Importing Cars: Bringing Your Car to Spain

Information about importing cars and vehicles into Spain from the UK and North American (Canada, US). Read about insurance, residency status and your license, shipping information, getting estimates for vehicle removals to Spain and the taxes associated with importing cars.

Regarding registration of your vehicle, please see the appropriate Ministry on our government links page.

An excellent resource for comparison shopping your car insurance can be found (only in Spanish) at Arpem.com. The rest of the site has other resources for finding motorcycle insurance, etc, and other helpful information for your car, whether you’re importing it or not.

Insurance is called “seguros” in Spanish. I’ve been told that you can order your insurance very quickly (within minutes) and that there’s a discount when you order from, for example, the Arpem.com site itself. Further investigation has revealed that Linea Directa (found on the Arpem site) is generally the cheapest insurance in Spain. Linea Directa also has a British equal which may offer assistance in English.

Many British insurance companies are able to continue to insure your car, although this depends on your length of stay in Spain (more than 6 months/year). If you spend more than 6 months in Spain then we recommend you register and insure your car here, ie. importing. Otherwise it’s likely in your best interests (saving complications and unnecessary Spanish beaurocracy) to contact your current insurer and request their policies on their car insurance abroad. Perhaps they collaborate with or have a branch in Spain (hopefully English speaking) that you can deal through in the future.

If you’re an American, importing a car can be a good idea, since buying a car in Spain carries a heavy tax. The cost of importing from the USA is roughly 4000€ (for an estimate, try Excess Baggage Co. ). Call your Spanish Embassy—the car may need modifications to meet European requirements. You will want to look into registering and insuring your car with a Spanish company.

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Importing Cars: Bringing Your Car to Spain

Last updated 03 04 2006