How to buy a car on mobile.de and bring it to Spain
A German car can land in Spain for noticeably less than the same model bought locally. Whether it does comes down to one number on the listing, and the band that number falls into decides the tax before you have negotiated anything.
Finding the right listing is the hard part. Everything after it is negotiation.
The short version
- 47 percent of buyers get no discount at all. The biggest saving is asking.
- 5 to 10 percent is normal at a dealer, up to 15 when the car has been sitting.
- A written repair quote beats any argument. Defects are the strongest lever.
- A German dealer owes you a year of statutory warranty. A private seller owes nothing.
- Collecting it costs 205 EUR to 370 EUR per 1,000 km, plus about 150 EUR for export plates.
- No duty and no import VAT on a German car. The registration tax is banded on CO2, and under 120 g/km it is zero.
Skip ahead: check a car nowwhat Spain charges
Already found the car? The listing tells you what the seller declared. A history check tells you what actually happened before you get there.
Check it before you travel
The listing tells you what the seller declared. A history check tells you what actually happened before you get there.
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Know the number before you speak
Most negotiations are decided before they even begin.
If you do not know what the car is worth, you are negotiating from a weak position. mobile.de can estimate a vehicle value in a couple of minutes and show enough comparable listings to reveal the price range it should sit within.
Run the valuation on the exact specification and write the figure down. Treat it as a range rather than a final answer. The tool cannot see the condition of the specific car in front of you, and condition is exactly what you will be negotiating over.
Where the discount actually comes from
A survey of around one thousand German car buyers found that 47 percent received no discount at all. Among those who did negotiate successfully, the average was 5.7 percent, roughly 915 EUR on a car priced at 18,310 EUR.
Expect 5 to 10 percent at a dealer, and up to 15 percent when conditions are favourable.
| Lever | What it is worth |
|---|---|
| A written repair quote | The exact amount. Dealers rarely argue with a garage estimate |
| Timing belt due | 400 EUR to 900 EUR |
| Tyres worn | 400 EUR to 800 EUR for a replacement set |
| Long time on the market | Pushes you toward the upper end of the range |
| End of month or quarter | Flexibility that does not exist mid-month |
| Season | Spring is cheapest, winter dearest |
A repair quote is the strongest of these by a distance. Arrive with a mechanic estimate and deduct it, and you are not haggling, you are correcting a price.
If the price will not move, move something else
German dealers are more willing to include extras than to reduce the advertised price, because the headline figure is what many dealerships are measured on.
Ask for a free service, winter tyres, an extended warranty or a service package. Each can be worth several hundred euro to you while costing the dealer less than an equivalent cash discount, which is exactly why they agree to it more readily.
Asking for an extra after a discount has been refused works far more often than asking for the discount twice.
Dealer or private, and why it is not only about price
| Dealer | Private seller | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Higher | Lower |
| Statutory warranty | One year minimum, by law | None |
| Recourse if something fails | Real | Very limited |
| Room to negotiate | 5 to 15 percent | Usually less |
A German dealer sale includes Gewaehrleistung, a statutory liability period of at least one year that cannot simply be removed from the contract. A private seller provides no such protection.
That legal protection is part of what the higher price pays for, which is why the cheapest listing is not automatically the best value. Note the distinction: Gewaehrleistung is required by law, while Garantie is an optional product sold on top, and that one is negotiable.
Reading a German listing
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Unfallfrei | No accident history claimed. A claim, not a guarantee |
| Unfallfahrzeug | Accident vehicle, priced accordingly |
| Nach Unfall instandgesetzt | Repaired after an accident. Ask who repaired it and to what standard |
| HU neu | Fresh roadworthiness inspection. Worth real money |
| HU abgelaufen | Expired. Budget for the test and any repairs it uncovers |
| Scheckheftgepflegt | Full service history. Ask for the book, not the word |
| Bastlerfahrzeug | Project car. Assume repairs are needed |
HU is the German roadworthiness inspection. A car with a recent HU has just been examined by an independent engineer with no incentive to overlook problems, which makes it the closest thing to a free third-party inspection on the platform.
The band your CO2 figure falls into
Spain charges its registration tax in four bands, and the jumps between them are large. Two cars of the same model and much the same price can sit in different bands and be thousands of euro apart before either has turned a wheel in Spain.
| Filter | Set it to | Why |
|---|---|---|
| CO2 emissions | Check the exact figure, not the class | Under 120 g/km the registration tax is zero |
| Kraftstoff, fuel | Hybrid or electric, if the car suits | A pure electric car falls in the zero band outright |
| Certificate of Conformity | Ask before you pay | The ITV and the matriculacion file both want it |
mobile.de lists the CO2 figure on most cars, so this costs nothing to check and it is the first thing to look at. A car sitting at 118 g/km pays no registration tax at all. The same model at 122 g/km pays the first band on its whole taxable value, and the gap between those two listings is usually smaller than the tax between them.
Ask for a live video call. Most of it ends right here.
The scams, and how they find you
Most fraud targets buyers who cannot easily inspect the vehicle in person, which means foreign buyers are the preferred target.
Fortunately, most scams fall apart the moment you request a live video call showing the VIN plate, the dashboard and a cold start.
| Signal | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Far below a tight cluster of comparable listings | Something is undisclosed, or the car does not exist |
| Refuses a live video call | No car, or not the car being advertised |
| Wants to move immediately to WhatsApp | No paper trail wanted |
| Deposit before viewing | Fraud |
| Payment through a personal account, crypto or gift cards | Fraud |
| Offers their own shipping or escrow service | Fraud. Genuine escrow is arranged by the buyer |
| Documents only shown as photographs | The documents may belong to another vehicle |
The moment you buy the car, it is uninsured, registered to somebody else, and not legally ready for you to drive away.
Export plates carry a red band on the right, showing the date they expire.
Export plates, and the mistake that voids your insurance
Most countries offer some form of temporary registration for moving an unregistered vehicle. The distinction that matters is simple.
| Type | Purpose | Crosses a border |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term or trade plates | Movement within the issuing country | No |
| Export plates | Permanent export from the country | Yes |
This is one of the most common mistakes buyers make. Short-term plates are cheaper, easy to obtain, and the registration office will happily sell them to you. Both the plates and the insurance behind them become invalid the moment you leave the issuing country. If you are taking the vehicle abroad, say that you are exporting it.
German export plates, Ausfuhrkennzeichen, are white with a red expiry section, and the insurance behind them remains valid across Europe for the full validity period, which you choose when you buy them.
| Item | Typical cost |
|---|---|
| Plates | around 95 EUR |
| Registration office fee | around 30 EUR |
| Vehicle tax for the validity period | around 15 EUR |
| Total | around 150 EUR |
You will need both parts of the vehicle registration documents, identification, proof of address, valid HU, and an eVB number, the electronic insurance confirmation. Obtaining one takes a few minutes online, and no office will issue export plates without it. It is the requirement people forget.
If the vehicle is not roadworthy, export plates are irrelevant and you need transport instead.
What it actually costs to collect
The collection trip is a real expense and most buyers underestimate it. Some costs are fixed regardless of distance, others rise with every kilometre.
Fixed: flight or train to Germany, 80 EUR to 200 EUR, plus export plates and insurance at around 150 EUR.
Per 1,000 km driven home: fuel 105 EUR to 140 EUR at 6 to 8 l/100 km, tolls 0 EUR to 50 EUR, food 40 EUR to 60 EUR, and one hotel night 60 EUR to 120 EUR. That comes to roughly 205 EUR to 370 EUR per 1,000 km.
| One-way distance | Driving it home | Transporter |
|---|---|---|
| 500 km | 300 EUR to 495 EUR | 300 EUR to 650 EUR |
| 1,000 km | 410 EUR to 710 EUR | 450 EUR to 900 EUR |
| 1,500 km | 550 EUR to 965 EUR | 600 EUR to 1,200 EUR |
| 2,000 km | 625 EUR to 1,100 EUR | 700 EUR to 1,400 EUR |
Transport costs run from about 0.72 to 1.30 euro per kilometre on shorter routes, with the rate per kilometre falling as the distance grows. Under roughly 600 km the hotel stop disappears.
The difference between the two columns is smaller than most people expect, so the choice is about risk rather than money.
Drive it yourself if the listing is the first time you have seen the car. You get to start it, test it and put the first kilometres on it while the seller is still nearby.
Transport it if you have already inspected the vehicle, trust the dealer, or the car cannot be driven.
What Spain charges
A German car is an intra-EU purchase, so there is no customs duty and no import VAT at the border. Spain charges a registration tax instead, and it is banded on CO2 rather than on power or engine size.
| CO2 emissions | Registration tax |
|---|---|
| Below 120 g/km | Nothing |
| 120 to 159 g/km | 4,75% |
| 160 to 199 g/km | 9,75% |
| 200 g/km and above | 14,75% |
Two things change those numbers. Seven autonomous communities, Andalucia, Asturias, the Balearics, Cantabria, Catalonia, Murcia and Valencia, add a 15 percent surcharge on the state rate, so where you register matters as well as what you register.
And the percentage is not charged on what you paid. For a used import the base is the market value from the official tables, not your invoice, and that value is then reduced by the residual indirect tax already contained in it. The practical consequence is worth understanding before you negotiate: haggling hard cuts the price, but it does not cut the tax the same way.
On top of the tax sit the ITV and the paperwork, at roughly 100 EUR to 250 EUR in administrative fees depending on the region and the vehicle. Small numbers next to a band jump, but they apply to every car including the ones that pay no registration tax at all.
For a modest, low emission car this is one of the friendlier markets to import into: the tax is zero and the rest is administration. For a large petrol or a big diesel, work out the band and the regional surcharge before you look at the price, because that is where the German saving is won or lost.
What goes wrong on the way home
The export plate expires before you arrive. You choose the validity period when you buy it. Choose longer than you think you will need.
The insurance does not cover your route. Policies name specific countries. Check every one you will pass through, especially if the route leaves EU territory.
You are too tired to drive safely. A long flight followed by hours in an unfamiliar vehicle is the most dangerous part of the entire purchase. Budget for a hotel.
Before you hand over money
- Establish the market value of the exact specification.
- Obtain the VIN in writing and run a history check.
- Request a video call showing the VIN plate, dashboard and a cold start.
- Confirm the HU status and date, and get repair estimates for visible issues.
- Verify in person that the VIN matches every document.
- Confirm both parts of the vehicle registration papers are present.
- Confirm a Certificate of Conformity exists, or price the homologation.
- Calculate registration costs at home for that exact vehicle.
- Arrange eVB insurance and export plates before travelling.
- Decide your maximum price, and keep every German document afterwards.
The advertised price is the number everybody argues about. Every other number in this article is where the rest of the money goes.
Before you sign anything
Know what you are buying
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Frequently asked questions
Is there customs duty or import VAT on a car bought in Germany?
No. A German car is an intra-EU purchase, so there is no customs duty and no import VAT at the border. What Spain charges instead is the registration tax, and how much depends entirely on the CO2 figure of the car you chose.
How much is the Spanish registration tax on an imported car?
Nothing below 120 g/km. From 120 to 159 g/km it is 4,75 percent, from 160 to 199 g/km 9,75 percent, and from 200 g/km upwards 14,75 percent. Seven autonomous communities add a 15 percent surcharge on the state rate, so the same car costs more in some regions than others.
What is the tax charged on, the price I paid?
Not directly. For a used import the base is the market value from the official tables rather than your invoice, and that value is then reduced by the residual indirect tax already built into it. So a hard bargain does not cut the tax the way it cuts the price.
Do electric cars pay it?
A pure electric car emits nothing, so it falls in the zero band and the registration tax does not apply. What remains is the ITV, the administrative fees of roughly 100 to 250 EUR, and the paperwork.
About this guide
- Scope: this is the Spain edition. The pan-European edition covers what registration costs elsewhere, and the Germany edition covers the market these cars come from.
- Registration tax: the four CO2 bands and their state rates, plus the 15 percent surcharge applied by seven autonomous communities. The Canaries, Ceuta and Melilla run their own rules and are not covered here. For a used import the taxable base is the official market value less the residual indirect tax, so treat any percentage of your purchase price as an estimate and confirm the figure for the specific car.
- Discount figures: from a survey of approximately one thousand German car buyers. The 5.7 percent average is across buyers who negotiated successfully, not across all buyers.
- Plate and travel costs: typical estimates rather than fixed prices. They vary by vehicle, route, insurer and registration office, and are worth confirming for the specific car before you budget from them.
- Listing terms: the German words are left as they appear on the platform, because a translated term cannot be searched for. Unfallfrei in particular is a seller declaration, not a verified fact.
- Why the VIN matters here: a border crossing is where a car paper trail usually goes missing, covered in how to check an imported car, and the mileage side in odometer fraud.
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