Buying a car to drive to Portugal

I just read somewhere that if you being a car to Portugal, you can still drive it around for 6 months even if it's a UK car, is that right? 

Another option may be to buy a cheap vehicle then scrap it after 6 months 

I would buy from Germany with 30 day transit plates and drive to Portugal and register in Portugal.
There are lots of LHD cars sold in the UK.
If you use the nice import tax calculator website you can see how much you would pay. The import tax decreases by the age of the vehicle.
I paid only 1013 euros for the fancy BMW I bought from Germany. Have written a lot about it on another thread.

Hi, just use the calculator, it's was very accurate in my case, I was playing with it for years before landing here:
https://impostosobreveiculos.info/isv/simulador-isv/#principal

I bought 8 months old (it gets cheaper by age) from Germany at Easter, and saved about 15k from Portugal price and got what I exactly wanted at exactly the colours I wanted, with full/obscene spec. I have written elsewhere on here details on how I did it easily.

> What are the main considerations when looking for vehicles to keep the tax down? 
Small engine size, e.g. 1.2 litre turbo has tiny tax (e.g. petrol Qashqai).
And low CO2.
That is the reason why the previous Qashqai (for sale until Easter) was brand new slightly cheaper than the UK.

The trick to buy powerful car and pay tiny tax (like I did), was to get a PHEV (=plug in hybrid), the tax gets slashed to about 1/5th of the original when you tick the PHEV box on the calculator page and enter the low CO2.

Beware: If you want a huge car like a Navara, you may also pay near double for the road tolls which are on all motorways.
There's a toll calculator also.

My advice about Portugal:
* Play with the tax rules, so outwit them and evolve, you can't buy the car you were going to buy in the UK.
* Buy new, or almost new (ex-demo), as used cars hold their value VERY WELL here! While used cars for sale are expensive and badly equipped. People in southern european countries buy cars to keep them, if they are selling there is a reason!
* Careful with the toll charges, you may end up driving on a toll road every day, you don't want to be paying double!
* Fuel is expensive also, especially for the income, it pays to go electric/hybrid. Anyway get used to it, as in 9 years supposedly sales of internal combustion cars are ending.
* I would hate having a LHD car in Portugal. I had a fantastic full spec 535d in the UK owned from new with only 14,000 miles, but sold it the day before flying. As you can't sell LHD cars in Portugal and of course it's difficult to drive/overtake/etc. People drive very FAST here!!
Also I heard that it's very difficult to import a car and pay no import tax, they don't want you to do it so they put obstacles. But someone who has done it can tell you that better than me.

Posted by: @marct5

I just read somewhere that if you being a car to Portugal, you can still drive it around for 6 months even if it's a UK car, is that right? 

No. As Thomas has pointed out it depends on where you are resident. Article 30.1A of Lei 22-A/2007;
Serem os veículos portadores de matrícula definitiva de outro Estado membro e estarem matriculados em nome de pessoa sem residência normal em Portugal.
Think of the 6 months use as only being applicable to tourists.

Residents, and those who entered as tourists and became residents without leaving, have 20 (can be only 10 working days in some circumstances) working days to start the import process (Articles 20.1A and 20.1B).
a) No prazo máximo de 20 dias úteis, após a entrada do veículo tributável em território nacional ou após a ocorrência dos factos geradores previstos na alínea b) do n.º 2 do artigo 5.º;
b) No prazo máximo de 10 dias úteis após o termo dos regimes de admissão ou importação temporária quando, findos estes regimes, o particular opte pela introdução no consumo.