Importing a car to portugal

Felix · Post by **Felix** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 10:01 am

Had to come back to give a little more information to assist with your decision.

The process is extremely difficult.

If you believe you can go it alone then please feel free to have a try.

You can of course use agents who advertise their services to do the job for you.

Their costs are huge and as I found pretty much prohibitive.

Please accept some of the advice given here as people are only trying to help you.

At the end of the day you have to wonder why that if it was so easy to matriculate vehicles that there are so many GB registered cars in Portugal......with all the pitfalls of no mot no tax....and possibly no insurance being driven around.

Another clue is that there has been no one post on this thread how they succeeded in registering their car in Portugal.

You would be far better off both financially possibly purchasing a vehicle there......although Portugal's prices are quite high compared to UK.

You will at least keep your sanity and will also not live to distrust the bureaucracy that you will inevitably come face to face with.

Good luck.

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:08 am

As I am considering bringing a brand new European car (VW) - is the matriculation process likely to make that as difficult as you have all suggested?

EMM · Post by **EMM** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:11 am

I do not think that the brand or spec makes any difference on a car built to the Euro spec.
It still has to conform to local rules.

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:26 am

If I'm reading all that has been written correctly - I get the impression that the 'system' is protecting the motor trade allied to the tax take by imposing a restrictive process that ultimately forces the newcomer to buy a Portuguese registered car?

Not quite the spirit of the EU - is it?

kteee · Post by **kteee** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:36 am

got it in one - welcome to Portugal

Felix · Post by **Felix** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 11:36 am

I believe that there are different rates of tax depending on the year of the car, make etc...... but the process will be the same.

I don't know the reason for the difficulties.

The impression from my experiences is that there are a great deal of frustrations to be had when trying to do somethings in Portugal and the car registration is one example.

I could on ....but will leave it there.

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Tue Feb 24, 2009 12:11 pm

Thanks again one and all - very interesting. I am certainly taking all this in and am grateful for the valuable advice provided - it has encouraged me to rethink that part of my strategy.

I'm surprised 'Gormless Gordon' has missed out on this stunt! If he is listening (and that would be novel) and he decides to take a page out of the Portuguese government's book - he will establish another useless public department set up to reduce unemployment - introduce another stealth tax - just in time to see all the Eastern Europeans leave in their 'death-trap' cars - before he can get a single cent in tax.

This is certainly food for thought!

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 11:44 am

I have decided to give the process a go later this year or once the building work on our property is completed and we make our move to Cvo.

I am going to buy a new car here in the UK (if the Euro stays as it is today)- left hand drive and import it into Portugal. I will keep a detailed and unabridged diary complete with all the costs involved and make it available to anybody who is interested.I will not be using the services of any intermediaries - I will do it myself.

I can hear all you naysayers now - you are shaking your heads, uttering all sorts of misgivings etc and you may very well be right. I was told that I would never get the planning permission I was seeking for my property as the enlargement and style was a 'tad' radical - I was told that the process would take up to a year - I got it in two months without any conditions attached.

There is a lot of very useful information posted on here and if you take the time to 'digest it' as well as speaking to the contributors and then use that information - there is every chance you will/might avoid the pitfalls that others experienced. Everything we have done that involves the Portuguese authorities - I have asked for input on here and then used it to plan my actions - so far so good!

Incidentally, if I get it wrong - I will own up and include it in the diary. In addition I am not dismissing all/any of the advice that appeared on here - I am very grateful for it and for the time all of you took giving it - I just love a challenge.

Felix · Post by **Felix** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:40 pm

shanagarry wrote:I have decided to give the process a go later this year or once the building work on our property is completed and we make our move to Cvo.

I am going to buy a new car here in the UK (if the Euro stays as it is today)- left hand drive and import it into Portugal. I will keep a detailed and unabridged diary complete with all the costs involved and make it available to anybody who is interested.I will not be using the services of any intermediaries - I will do it myself.

I can hear all you naysayers now - you are shaking your heads, uttering all sorts of misgivings etc and you may very well be right. I was told that I would never get the planning permission I was seeking for my property as the enlargement and style was a 'tad' radical - I was told that the process would take up to a year - I got it in two months without any conditions attached.

There is a lot of very useful information posted on here and if you take the time to 'digest it' as well as speaking to the contributors and then use that information - there is every chance you will/might avoid the pitfalls that others experienced. Everything we have done that involves the Portuguese authorities - I have asked for input on here and then used it to plan my actions - so far so good!

Incidentally, if I get it wrong - I will own up and include it in the diary. In addition I am not dismissing all/any of the advice that appeared on here - I am very grateful for it and for the time all of you took giving it - I just love a challenge.

I really do admire your attitude.

I would still advise you not to even try.

You may well succeed where others have failed. I hope you win.

My reason for coming back to you is that I do not like to see people suffer unecessarily.

Keep us updated.

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:46 pm

Hi Felix

I am going to go into this with my eyes wide open. If I get to a stage where it becomes apparent that it is a hopeless cause - I will abandon it - but not without giving it a good go first.

Post by **Steen Jakobsen** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:07 am

Hi Shanagarry,

I'll be happy to publish your diary on carvoeiro.com

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:09 am

Hi Steen

As soon as I start the process - which will if all my building work goes to plan - should be towards October/November - I will start the diary. I have already done quite a bit of preliminary work by getting prices as well as getting the formal 'rules' from the authorities.

I have a shortlist of three cars and will be watching the market over the coming months.

As soon as I get to the start point - I will let you know.

Post by **Steen Jakobsen** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:46 am

I used "Almancil Serviços - Agência de Documentação e Serviços, Lda." importing a brand new car about 10 years ago. As far as I recall it took 4-6 weeks before I could use the car. I still have the invoice and can see that I paid 35.000 escudos + IVA for their services (in 1999)

I bought the car tax-free in Denmark and paid all duties in Portugal, it might have made the process easier...?

You should probably make sure the actual Make/Model is sold in Portugal and not confuse the authorities further by i.e. buying a UK Vauxhall and try to make them believe it is just like Opel in Portugal

Good luck!

shanagarry · Post by **shanagarry** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:08 am

The car I am probably going to buy is a VW Tiguan (LHD) - which is sold in Portugal and during the past weekend I saw one at the dealer in Faro at €49,875 - in the UK that same car is £27,000.

To my way of thinking that makes the aggravation worthwhile.

Post by **Steen Jakobsen** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:17 am

Sure, but there is no way to avoid the imposto automovel and IVA on a brand new car.

See i.e. http://www.guiadoautomovel.pt/index.php ... mitstart=1 to calculate taxes (you can also register and use their calculator)

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