This Import a Car to Crete page is from the Moving to Crete section of the Completely Crete website.

You may need to decide whether to import a car to Crete or not. If you intend living in Crete owning a car has its obvious advantages.

We know of very few people who chose to import a car to Crete from the UK. The reasons for this are twofold.

• 1. Firstly, the cost of the 'registration tax' Greece charges on vehicles imported for longer than six months can be high, even on older vehicles. We've heard tales of thousands of euros being charged for an average sized 3-year-old car!
• 2. Secondly the Greek bureaucracy involved to import a car to Crete can be overwhelming.

The British Embassy in Athens issue guidelines to UK citizens on the importation of cars. Click here for the full advice.

Basically the red tape you’ll need to go through is:

• Before you leave the UK get an import licence from the Greek embassy
• Before you leave the UK get an export licence from the DVLA
• Ensure you have sufficient insurance from your UK insurers to cover you for two or three months.
• Ensure you have a receipt for the car.
• Transport the vehicle to Crete
• Within one month of arriving in Crete have the vehicle inspected by customs
• Pay import tax and stamp duty.
• Have the vehicle tested at the government testing station.
• Register the vehicle and pay tax for registering it
• Pay car tax and acquire your windscreen sticker.
• Insure your car in Crete.

Hardly surprisingly we chose not to import a car to Crete!

We sold our newish car in the UK before relocating to Crete and bought a new one here in Crete.

Driving in Crete is by and large a pleasurable experience. See our Driving in Crete page.

We found that prices for new cars were very good compared with other EU countries. We bought a Citroen C3 late in 2007 for 10,500 Euros, which compared very well to a similar car which we saw on a Citroen Dealer's website whose business was based in Ireland (their listed price was in excess of 12,000 Euros!)

We don't know much about second hand cars as we didn't look at this market, but we are told that there is a healthy trade in decent second hand cars, particularly as the car rental companies change their fleet every 2 to 3 years.

Contrary to what we’ve heard and read on some websites, we as British citizens do need a residence permit to buy a car in Crete - the dealer will ask you for one.

The process of buying is, as you would imagine, easy and painless. The dealers want your business and will make things as easy as possible for you, arranging insurance if requested. We ordered our car on the Wednesday and picked it up on the following Monday, because they had what we wanted in stock.

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