Some Questions about Cars.

[rebvar]

Hello,

I have read some of the posts in the forum, but I still have some questions. I want to buy a very cheap car here in Finland (Basically I want it to just work in case I need it. I prefer to use my bike in other situations). I was wondering what are the costs of buying a car in Finland. Take for example a car made by Nissan company in 1997, No. of person: 5 and a price of 200 euros.

What amount of tax should I pay for the car?
Do I need to pay annual taxes or some other fees?
What about the insurance? How much is the least amount of insurance?
What about the costs of repairing cars? Is repairing a car an expensive thing or not?

I am new to Finland (4 days now) and I am not quite familiar with the laws and regulations here.

Thanks.

[Kayttaja1]

http://www.trafi.fi/en/road

[rebvar]

I did not receive the answer to my questions.

http://www.trafi.fi/en/road

[Kayttaja1]

I did not receive the answer to my questions.

http://www.trafi.fi/en/road

On the contrary.

[Marsh04]

Fixed costs are compulsory traffic insurance, road tax and annual inspection fee. They will together amount to at least 5-6 hundred euros per year.

A 200 euro car will most probably fail in next inspection and you'll need to spend more money than the price of the car. Not a wise idea to buy this kind of car if you are planning to keep it beyond next annual inspection.

[Rosamunda]

Where do you live?
Have you discovered the public transport network yet?

Running a car is not cheap in Finland. And leaving an old car outside all winter, barely using it, is not a good idea.
Where are you from? Is your driving licence valid in Finland?

There are not so many very old cars up for sale any more since the government introduced the trade-in subsidy. Also, if you buy an old car and it fails the katsastus (roadworthiness test), you will have to pay to scrap it (probably more than it cost to buy it in the first place).

[FinnGuyHelsinki]

Scrapping a car is not costly as there's value in the raw materials, namely metal, albeit one cannot expect to make money on it. The absolute cheapest option to have a car really is to buy one worth a few hundred that has been recently passed the annual inspection, so that it's still legal to drive for a year or so. Should it fail an inspection the next time for a reason that's costly to repair, just scrap it or sell it to someone who wants to fix it themselves and get another one. Of course something like that may not be the most reliable. The more expensive the car, the more it devalues, easily the few hundred a year some banger costs. You should definitely do some calculations, all in all one can expect the upkeep of any car to hit 1000 euros a year (the mandatory fees + maintenance, tires, the occasional repair, devaluation), which added with the cost of fuel already pays for quite a few trips in a bus and a taxi.

[riku2]

i think you would be better to sign up for something like city car club https://citycarclub.fi/en which is a way to rent a car when you need it (eg a trip to ikea or visiting somebody in the countryside) and then you can use your bike for normal occasions but have access to a car should you need it. The prices don't seem amazingly cheap though and you might even rent a car for those times you need it instead (eg from Avis or Hertz). Car ownership in Finland is far from cheap, the government wants it this way to encourage the use of public transport.

[Oho]

Hello,

I have read some of the posts in the forum, but I still have some questions. I want to buy a very cheap car here in Finland (Basically I want it to just work in case I need it. I prefer to use my bike in other situations).

For very occasional use a service such as http://www.24rent.fi/ is much better alternative providing you live in an area where they operate. Someone beat me to it.....

[Oho]

Car ownership in Finland is far from cheap, the government wants it this way to encourage the use of public transport.

!"#¤%, taxation of private transport has much more to do with fiscal realities than guiding public toward public transport.

[Marsh04]

Car ownership in Finland is far from cheap, the government wants it this way to encourage the use of public transport.

!"#¤%, taxation of private transport has much more to do with fiscal realities than guiding public toward public transport.

[Pursuivant]

Ok, so 97 toyota for 200...
- insurance 400/year
- road tax 150/ year
- MOT 50/ fail
- parts 200,-
- work 150/hour so 1500,-
- 2nd MOT 50
- fine for tires 375,-
- new winter tires set 400,-

[rebvar]

Thank all of you for your nice answers. I was away for a couple of days and sorry for the late reply. The answers were great and I decided not to buy a car. I had a car for the past few years, back in my country and it was cheap other than the car's price, and my first week in Finland was quite expensive considering bus ticket fees without bus card. So, based on the prices on some websites like tori.fi and nettiauto.com I thought that maybe buying a car would be a more reasonable option. So, I asked the question here. Of course, considering the high cost of public transport encouraged me toward buying a car. But since I won't be using the bus too much also (I bought two bikes in the first week which someone stole one of them in 24h ).

Anyway, thank you all again.