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Date Published: 02/06/2023

The riskiest places in Spain to buy a second-hand car

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A surprising number of used cars in Spain have been in an accident or have had their mileage doctored

The riskiest places in Spain to buy a second-hand car

The second-hand car market in Spain is booming, bouyed by savvy motorists keen to buy a top ride without having to splash out on a brand new vehicle. But while bargains can certainly be had through used car garages and private sellers, the market is also awash with unreliable motors that have been hastily patched up after a crash and hard-driven cars whose mileage has been illegally reversed.

There are numerous online tools that can give you a detailed history of a vehicle before you hand over any cash, but there are still multiple scams buyers should be aware of, with various regions of Spain seemingly specialising in different dodgy dealings.

CARFAX specialises in gathering information on used vehicles in Europe and the US and has recently analysed more than 80% of the second-hand motors on Spanish roads. Through this, they've determined the autonomous communities in Spain where buyers should be extra cautious when purchasing a car.

Manipulated mileage, previous accidents and damage

Andalucia is the largest autonomous community in Spain so it stands to reason that it is also home to the most vehicles in the country: 14% of the total. The biggest issue CARFAX found here was doctored mileage, where sellers of second-hand cars had reversed the odometer so that cars appeared to have been driven less. The experts found that 4.73% of all used cars on Andalucian roads had their mileage clocked at one point.

This deceitful tactic has been employed even more often in other regions, though. In Extremadura, the mileage has been reduced in 6.13% of vehicles, followed by Murcia, with 5.48%; Castilla y León, with 5.08%; and Castilla La Mancha, with 4.85%.

It's never a good idea to buy a car that has been in a major collision, at least without knowing all the details of the repairs, but many owners patch up damaged vehicles and sell them on without ever revealing this fact.

Catalonia leads the ranking of communities with cars that have suffered the most damage or crashes, at almost 4% of the total vehicles on the road. Coming in a close second is Madrid, with 3.6% and the Region of Murcia, with 3.4%.

In the Balearic and Canary Islands, a whopping 27.85% of used cars are considered risky due to previous damage, and the experts attribute this to the large number of ex-rental vehicles that enter into the second-hand market.

Which region of Spain has the oldest cars?

Drivers in Spain are famous for holding on to their cars for years and years, trading them in only when they’re on their last legs. The oldest cars in the country can be found in Castilla y León, Extremadura and Galicia, where two out of every three vehicles on the road are more than 10 years old, while the rest of Spain averages one out of every two cars.

At the other extreme is Madrid, where only 40.61% of the cars are over 10 years old.

Find all the latest motoring and transport news here or join our Driving in Spain Facebook group for regular updates

Images: Freepik

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