Hope someone can help!!

 hi there I'm new to this forum and was really hoping that someone could give me a bit of advice with relation to buying a car in Spain. Of course its not a straightforward situation, so here goes. My parents have a holiday home in Spain but have not used it for about six years now (my mother had a stroke and my father is currently very unwell). I have been going to Spainfor the summer with my husband a 2 children for the last few years and have always rented a car but  the rentals are just getting more and more expensive each year so we would love to be able to buy a car for our own use over there. I dont have any documents and didn't want to have to bother my parents with this. Any ideas????  Thanks a mill!! 

We are owners of a Spanish property & are non residents who bought a Spanish car almost two years ago now. We needed to show my husband's NIE as the car was bought in his name (NIE is your Spanish ID) & his passport & deeds (or Copia Simple) or Padron. I doubt therefore that you could buy a Spanish car, you haven't the relevant documents.

Morerosado is right.  Did your parents have a car in Spain, do they still have it?  If so it may be possible to get the ITV done and them to re-insure it then you can use it with their permission.  There is plenty of info on this site about this particular form of use.  Good luck.

Jimbo, Mishka said her parents haven't been to Spain in six years & she & her husband have been hiring a car when they go out on holiday. Her parents won't have a car or she'd have been using it if she had been using her parents place for holidays.

In the words of the song --There are more questions than answers

If you buy a used spanish car from a dealership do they take care of handling/checking all the paperwork--NIE and the like, or do you have to vist the relavent offices to get it done, and if so, does it take ages to get it all sorted out?

We try and get over to Valencia 5 or 6 times a year and like the O.P. are finding car hire to be getting more and more expensive--despite using one of the cheaper companies.

Just back from a weeks stay at the start of May and found that the headline-or- "Gotcha!" price of 106 euro ended up at 211 euro with the addition of the tank of diesel, extra insurance for tyres/underbody ( we visit friends who live a mile up a mountain assault course track)--then if you read the small print on the extra insurance you find out that there's a 300 euro excess.

This same company used to give 2 drivers allowance-now you have to pay an extra fee-so this time we opted for me not driving ( relief-'cos I don't enjoy driving in Spain-which is strange as in the u.k. I get white line fever and love driving everywhere)

If you buy secondhand-say something 3-4 years old and insure with a spanish company-do you build up a no claims bonus as in the u.k? 

Hi Crostrad

We bought a 18 mth old Fiesta from the main Ford dealer in Torrevieja. As I said in my previous post We are owners of a Spanish property & are non residents who bought a Spanish car almost two years ago now. We needed to show my husband's NIE as the car was bought in his name (NIE is your Spanish ID) & his passport & deeds (or Copia Simple) or Padron.

Ford did everything necessary, we had to wait around 4 weeks I think it was to get all docs back from Traffico which we picked up from the dealer. They give you a note for 30 days to show to police if they stop you, to show you're the new owner.

Thanks for that info. More-we're also non resident  property (money pit) owners.

Our house is in a very cramped part of the old village--no off street parking-but our friends who live up the mountain have said we could keep a car up there and they could collect us from Valencia airport when we arrive each time.

Next time over we can check out some car dealers and get an idea of what's on offer

And now ...back to painting the bathroom wall--the excitement never ends here

 Thanks to everyone for their input!! To be honest we really just wanted the car to be left at the house in Spain rather than having to sort out car hire year, after year, after year. My folks never had a car out there, they didn't really need it. We need it more as we have a special needs child. I've had friends who went to Australia, bought a car and just no probs. Straightforward. 

I think that "Spain" and "straightforward" are two words that you rarely see in the same sentence.