Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Buying a car in Spain: car insurance rates, traffic cameras, and other stuff.

Travelling around Spain by car? If this is for a short time, you should have a look to our post Transport, but if you realise that you like Spain so much that you don’t want to leave back, you’d better start thinking on buying a second hand car… depending on your budget.



Prices of second hand cars in Spain can vary as much as depending where you are looking for it, brand and model, age, etc., but don't expect prices higher than 800 euro. Be aware of small print: including or not compulsory taxes and car insurance will strongly vary the final price.



Compulsory taxes consist basically on a municipal license costing around 300 euro per year. Car insurance rates can be much higher so it’s worth searching a little bit before buying. The cheapest car insurance is the only one you must compulsory buy. It’s called “third-party insurance” and you can find it nowadays from 150 to 400 euro, approx., depending on your car and how sharp you are bargaining. The nationwide law that says what you must insure is here: Third-Party Insurance Law.

First thing you should do is to compare car insurance companies. There a branch of good tools on the web for that: www.rastreator.com, www.asesorseguros.com and www.seguros.es could be good examples. There are hundreds of well-known car insurance companies: Mapfre, Direct, Genesis, Mutua Madrileña, Pelayo, Genesis, Reale, Linea Directa, Caser, Fénix, Zurich, Allianz, etc. In any of them you could even buy the car insurance on-line. Our advice: do not trust in any of them! Again, read well the small print and if you find a price too low, beware of it! 

Additional help: 

The DGT (www.dgt.es) is the official government organization to take care of road traffic. You can find useful information in their website, as:


I find traffic cameras easier to find here: SCDB

And finally you can compare fuel prices here: geoportal.mityc.es. But to be honest, fuel prices in Spain vary as little as 1-5 cents from one to another gas station.




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