For those of you thinking of living and maybe working in Bulgaria the inevitable question always comes up about transport. We are often asked which is the best option, should we import our vehicle from the UK or is it best to purchase here in Bulgaria.
I think if you have a vehicle you are fond of or maybe a motor home you are intending to use as accommodation while renovating or building a property then there is certainly a case for driving through from the UK, in all other cases it is best to purchase here.
The reasons for saying this are that when you bring a vehicle through the border you have just 3 months before it will need to be re-registered onto Bulgarian plates, or it has to be taken out of the country again. Once you apply for the Bulgarian registration there will be customs duty to pay on the value set by the Customs Agency, regardless of how little you may have paid for it, they will judge its value. The vehicle will then need to be taken to the Traffic Police Department which deals with the technical testing and issue of the new number plates. This can be a long and tedious process because of the queue’s that start as early as 6am in the morning, we know of people who have spent up to 10 hrs waiting for their new plates and test certificate. After this you will need to go to the Department that issue’s the new registration documents and other paperwork for the vehicle, again a process that can often take longer than expected and for which you will need all of the correct paperwork before they will issue them. You are then able to go to the tax department for the issue of your road tax disc, a new idea here brought in on 1st February this year and costing around 54 leva for the average car.
You can by now probably begin to appreciate why we recommend purchasing from a car sales or garage here, most of which will carry out all of the necessary document registration for you as part of the deal. Surprisingly prices for second-hand cars are more expensive here than in the UK, this appears to be because car ownership has only been common for the last 15yrs and unlike the UK there is a lack of quality second-hand vehicles available, also there is no hire purchase system available to foreign nationals, so you must have the cash available to make your purchase.
We recently sent our resident expert out to purchase another company vehicle and having visited several car sales he found Avtosalou Mladost, situated close to the Bulstat offices where you go to pay your property tax’s, and with English speaking staff. He was impressed by their stock of good quality cars, many of which had been recently imported from Germany and Austria and most with service history available. They also have their own on site workshops and are able to deal with any problems that may occur with your purchase later and service the vehicle prior to collection. There were two cars that stood out to our man, a 1989 Mercedes 190 diesel in red with tan interior that was very clean and tidy with full service history from new and a 1998 Opal Omega estate in silver with black interior, it is fully loaded with all the extras and again with full service history. The Omega estate was particularly good value at the leva equivalent of Ј4000, especially when compared to the same identical car which we found on offer in the UK at Ј6495.
Oh! by the way if you are thinking of buying the Omega, don’t bother, we brought it for ourselves at that price, complete with full pre-delivery service, and they are doing all the paperwork as well. Our man’s impression was of a well run car sales with a good selection of vehicles and pleasant helpful staff, we can recommend them.
