keeping a car on the island

[sunseeker]

Hi,

With the forthcoming tax rises on car hire rates, i am starting to wonder if it may make financial sense to keep a runabout on the island.
I have established that you can get a yearly car park pass and keep the vehicle at the airport.
Has anyone had any experience of taking a car over or purchasing one in Mallorca ?
I am not to bothered about LHD so i could possibly buy here and re register with Spanish plates or is it better to buy a Spanish vehicle.

Any advise would be welcome

Sunseeker

 

[The Wob]

Sunseeker

Have you done anything yet? I am thinking about buying an ex-rental car on the island for use by family only. We expect to be her at least 100 days per year so I think this makes sense. I have not yet done sums on insurance etc.

 

[sonyaaa]

Hiya Wob!

We too have considered keeping a car on the Island, on our last trip we did some investigating but after much thought, asking around, doing our sums! it really does not seem cost effective firstly the taxes you pay on buying transferring a car are not straight forward as they are here by the time you add insurance, airport parking or cost of taxi to and from resort to get your car, maintenance, annual cost without the car amounts to as much as all your hires added together over the year. the benefits of hiring are its always a new car fully insured, we felt unless you lived on the island it really is not worth it that is unless, one can afford to! Anyone know any different please let me know.

Sonya

 

[sunseeker]

Hi to you both,

I have done a lot of research into this and it is a little complex.

There are a good number of expats in the port driving english cars on english plates. I am told that you can get insurance (spanish policy) and also a voluntary ITV (MOT) but you are not able to tax the car as you will need a valid British MOT certificate. This means that the car is not legal.

We then looked into buying a LHD car in this country, Tax and insure it, drive it down and change over to Spanish plates within 12months. This is not economical as LHD cars actually sell at a premium in the uk and it costs £600 to register onto spanish plates as well as the drive down and ferry cost.

We are out for a week at the end of this month and will aim to buy a car on the island. They are slightly more expensive than the uk but it will obviously be on the the island and registered.
We will insure it with Linea Directa (Direct Line) who quoted me 428euro or 358euro TPFT for a older ford galaxy. Good thing about spanish insurance is that the car is insured for any driver so others can use and contribute to your running costs!!!
We will park the car at Park & Fly near to the airport. They pick you up from the airport when you arrive and return you when you drop the car back for 515euros per year.
If you get a reliable car i don't forsee to many other costs as the annual mileage will be very low.

I have now just got to find the car!!!

Sunseeker

 

[The Wob]

Sonya and Sunseeker

Any update on this? I am tending to think that there is a cut off number of days per year that will decide this argument!
Certainly if one is here full time there is no argument. However, for a lot of us who are there for less than that it is not so easy.

 

[The Wob]

Sorry I meant Sonyaa!

 

[sunseeker]

Hi Wob & Sonyaa,

Just returned from a lovely week in Pollensa and we did buy a car.
I did it the difficult way, buying direct from a local advertising in the Mallorcan version of exchange and mart.

The process is more involved than in the uk but with a bit of help it turned out ok.

I think you are right about the amount of times you visit the island and this year we will have 6 trips out so it does make financial sense for us.

Our friends who we allow to use the apartment are really pleased we have the car and thier contributions look like covering the parking and insurance cost, so we all win.

We have purchased a 7 seater as we have 2 kids and we sometimes take our parents as do our friends. The prices of cars are very reasonable if you are realistic about what you will get for your money.

If you consider it, i would advise you to purchase from a car dealer as they will deal with the transfer side of things. I found an English guy who works in a major dealership on the island who came up with a couple of good options, all be it after i had purchased.

Let me know if you would like his contact details

Sunseeker

 

[The Wob]

Sunseeker

Details would be good to nigel.rawlins@thesupportforce.com

Regards

 

[Roy and Katie]

We visit each month for about 10 days and we did the sums and decided that it was more economical to buy a new car than to continue to rent. Breakeven for us was 7 days a month - more than that it was better to buy. Originally we were looking for a 1-2 year old car, but found that there were not many available as the Spanish tend to keep cars for much longer. We bought a new Toyota Corolla a year ago, at about the same price as they sell in Uk. Depreciation is much lower than in the UK, so even the ones we saw were not good value compared to a new care with a 3 year warranty. We purchased the car tax through the dealer and that saw us through until this coming October. Nothing difficult about the purchase and tax. We insured through Lineas Direct, (details on the web - English speaking operator and documents). We then purchased a season ticket for parking at the airport (floors 5 and 6) at a cost of €660 for the year. However, there is now a waiting list as they have sold out. We have just renewed and the price has shot up to €780. Most of the main dealers are all together on an industrial estate in Inca. Don't be put off if you want to buy, it is very straight forward.