is it worth me buying a car or just carrying on renting one

Hi I have been fancying buying a new car in Spain until my wife pointed out that it would cost more to do this and we should just carry on renting one this is what the wife came up with we hire a car at Alicante approximately every six weeks throughout the year (approximately 10 times per year.)

Cost of hire car per year approximately £900

Cost of excess car insurance £50

Total £950.per year

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Cost of insurance for the new car if wee bought one £250 fully comp including break down insurance

Cost of car parking at Alicante for the year approximately £250

Buying the car £10,000 approximately

Having the car service once a year approximately £250

Ware and tare for the year tyres bits and Peace's approximately £300.

As you can see it works out approximately the same so my wife said we will keep the £10,000 in the bank and just carry on renting a car .

One or two things that you have not thought of...........

You should factor in a 'fuel wastage' charge.

You will use all the fuel that you put in your own car, but  with a hire car you are always going to lose out on the fuel side of things.

You must be hiring cheap !! £900 for 10 hires ?? £90 a time ??

Depends when, where & for how long obviously.

Your car service cost is way too high although of course it depends on the car make etc.

I have a Kia Rio petrol costs me about 45 euro per year service.

Wear & tear ?? For me about about 50 euro per year.

What about the convenience factor ??

Stand in a queue for an hour, have to leave a massive deposit cos you have your own excess insurance.

Get ripped off over the fuel charge etc etc etc.

Or arrive, walk out of the airport get in your own motor & drive off in about 5 miutes.

Same when you depart, pull up get out hand keys over done.

I bought my own car about 5 years ago when hire charges went sky high.

I was quoted over £1500.00 plus the fuel etc etc for 5 weeks car hire in August time.

Made my mind up real quick it did.

Best thing I ever did.............

HTH

Buying the car £10,000 approximately

Thats a car for 14,000 euros at todays rate, I guess my first reaction is do you need such an expensive car just for part time holiday use? secondly if you did buy a car you are not going to loose the purchase price, Spanish cars do seem to hold their value better than UK ones for example - you can always sell it. So doing a comparison with the car rental scenario you should be asking yourself is the car is going to depreciate more than 950 per year! probably not.

PS Whilst I was writing this the last two posts were made, so there is some overlap.

I am sure that you guys who own a car in Spain and leave it in one of those long stay compounds know more about this than me, however please bear with me. My friend owns a villa in La Fustera and used to keep a car in a long stay car park close to Alicante airport where they ran a mini bus both to and from it, it was as I recall, a  facility that cost a miserly three or four hundred euros p/a.

He now hires a car because he can't be bothered with the responibility of ownership, plus he noticed a large disparity between the mileage when he dropped off the car to the mileage when he picked it up, the final straw was picking it up to find it siezed in first gear, when it had been perfect when he parked it, plus it was filthy when it was supposed to have been washed.

Have any of you guys had similar experiences? 

I park my car with Plane Parking SL at Murcia San Javier & have done for the last 5 years.

Never had any problems whatsoever. Mileage is always as it should be, car is always washed.

Dents etc are always recorded at drop off.

Once left around 15 euro in notes & change in the centre console as a small test.......was all there when I picked the car up 2 months later.

My wife worked with plane parking for a short time, and I can tell non of that went on what so ever, I can't go into detail but these guys do and go above the call of duty when & if there is a problem, which is very rare, and the only time your car moves is when they are getting ready for pickup or another car meads moving out. I can bet my last euro your mates car was not left with plane parking either Murcia or Alicante.

I rent cars in Spain, I also own a car in Spain which is parked at a car parking centre near to Alicante Airport used more by my family and when visiters rent the house. 

It costs me 225€ a year to park it, the people wash it / clean it,  have taken it to the airport for no extra charge on many times, if a visiter collects it in person they make sure that they check it over before it leaves the site and again on return.

Mileage problems dont exist. 

I used to rent a car for the first few Years in spain and decided it was by far to expencive, I bought a new car in 2011 for €15,000 and it really was the right thing to do, I am in Spain for 4 Months every Year. The cost to run the Car for a Year..... the tax is €50, full Comp insurance €300 service every 2 Years €200, and it is still worth about €12,000 now, second hand cars in Spain are VERY expencive and can be Clocked or even worse Cut and Shut my friend got caught twice......DONT BUY SECOND HAND. buy NEW..... my car will do me another 10 Years a least it is in my garage underground coverd while I am away. if you leave your car out the sun will fade the colour and destroy your tires.....There is a new company in Spain and the collect you at the door of your Apartment and take you to the Airport for €10 not bad the have a fleet of Buses all new.....a superb service and are fully licienced........

How much dose it cost for a new Spanish reg Dacia ?

** EDITED **

ob123 I am curious. 

You say a bus collects you from your apartment and takes you to the airport for €10. But surely this depends on how far you are from the airport. Also you do not say which airport and does it operate to all Spanish airports. Could we know the name of the provider. 

This guy will pick you where you are in the Torrevieja  or Murcia region. the cost €10 I use him all the time he covers all the flights coming in and out of Alicante or Murcia airports only. the person that said they rents a car for around €900 a Year they must be here in spain only for a few Weeks, the full comp Insurance is about €15 a day on top of all the other charges.....and it is so important to have the right cover. I am with linea Directa €300 and the car cover is superb anywhere in Europe you are covered and for the first 2 Years you will get the full new price of the car if you have a bad crash...check it out. if you are in Spain longer than 3 Months a Year buy a car......

Newworld:    How much dose it cost for a new Spanish reg Dacia ?

I see there are a number of Dacia models, thus different prices (and you don’t say which model you are interest in)  and different  plans which affect the prices,  It would seem you will find most, if not all the info you may require,  here:-  http://www.dacia.es/

ob 123 could you let us have the contact details of the person who takes you to and from the airport as I would be interested in using him at that price. Thanks

I may be wrong ,  but I suspect,  that 'airport service' is probably not legal. 

If that is so, then the passengers have no insurance cover and if they were to miss a flight, say through a breakdown, accident, the driver being stopped by the police to check his legality,   etc. as that form of transport to the airport (almost certainly) is not covered by the 'delays section' within travel insurance policies.  So no reimbursement for missed flights etc.