Is it possible to buy a car in Spain without being a resident of the country?
If a foreigner spends a lot of time in Spain but is not a resident of this country, can he buy a car here and use it?
Before buying a car, you should make sure that you really need it. Most cities in the country have an excellent public transport system, and the problem of how to quickly get to a particular area should not arise even in large cities. Especially considering that most often individual areas of such cities are completely independent structures that have everything necessary for a comfortable life, and their residents do not need to travel long distances to go shopping or send their children to school.
At the same time, those who live in rural areas usually need a car. It will not be superfluous for those who are used to going out of town on weekends or going to explore other parts of Spain. But what about those who own real estate in this country but are not its official residents? Will they have the opportunity to purchase a car as their own, or will they still have to be content with renting it?
According to current regulations, foreign citizens can purchase a car registered in Spain if they reside in Spain, and for this it is not necessary to be a fiscal resident of the country in the strict sense of the word.
The website of the Spanish Directorate General of Road Traffic states: a foreigner can prove that he is a resident of the country by providing one of the following documents:
· Official resident document;
· Document confirming that he is the owner of real estate in Spain;
· Rental agreement for housing in Spain;
· NIE/NIF number;
· Padrón (municipal registration).
This means that if a foreigner does not have the so-called “green document” Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Unión, which confirms their official status, but rents a property for a long period or owns a home in Spain, they can purchase and register a car. Even if a foreigner only rents a property, it is highly likely that they have a NIE, and most likely a residence permit.
It is clear that before making a purchase decision, non-residents should remember the 183-day rule if they want to become tax residents of the country. Sometimes it is more advisable to rent a car for the maximum 90 days they can spend in Spain. As for EU citizens, due to the freedom of movement across borders, this rule is not so relevant for them, since their movements are practically not monitored.
Car dealerships confirm that they can sell a car to a non-resident buyer, but to do so, he must rent or own real estate in Spain and have the appropriate documents. However, it should be noted that it will be difficult for non-residents to take advantage of car loans in Spain, as they will need to provide the bank with documents about their financial situation obtained in their homeland.
After we moved to Spain and lived there for about two months, we increasingly began to think about buying our own car, because using rental cars is not a cheap pleasure, and getting around on regular transport with three children is a bit problematic.
Completed the quest to buy a car in Spain
Summer is approaching, a time for rest and travel. To get around Spain, and indeed throughout Europe, our large family simply needs a car. The roads here are generally excellent, and driving them is a pleasure.
But many questions also arose, such as:
- Where to buy a car, in a showroom or from a private seller?
- How is the payment made by bank transfer or cash?
- How to properly design to avoid problems later?
- Where to get car insurance?
- And so on… and on top of that, the language barrier…
All of this made the procedure both frightening and very exciting!
But the decision was made: Buy! And we started collecting information and looking for suitable car options! At first we searched on various Spanish Internet sites. There was a lot of incomprehensible things, for example, if the car was parked in the parking lot of a car dealership, there were two prices there that differed from each other by about 1-2 thousand euros for a car worth about 20,000 euros, if the price of the car is higher, this amount could increase accordingly.
As it turned out later, one price was on credit , the other for cash payment and according to my logic, the price that was lower should have been for cash. But everything turned out the other way around , the price for cash turned out to be higher than for credit. Therefore, we accepted this as a fact.
Finally, we managed to find several suitable options and we went to view them at car dealerships.
Why did we decide to buy a car at a car dealership? It’s very simple, by law they are obliged to give a guarantee for 1 year, at least for the main important elements of the car (engine, gearbox and other components that are specified in the contract) and besides, the re-registration takes place right there at the car dealership, sometimes you have to pay extra, and sometimes it is included in the cost of the car. Thus, to reduce most of the risks associated with the further operation of the future car.
Buying a car in Spain
We went to the first car dealership, which was located in Valencia, or rather in its suburbs, to look at a car we found on the Internet. But, unfortunately, it wasn’t there.
Then it turned out that this is a chain of car dealerships throughout Spain and that this car is located in Madrid, that they have a common platform on the Internet and they can put it up for sale in any city, but in fact it is located in another.
They can of course bring it to you for a fee, on average from 100 to 300 euros, depending on the distance and the conditions of the car dealership, but this idea did not inspire us.
We didn’t dare to buy a car without seeing it, and because we didn’t know the language well, we couldn’t ask anything about its exterior and technical condition.
Although the manager assured me that the car was in perfect order and so on.
Here in Spain, this is normal practice and if you agree, they will bring the car home from almost any city, of course after payment. I don’t know about you, but I need to see everything with my own eyes, touch it and check it on the spot..)
So we went to another car dealership and the same story happened again.
In this regard, our search was slightly tightened or stretched out for about a month, because everything that was available on the sites did not resemble our selection criteria.
We wanted to get a not very expensive (up to 17,000 euros) and at the same time not very old car (up to 5 years old) and also leaned more towards a hybrid version for the purpose of low fuel consumption. And it is not cheap in Europe, and in some cities there are places where you cannot drive in a regular car due to the high emission of harmful exhaust gases.
A hybrid, of course, is not an electric car, but it still meets these standards and, moreover, insurance and taxes on it are a little cheaper.
And after a while we find another option, we arrive and again the same story, but the manager says,
– “In two days, a car that fits our parameters should be delivered, and we will be able to see it with our own eyes here without any prepayments or deliveries.”
Okay. We’re coming in two days, he says come tomorrow, he’s not ready yet, like they’re doing a pre-sale.
According to him, I understood that there was a small scratch somewhere, either on the bumper or somewhere else, I didn’t understand anything properly. Okay, I think we’ll look at it on site, we’ll see there. We arrive the next day, I look with my eyes, there’s no car, we got excited, we already started looking at another option that was standing there on the site, since the manager was busy with another client and couldn’t find out anything yet.
After a while, he noticed me, came up and said, “Here’s my compañero (coworker, assistant) as they say, and he’ll show you the car.”
It turns out he was standing in an area where cars that are going up for sale are washed and cleaned.
I inspected the car, and it was in excellent condition, the bodywork was not painted or scratched anywhere, the bumper was also without scratches, the interior was in good condition, not dirty or scuffed, and everything was fine under the hood and trunk.
We went for a ride, the engine and gearbox are in order, they work without any noise or jerks, nothing rattles on the chassis either. Overall, on a five-point scale, the rating is a solid four with a plus, since the car is not new and it has been used for some time, but it was done carefully and the technical condition was monitored. All maintenance was done at a Toyota dealer and most importantly on time, which is reflected in the service book and can be seen from the condition of the car itself. This car had one owner, the mileage is small, 31,000 (although in Spain they always scare us with high mileage), the condition more than satisfied us and after a short thought we decided to buy it !
We tried to bargain with the manager on the price, to which we received the following response:
If something is not right with the car, we are ready to fix and repair everything, and we cannot lower the indicated price.
Fortunately, there was nothing to fix and we weren’t too upset that we weren’t given a discount.
- The main thing is that the car was what we wanted, not too big (because I don’t know how it is in other cities in Spain, but in Valencia there are problems with parking),
- Hybrid (which means economical, average consumption with an engine capacity of 1.8 five liters per 100 km)
- and in perfect condition for its age with low mileage!
The manager suggested paying a small deposit of 500 euros to reserve the car, the rest of the money had to be transferred to the car dealership’s account (a maximum of 2,500 euros could be paid in cash or by card).
This can be done from a card via a Swift transfer (by providing the recipient’s details and the invoice for the car purchase to the bank, all through your personal account online).
The money arrived within two or three days, we first contacted the manager to confirm that the payment was confirmed, we arrived at the car dealership and within an hour and a half they reissued it for us (I won’t go into details).
We were handed a package of documents, a key (a second key after some time and a permanent document for the operation of the car were sent to the address of residence after some time in an envelope) and of course the car itself, which was previously washed and cleaned!
Literally in the process, we contacted an insurance agent and she calculated and arranged insurance for our car.
That’s how we bought our first car in Spain, without knowing the language (communication was mostly through a translator on the phone)! As a result, we bought a 2017 Toyota Auris hybrid, engine capacity 1.8, automatic transmission, one owner, mileage 31,000 km, pre-maximum equipment (no leather interior and navigation), color in the photo.