Search Q&A
Buying/leasing a new car
Hello all
Just joined the bulletin as we're expecting to arrive in Belgium as expats from the US in May or June.
I will have a company car, and will be getting a car privately for my wife.
Has anyone bought a new car here and can offer any comment on the experience? Pressure sell like the US? Fees/taxes I should be aware of that are not common in the US? I lived in the UK for 2 years, so familiar with concepts of road tax and such, but don't know how high they are here and do they go up based on cost of car or CO2 emissions or other?
Thanks
Mike
They've been fiddling about with the taxes recently so not sure what they are now, but they seem to be based on emissions and not the old, and very silly, standard of power output any more.
You also pay a one off registration tax whether the car is new or not when you register it in your name. Basically, if it's big and powerful and produces a lot of emissions then you will get skinned alive both on registration and annually, which is why you are not going to see V8's everywhere. It's really not that much different to the UK except for the registration tax.
Buying a car is really no different in Belgium to anywhere else when it comes to sellers being pushy, or not.
Incidentally, I have a friend who is leaving Belgium within the next few months who will be selling a pretty much immaculate condition Ford Fiesta (airco, Bluetooth etc etc) needing nothing at all for another two years. From 2010 with 37,000 kilometres on it, or a piffling 23,000 miles. If you do decide to buy a used car, make sure it has all the paperwork including the special technical control papers required for selling, and Carpass which documents the kilometres as correct. If you are interested in the Fiesta then leave some sort of contact details. It really is a rare gem compared to all the bashed up and battle scarred rubbish you will find all over Brussels.
Just did a quick search and it seems that the way your vehicle is taxed depends on the area where you live. That's Belgium. If you can manage French or Dutch, all you need is here.
http://www.belgium.be/nl/mobiliteit/Voertuigen/verkeersbelasting_en_verz...
You won't be able to register (and therefore use) a new car until your residential registration is fully sorted out and you are official Belgian residents. Be warned that that can take some months.
That won't be a problem with your company car because it will be registered to your company and you will, in effect, just be an authorised driver, but it will apply in the case of a car, new or secondhand, obtained for your wife to use. You can order a new car from a dealer in the meantime, it may well take several months to be delivered to the dealer, but until you obtain your ID cards or a Certificat de Résidence, you won't be able to take personal delivery and it will have to remain at the dealers.
There's a big lease market for cars here maybe worth exploring if your work can help with that as an option. I have a friend who bought a used car with not much problem, she was from NZ I'm not sure about brand new. Depending where you live public transport maybe very good and car pretty redundant or fairly bad where I live two buses per hour then a swap to metro to get into Brussles. . So if it's going to be a while till your wife gets a car take that into account before deciding where to reside. All the best
