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If everything goes according to plan later this year I will become one of the backroom's occaisional foreign correspondents from Spain. Now the question is do I drive my UK car down to the Costa Blanca via the car ferry or do I buy a LHD banger to keep in Spain? Used cars hold their value more than in the UK so a LHD Spanish banger will cost more than in the UK. The other alternative is to buy a LHD car in another,cheaper, EU country and import it into Spain with all the administration costs involved. Anybody in the backroom been there done that before?
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Just a thought...wouldn't a lhd car here be very cheap because nobody wants them?
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My brother-in-law and his family moved to Spain over 18 months ago. They had a similar dilemma. They purchased a left hooker from a garage in Basingstoke that specialises in importing LHD vehicles. Price was good, and the run (1,200 miles) to Spain soon got the engine run-in, ready to tackle the potholed lanes that Spain calls its national highways (not the motorways, which are quiet and fast!)...
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"the motorways, which are quiet and fast"
very true.
Down the East coast motorway, you have to keep alert for the Germans who, if you are only doing 90mph, will come past you like you are parked.
France, on the other hand, has plenty of dual carriageway RN's.
I have had a villa in Javea for about 20 years - and drive down. Be it for 3 weeks or, (since I took the early bath) 3 months.
Living there permanently is obviously different.
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Ooops! - Forgot the really important bit -
If you drive down - it has to be in a diesel.
Preferably a fairly modern one with enough oomph to dodge the Germans.
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You do talk some rubbish trevor, "it has to be a diesel" are petrol engines now obsolete?
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Well, my fine friend, effectively in France and Spain - yes.
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I've always wondered where all those hire car Fiestas and Ka's from the Costas and Majorca go at the end of the summer - you never seem to get one with more than 20,000 km on it. They must be sold cheap somewhere.
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Having seen the state some of those ex hire cars end up in (family hatchbacks taken up tracks most 4x4s would balk at, bouncing off kerbs as roundabouts are taken the wrong way, seats soaked in sun oil) I can safely say I wouldn't touch one with a stick of immense proportions.
As for choice of fuel, yes, Diesel makes a whole lot more sense in Spain and France due to the lower per litre fuel costs when compared with petrol.
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Trevor I asked the question because I live just over an hour from Stanstead airport and the air fares are so cheap now I don't really fancy driving there. However, economics come into it
,can I buy a LHD car at a reasonable price to keep down there for the times I am in Spain. Hence the dilemma. I am thinking of a second hand small diesel at the moment.
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Godfrey -
well, I don't actually know.
There IS for sure a market for what you suggest
(the local paper has ads for long-term Airport storage,
do you want me to get costs from my Agent for you?)
BUT I am told that the price for secomd-hand cars is FIRMER in Spain than it is here
(despite new prices being 25% less)
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Ref: state of Spanish roads - I'm based in South-East Spain, and do most of my motoring in Andalucia, Murcia and Valencia. Generally the state of all classes of roads is far superior to UK. Well signposted - no cameras - radar-controlled traffic lights entering built-up areas which slow traffic down, i.e. a positive safety measure, rather than a revenue-earning measure. Also more roads are being built. If you get inland, it's like driving in UK in the 1960's/70's, with minimal traffic.
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Mmmm
Been there and done that, but the other way ! I now own a lovely, if unusually coloured LHD Defender of Iberian descent. My experience of Spanish roads is the same, superior roads all round in Spain. In fact they suited the 330 a bit better than the domestic roads even if their camber was a bit suspect at times. ( where PU's, South Eastern, extended family live). Diesel or petrol the German Autobhan blasters kept a respectful distance from the Defender on the way home on that memorable trip. Plenty of cheap second hand motors in Spain though if you look in the right places.
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By the way, diesel is so much cheaper there that the vast majority (especially in el sticks) are diesel.
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Trevor. yes please could you get me the rates for long term airport storage? It would save me time having to find out the details and would help me make up my mind what to do. I was also thinking of buying a LHD car in another EU country because of the firm prices of S/H cars in Spain.
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