov have reduced the cost of transfering from uk to spanish number plates. Would anyone know whether this is true or is spain still ignoring the EU.Thanks Nic.


----------



## JaneStanley (Apr 11, 2012)

Don't forget that you also need to get lights etc changed.


----------



## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

You're wasting your money. A Brit car in Spain is worthless and a Brit car with Spanish plates is virtually worthless.

If you want to get anything like the value of the car, get it back to Britain, flog it there, then buy a Spanish one.

Besides the cost, the bureaucratic hassle of matriculating etc......you're still going to be on the wrong side of the car for Spanish roads. It's very dangerous IMO.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

We did the maths and saved thousands by re-registering our nearly-new British car when we moved here. The paperwork is horrendous (it would be wonderful if they did away with the bureaucracy but I wouldn't hold your breath). We paid a gestor €100 to do it, and including that and the new headlights the total cost was just under €1,000. 

Had we sold the car in the UK and bought a new one here it would have cost us at least €6,000, plus having to hire a car while looking for a new one.


----------



## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Had we sold the car in the UK and bought a new one here it would have cost us at least €6,000, plus having to hire a car while looking for a new one.


Yes....but you'd have ended up with a car that's worth something as opposed to a car that's worth nothing.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

PS - ask the people who told you about the changes where they got the information. It sounds like a case of Chinese whispers - I've been googling and can´t find anything.

What I did find was that revenues from matriculation fees have fallen by 42% since this time last year (because few cars are being imported).

La recaudación por el impuesto de matriculación cae un 42% el primer cuatrimestre y se sitúa en algo más de 2 millones ? Economía, negocios y finanzas ? Noticias, última hora, vídeos y fotos de Economía, negocios y finanzas en lainformacion.com


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

XTreme said:


> Yes....but you'd have ended up with a car that's worth something as opposed to a car that's worth nothing.


Why do you say my car is worth nothing? It is still going strong four years later - passed its ITV this morning!


----------



## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

Alcalaina said:


> Why do you say my car is worth nothing?


Try and sell it or part ex it.....then you'll understand. It's worth about as much as a LHD car on UK plates in Britain.

Whatever the current value of the _equivalent_ officially imported Spanish car of that type.....yours is worth 25%....if that. Spaniards won't buy it.....and the only way you'd out it is to a desperate Brit. But you won't like the price.

If you're going to keep it till it drops.....then no big deal financially. However, the driving position that you're in is not a good idea for safety reasons.

Unless you've got some sort of classic car that you're bringing with you, it's just not logical to matriculate RHD's. If it was a LHD from Germany, France etc....no problem.


----------



## MacRov (Oct 26, 2010)

It's only worth anything if you come to sell it 
I matriculated my old passat when we moved and had no issues driving on the other side with a UK spec car, no more dangerous than having a holiday with the caravan in France as many brits do. 
As for costs I used a company to deal with it all but done the lights changeover myself thanks to ebay but expect to pay a percentage of the cars value as import tax if you don't get it done within 3 months of your padron.


----------



## Alcalaina (Aug 6, 2010)

XTreme said:


> Try and sell it or part ex it.....then you'll understand. It's worth about as much as a LHD car on UK plates in Britain.
> 
> Whatever the current value of the _equivalent_ officially imported Spanish car of that type.....yours is worth 25%....if that. Spaniards won't buy it.....and the only way you'd out it is to a desperate Brit. But you won't like the price.
> 
> ...


We will keep it till it drops - hopefully another ten years as it's only done 65,000 miles. By then I'll be ready for my Motility quad bike.


----------



## Scuba1954 (Jun 17, 2012)

XTreme said:


> Try and sell it or part ex it.....then you'll understand. It's worth about as much as a LHD car on UK plates in Britain.
> 
> Whatever the current value of the _equivalent_ officially imported Spanish car of that type.....yours is worth 25%....if that. Spaniards won't buy it.....and the only way you'd out it is to a desperate Brit. But you won't like the price.
> 
> ...


That is where you are not quite correct ! We had horrendous trouble in the Uk getting a LHD drive for Spain as what was up for sale should have been in a breaker's yard or was really expensive, if it was half reasonable. We eventually found a really good low mileage Spanish car for sensible money etc and recently sold it in Spain. Happy days


----------



## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

Scuba1954 said:


> That is where you are not quite correct ! We had horrendous trouble in the Uk getting a LHD drive for Spain as what was up for sale should have been in a breaker's yard or was really expensive, if it was half reasonable. We eventually found a really good low mileage Spanish car for sensible money etc and recently sold it in Spain. Happy days


The thing is, you're looking at it from a buyer's POV Scuba, whereas my analysis was based on the sellers' situation.
Sounds like you got a good deal there.....but the guy who's trying to move a LHD car on in the UK is always going to be taking a financial hit.

As for the old, overpriced sheds that you saw.....this is the deal. People ring up one of these places trying to sell a LHD and they give you an approximate verbal estimate of what it's worth.....subject to viewing. 
You take it a few hundred miles to put the deal together and they find _everything_ imaginable wrong with the car. Because you've come that far you bite the bullet and let it go for a _much_ lower price......then they immediately mark it up by an astronomical margin.

When punters come to look, and they ask "why is the price so expensive?"....the answer is always "that's the value in Spain".


----------



## jonmlb748 (Oct 30, 2011)

if you're keeping the car until it is knocker ed,bring it down and reregister it.ho cares what it's worth if you sell it in five ten years .i have two right and drive vehicles here,don't have a problem driving . have done tens of thousands of miles. see loads of em now in Mallorca .since police tightened things up


----------



## jonmlb748 (Oct 30, 2011)

ps didn't have to change lights either.just stuck deflectors on no probs with itv


----------



## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*A car worth nothing*



XTreme said:


> Yes....but you'd have ended up with a car that's worth something as opposed to a car that's worth nothing.


My car is already worth nothing. I bought a perfectly up-together Mitsubishi 'Carisma Mirage' - a car whose charisma is indeed a mirage - for £353 on ebay. It was a trade in at a large Izuzu dealership. It is actually a very fine motor - 70k miles, electric everything, a/c that works - but so cheap as to be regarded as disposable. Spending the money on re-reging a car like this would make sense. All the value would be in the re-reg, not the car.


----------



## XTreme (May 17, 2008)

chrisnation said:


> My car is already worth nothing. I bought a perfectly up-together Mitsubishi 'Carisma Mirage' - a car whose charisma is indeed a mirage


At least it isn't a Pajero Chris! I borrowed one off a mate a few years ago (already knowing of it's unusual status here).....and I felt a right assclown in it.

Only the second Pajero to come to the town.....the first one being Stravinsky in 2008.


----------



## chrisnation (Mar 2, 2009)

*Ah, the Pajero ...*



XTreme said:


> At least it isn't a Pajero Chris! I borrowed one off a mate a few years ago (already knowing of it's unusual status here).....and I felt a right assclown in it.
> 
> Only the second Pajero to come to the town.....the first one being Stravinsky in 2008.


The Pajero was the motor of choice, with maximum chrome-work including massive bull-bars and blacked out windows all round, for the big shots [pun intended] of the fundalmentalist/mujahiddin aka Taliban 'political parties' in Peshawar, Pakistan while Russia v Afghanistan was on. They would either race about wildly, pulling great rooster tails of dust behind them or go slinking along very very slowly ...... scary.


----------

