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Importing American Cars into Spain, is not as daunting as it sounds. I had heard people recommend that the easy way is to buy one on English number plates or first get it registered in England.
Having purchased one already on English number plates, I can not comment on purchasing an American truck straight from America for importing into Spain.
Remember lhd cars in England are as much use as a chocolate teapot , the same way rhd drive cars are in Spain. And the second hand resale prices reflect that when it comes to buying or selling second hand lhd drive cars in the UK.
Of course we recommend using an import specialist to register your American truck in Spain. If I had tried doing it myself, I would have given up after the first couple of weeks, sorting out the import.
A couple of things to remember, if you do decide to buy an American truck or car to import into Spain.
Make sure the American Truck or Car is standard, ie no extras fitted like non standard wheels and tyres or non standard exhaust pipes. I have heard of one guy having to borrow a complete set of wheels and tyres to get his vehicle through its ITV
Things like bull bars or nudge bars, side steps etc can easily be taken off to get your American vehicle through its ITV. Mine failed its first ITV because it had side steps fitted. The initial engineers report never picked the side steps up as being non standard, but the ITV centre did.
You might also be lucky and find the original importer of the vehicle into the UK still has the original American headlights, this again can save you a lot of money on getting new headlights
Other things to consider are reversing lights and fog lamps. The fog lamp needs to be on the opposite side of the vehicle to that of a car being driven on English roads. Reversing lights in the UK are not a requirement of the English MOT, but required by Spanish law. My own truck has an extra light switch fitted in the drivers compartment for operating my reverse light, which is a similar light to the bolt on lights you buy in Halfords in the UK. A simple solution, that got it through its Spanish ITV
Also check every thing is correct on the English V5 you get when you buy your American car or truck in the UK. The Spanish love doing every thing by the book and if there is anything wrong on the V5, it will add extra time to importing your car or truck. In my own case, it added another three weeks whilst DVLA sorted out the VIN number which had a U instead of a V on the V5
There is more about my own importing of an American truck into Spain on our Auto Trader Forum
Plus tips on importing UK registered vehicles, than can save a lot of time and aggravation
