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Need help and advice for Exporting car to Spain/looking for spare parts - New Renault 4 GTL (1988) owner

ryanrenault4gtl

Enthusiast
Messages
41
Location
Llanelli
Good morning all and many thanks for having me as a new member of your fantastic page!

I have a few worries and would like to see if anyone is available to offer some advice and assistance.

1. I cannot find a Haynes Manual that covers the 1988 1.1 (as they seem to have finished publishing them after 1986). Where is best to find a manual which provides drawings and information in English? I have seen that a few members have made pdfs which are available to download but I can't seem to download them, could anyone help?

2. The car is on a Portuguese plate at the moment and I am in Wales. However, I am looking to drive the car to Spain where I currently live and work (home for school holidays and saw this online from a Gentleman who drove it from Portugal to Wales, bought it and now looking to take it back out of the UK). My question is, are there any members here with experience in Spain regarding this vehicle and what would be best in order to take it down there in terms of insurance (international? Or transfer plates) and when entering Spain what are the steps to import it and then re-register it in Spain on their plates.

3. Finally, which internet sites (in UK or in Europe) are best to find spare parts for the car? I would like to carry a few extra spares with me at all times in case I need to change a clutch or brake cable on the road, but where should I look for the right set of parts or for good customer service?

I understand that I have a few queries here but would really appreciate help.

Thank you everyone and I look forward to hearing from you!

Ryan
 
Haynes 072 1961 to 1986 will be fine (I use it for our 1990 GTL). If you've got the 1108cc, then be sure to get this one (and not 1961-1979), as only the one to 1986 covers the 1108cc engine.

Mister-auto (https://www.mister-auto.co.uk/) are pretty good in my (limited) experience.

Sorry I can't help with your other questions, but good luck!


Thanks a lot for your help here, I will look into that Manual now, noticed they are 19.99 on Amazon now! Great, many thanks!!!
 
Hi Ryan
These sites will be useful for spare parts:

https://piezasautosclasicos.com/renault/renault4y6.html

https://www.milanuncios.com/

There are always loads of R4 bits on Spanish eBay.

As jjad says, mister auto are very good. They have a Spanish site too:

https://www.mister-auto.es/recambios-coche/

I might be able to help with some parts - bear in mind, though, that some LHD parts are different from their RHD equivalents. You really need a good parts book/PDF to be sure you're getting what you need. Can you send me your email address via the 'Conversations' system?
 
Re-registered one vehicle in Spain from UK plates to Spanish, this I registered as ‘Historico’’ due to age of van, this process was very long winded, lots of time and frustration tooing and throwing different offices ( by appointments etc.) , arranging inspection for classification, my Spanish is not strong so I needed help in all offices, by was kindly given this by neighbour here, even with residency and NIE no. this process took almost a year from start to finish, during this time it was illegal to drive (ie no insurance ), you can drive your non Spanish plate from the border to your residence on the UK insurance, then, technically your back as a Spanish resident and therefore need Spanish plates and insurance to be 100% legal driving a vehicle, ie your UK insurance becomes questionable, same as UK no insurance =impounded vehicle, don't know about points, but a €3k fine here too.
Most larger towns usually have a Gestoría that will specialise in vehicle related matters, the one if I had used here in A Coruña to register normally would of charged €150@ to sort out paperwork, do not think that included the ‘tax’ and payment at each office dept and duty on car, unsure of time scale, went Historic route, which unfotunatley wouldnt be touched by any local province Gestoría's, ( Benidorm, Alicante, areas no problem )
Going the historic route cost approx €800_1000, plus loss of use for a year, wouldn’t do it again, this seems also to be a common theme to threads on expat forums, its easier to buy here....
I would also make sure that if your pre arranging anything with online companies that state they register any car in Spain that they have an office or representatives in the area you live, otherwise you might hear ‘sorry, we cant do that ‘ when you get here, as said stick to as local to you here as you can to keep problems to a minimum if they occur.
Some provinces systems are slightly different to others, so yours may be easier.
There is a lot of info on the expat forums as to import which may help, especially if the info is coming from someone local to where you are in Spain.
 
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