Buying a car from Spain

"kanadanmajava1" (kanadanmajava1)
05/03/2017 at 08:15 • Filed to: None

In early June I will be traveling to Spain to attend my friends’ wedding. One of them is Spanish and they decided to have their wedding there.

While I’m there, I should buy a car. I could fly there and drive with my new car back to Finland. I have fairly long distance to cover, but it would be my summer vacation. I could also see Le Mans 24h race while I’m returning as it’s scheduled one week after the wedding.

As I’m such a sensible person, I’m thinking that I should buy an early 70's Dodge 3700 GT.

These are Spanish made cars that were sent from Argentina as knock down kits and finally assembled in Spain. They resemble the Argentinian version, but they still look a bit different. Both versions are based on US market Dart, but they don’t share any body panels with US made cars (the front door might actually be nearly identical).

The GT version is powered by a 225 Slant Six that’s followed by an A-833 4-speed manual. The pictured example is just an example image and not the ones that I have been looking.

But as these are are fairly rare cars, I don’t many to choose from. My friends could help me with the purchase, if the candidate could be found near Madrid. Unfortunately there are only two for sale near Madrid and neither is in running condition.

Currently the best candidate is in Bilbao, so I would need to get there on my own and buy it. Bilbao is very near the place where the west coastline and border with France intersects.

I do not speak or understand Spanish (or Basque) except some random car part names. I also know that I can replace any kind of greeting with “grandes cojones”.

Even though I have many friends attending at the wedding, none of them seem to be interested in joining my long journey back to Finland. Maybe they are more sensible than I?

Does anyone have any experience in buying cars from Spain? Does Google translate from English to Spanish work well? Are Spanish car sellers scared of foreign car buyers? Is it common to negotiate a lot away from the asking price in Spain? Is the Spanish yearly inspection (ITV) intense check up for a car’s condition?

I have checked what kind of paperwork has to be done during the purchase. It’s a fairly easy task if I’m just going to export the car and not register it in Spain. It’s of course slightly problematic that I cannot understand much from the papers.

DISCUSSION (13)

BvdV - The Dutch Engineer > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 08:25

You are crazy, loca as the spanish would say, but definitely the right kind of crazy.

I don’t know much about the Spanish car market, so I’m not going to be much help. Nor do I know more Spanish than is needed to order beer and food.

pip bip - choose Corrour > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 08:26

why not buy something a bit more practical from the uk?

Kinja'd!!!

;)

Ash78, voting early and often > pip bip - choose Corrour
05/03/2017 at 09:21

Yep. Take the overnight ferry from Bilbao or Santander to England, buy the Vauxhall, then ferry over the France, Le Mans, then home. It wouldn’t add much to the trip length and you’d be able to skip the questionable Basque/Spanish business practices (no offense intended, just commenting on the “business climate”)

Cé hé sin > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 09:25

I’m afraid I’m of absolutely no help as my Spanish is limited to “paella”, “corrida” and “matador”.

The car is interesting though, I’ve never heard of it before. I guess it was the predecessor of the Chrysler 180/ 2 litre.

kanadanmajava1 > Ash78, voting early and often
05/03/2017 at 09:34

It’s possible that those might be slightly difficult to register in Finland. We have couple of its GTO cousins, but not Holden/Vauxhall variants. UK has been notorious in making type approval exceptions for cars. And this exception wouldn’t help in Finland. being an RHD isn’t a problem though.

As a backup plan, I was checking out some old Citroëns. What could possibly go wrong while driving 4000 kms with the 3rd cheapest Citroën BX in Spain?

duurtlang > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 09:40

I’d be more comfortable in a BX on that trip of yours than in a Dodge. The BX has an available parts supply, especially engine parts. The Dodge, not so much. The BX tends to be quite intrinsically reliable too, although buying the 3rd cheapest might be a flaw in that plan.

I did sell my 306 convertible to a Finnish couple last summer. They flew in to Dusseldorf, took the train to the Netherlands and drove the 306 back to Finland.

DipodomysDeserti > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 09:55

Quanta cuesta = How much does it cost?

Tengo ________ euros y dos grandes cojones. = I have _________ euros and two big balls.

That’s pretty much all you need to know. I don’t know any euskara.

kanadanmajava1 > Cé hé sin
05/03/2017 at 09:59

According to rumors, three of those (some of them could have the earlier body style) were sold in Finland as new cars. But their rust protection wasn’t able to withstand Finnish winters very well. One enthusiast owns one rusty example and one of them has been parted. The third is likely gone as well.

The earlier body style used 1st gen Dart body nearly unmodified. Some of them used Simca 1000 rear lights and square headlights. Also a diesel model was sold. Finding info about these is quite difficult, as nearly everything is in Spanish.

I think their existence has something to with national interests. They rather wanted to build something in Spain than buy from neighboring countries.

Chrysler 180 was in production at the same time as 3700 and in the same Barreiros factory. The production of the 3700 was declining after badly in late 70's. Franco’s death in 1975 probably had something to do with this.

kanadanmajava1 > duurtlang
05/03/2017 at 10:05

Couple of my friends have had BXs and their reliability has been quite comical. And braking down with a BX is probalematic, as towing a non-running BX might not be possible.

You can parts for those, but some parts are very difficult to find. At least Spanish BX shouldn’t have rust issues.

But keeping a Slant Six running should be fairly easy. It’s a tough engine and very simple. If the alternator works, coolant stays in and fuel doesn’t escape, it will run for a long time.

kanadanmajava1 > DipodomysDeserti
05/03/2017 at 10:08

I hope I can at least get it negotiated to one ball. Two would definitely be too much.

kanadanmajava1 > duurtlang
05/03/2017 at 10:23

Quite close to where I work, I have seen a 306 Convertible with Dutch plates. It appeared here several years ago and it still has the Dutch plates, so I guess its owned by some Dutch guy who still visits his home country regularly.

duurtlang > kanadanmajava1
05/03/2017 at 10:28

BXs have XU of TU engines, or XUD diesels. All of those are reliable (if maintained). TU engines (the 1.4 in the bx) have been sold in everything until not that long ago and is available at just about every junkyard. Even now. The XUD diesels can’t be killed. The XU engines (1.6, 1.9) are the same as those in Peugeot 205s and 405s and the engine family lasted until 2000 or so. I own two of those 1.6s in my 205s and a mid 1990s XU 2.0t that’s going in one of my 205s. Also had a BX diesel with 360k on it in 2015. One of my 1.6s was burning oil and we had to replace it (with that 2.0t) despite running well. It had not run in almost a decade and was then run without new oil by the previous owner, so I don’t blame it much.

The suspension lining could be a sieve though, especially after multiple decades. That’s the part I’d worry the most about. If the engine, clutch and transmission seem to work well they should last just as well as every other engine/clutch/transmission of that era with similar maintenance.

Towing a not running BX might indeed not be the greatest idea. But cars are usually put on a flat bed, right?

The Dodge, I have no clue.

kanadanmajava1 > duurtlang
05/03/2017 at 10:52

My friends didn’t have much engine problems, but suspension related problems and escaping fluids were quite common. Salt is really nasty for hydro Citroëns.