Guides
Guides: what to settle before buying a car
Long-form answers to the questions that get three sentences on a landing page — from importing through the viewing to the handover when you sell.
Costs
Seeing the first costs after purchase in advance
The most expensive surprise with a used car rarely comes on the day of purchase but in the months after: the test that falls due, the service that is pending, the tyres. Some of it you can see on the car's page before you commit — with prices that garages state themselves, and without estimated amounts.
6 min read
Costs
Buying abroad as a business: net price and VAT ID
A business with a valid VAT identification number can buy a vehicle from a dealer in another EU country without that country's VAT. That does not make it tax-free: the tax moves to the business's own country, and the dealer only sells net if he can prove the car gets there.
6 min read
Costs
Paying in a foreign currency: rate, fees, timing
If you buy a car priced in euros with francs, zloty, crowns, forint or lei — or the other way round — you do not pay the price in the listing. You pay that price at a rate, on a day, by a route. Each of those three moves the amount, and all three can be settled in advance.
6 min read
Costs
Taking over a lease: stepping into a running contract
A lease takeover looks like a good deal: a short remaining term, no down payment, a car straight away. Whether it is one depends not on the monthly rate but on what you take on with the contract in mileage, damage and end-of-term risk.
6 min read
Costs
Financing a car bought abroad
The right car is in the neighbouring country and the money is to come from a bank. That works, but rarely through the dealer there — and only if approval, payment, transfer and registration run in an order in which the bank always knows what it is paying for.
7 min read
Costs
Insuring an EV: what matters in the policy
An electric car is insured with the same building blocks as any other: liability, partial cover, comprehensive. The difference lies in the terms — in what happens to the battery, the cables and the most expensive component after damage.
6 min read
Costs
Reclaiming VAT when you export a car: the order of events
Take a car out of the single market into a state outside it and, in certain circumstances, the VAT of the country of sale can come back. Whether it does is decided not at the border but in a sentence in the purchase contract — one that has to be written in before you pay.
9 min read
Costs
Returning a leased car: keeping the final bill small
The unpleasant bill after a lease return is rarely created on the day of handover; it is created in the months before, when nobody was looking. Start half a year ahead and you decide yourself what gets repaired, and at what price.
9 min read
Costs
Replacing the battery: what makes it expensive
Fear of replacing the battery decides more used electric car purchases than any other consideration. It can be turned into arithmetic as soon as you know what the price is made of.
9 min read
Costs
Charging on the road: what makes up the price
The same kilowatt-hour at the same charger costs very different amounts depending on your contract. Knowing the four items that make up the price lets you choose a tariff sensibly for the first time.
8 min read
Costs
Leasing or a loan: what the decision actually turns on
The monthly payment is the number in the window and the only one that decides nothing. What counts is the total outlay over the time you keep the car, and who owns it at the end.
10 min read
Costs
Balloon finance: where the risk actually sits
Balloon finance pushes most of the debt to the end of the term and makes the monthly payment look small. What matters is not how small it looks but what is actually available on the day the final payment falls due.
9 min read
Costs
Car insurance: which details move the premium
Two people insure the same car with the same company and pay noticeably different amounts. The reason is not in the tariff but in the details supplied before the quote is produced.
10 min read
Costs
The excess on comprehensive cover: when raising it pays
The excess is the only adjustment on a policy that takes effect immediately and changes nothing about how you are rated. What it is worth depends on two figures: how far the premium falls and how often you actually claim.
9 min read
Costs
Deposit and residual: the two numbers that shape the contract
Every finance and leasing contract runs on the same four inputs, and two of them are negotiated at the sales desk: the deposit at the start and the residual at the end. Understand what they do, and every offer turns out to be the same calculation.
9 min read
Costs
What a kilometre really costs
Monthly costs answer the question whether you can afford a car. Cost per kilometre answers whether a particular trip, a second car or a change of vehicle is worth it — and for that you need two different figures, not one.
9 min read
Costs
Depreciation: what drives it and what slows it
On most cars depreciation is the largest single cost and the only one that never arrives as an invoice. It follows no fixed rule, but it does follow causes — and those can be checked one by one before you buy.
10 min read
Costs
Company car or private: the question to settle first
The question of company car versus private is usually posed as a tax question and is first a question about ownership, use and liability. Only once those three are settled is there anything to calculate.
10 min read
Costs
What a car really costs per month
Most buyers budget for fuel and insurance and are then surprised by the workshop bill. This breakdown contains every item — and shows why depreciation dwarfs everything else on a young car.
7 min read