And, of course, you already know: new or used. But, perhaps, you have not yet decided whether you will buy it for an individual or for a company. Each of these solutions is easy to implement, so you just need to know a few specific car styling details in each case.
Buying a new car is the simplest thing: throughout the Czech Republic there are car dealerships of all possible automobile concerns: from Czech ones to some American ones. Czech car dealerships will do almost everything the client wants, including a good discount if you pay the entire amount at once or take the car directly from the showroom. In addition, the car will be registered in your name or in your company’s name in a special department of the magistrate (in the Czech Republic this is not done by the police), they will take out compulsory insurance, provide maintenance, and offer profitable emergency insurance. And in a week, if the car is from the showroom, you will receive your car in perfect order, you just need to add some gas. When planning to register a car in your name, keep in mind that a technical passport (in Czech, Vehicle Registration Certificate – ORV) will only be issued to you for the duration of your residence permit. But there is nothing terrible about this: having received a residence permit extension, for 50 CZK and 15 minutes at the magistrate’s office, you will also receive an extended registration certificate.
If you order a car, that is, you need some special options, leather interior, color, etc., then the order is fulfilled in about 2.5-3 months. First, you sign an agreement in which all the elements of the car configuration you have chosen are written down and its final cost is calculated. Make a small deposit – usually 10% of the cost – and wait quietly.
If you decide to buy a car for your Czech company in the Czech Republic, this will, without a doubt, be a very profitable decision. Firstly, you will save on VAT -20% of the cost, which will be returned to you. Secondly, you will be able to post all expenses for the car through the company’s accounting department and thus reduce your profits and, accordingly, taxes. True, you will have to work a little more with all this: in order to return the DPH (VAT), you will have to register the company as a VAT payer – your accountant should know all this, and from now on you will have to submit an annual report in addition to the usual one VAT report. Then, until a law is passed that exempts companies with motor vehicles on their balance sheets from the need to keep a travel log, collect all receipts for gasoline and other expenses for the car and attach them to accounting reports as company expenses. Plus, you will have to pay annual road tax depending on the car’s engine size (approximately 100 euros for a 1.8 liter engine per year). Private individuals do not pay this tax. However, all this trouble pays off in the end – so it’s worth a little effort.
Well, of course, you can take out a car on credit. To do this, your company must exist for more than a year, the last annual balance sheet must be positive. Interest ranges from 6 to 10% per annum, initially you will have to pay from 10 to 50% of the cost. The amount of compulsory and emergency insurance is also added to the interest.
In principle, you can take out a loan for a car for an individual, but given that we are foreigners in the Czech Republic, we will be required not only to have a residence permit, but also a certificate of regular income and most likely a guarantee from a third party.
Who focuses exclusively on used cars. Well, there is a reason for this – you can often buy a practically new, excellent car for 70% of the price. In the Czech Republic, compared to Germany, prices for used cars in the Czech Republic are slightly higher, but they say that the sellers here are more honest (like, they don’t charge mileage). Czechs love to buy used cars, and they do not hesitate to buy cars with very high mileage. They are fascinated by the opportunity to buy wheels for a thousand to one and a half euros. The fact that these wheels will stop spinning almost immediately does not concern them. Nevertheless, there are a huge number of car markets, large ones even have websites:
www.sauto.cz,
www.aaaauto.cz,
www.tipcars.cz,
www.motoinzerce.cz – a website for the sale of motorcycles.
Car dealerships also offer used cars of their own brands: as a rule, they are in excellent condition, and branded service means a lot. And prices here are only a couple of percent higher.
The price of a used car is determined, as elsewhere, by the year of manufacture, kilometers traveled, engine size and the presence or absence of various technical gadgets. As we have already said, in the Czech Republic you can buy a car for one and a half thousand euros (a small Peugeot with a liter engine, manufactured in 2000), or for six thousand – a Citroen minivan from 2007, or for 50 thousand – an Audi A7 with a three-liter diesel engine 2011 release. As they say, it’s the master’s business…
Registration of a used car, well, maybe a little more difficult than a new one, and you will only get the MOT for two years (for a new car they give you 4 years without inspection), but it may happen that you buy a car with a still valid MOT, and you won’t need to go through it at all. Maintenance, emission measurement and registration control (reconciliation of data in the vehicle documentation and on the engine) are carried out at special stations by appointment. This happens without fuss, queues and bribery of employees. Car dealer workers will probably help you register your car, but it’s very easy to do it yourself: with papers about passing maintenance and registration control, as well as measuring emissions, a large and small certificate of registration, license plates (if you bought a car in one district and are registering it in another, they will change your numbers, and if not, the numbers will remain old), a sales contract, a passport with a residence permit (biometric card), compulsory car insurance, you come to the magistrate, fill out a special form, pay 150 CZK – and through In 15 minutes the car is absolutely yours.
And finally, if you don’t already know, we remind you that highways in the Czech Republic are toll roads – a sticker (Dálniční známku) about payment of the toll can be purchased at any gas station (they can be ten-day for 310 CZK, monthly – 440 CZK and annual – 1,500 CZK – prices 2012). You should place this beautiful stamp on your windshield at the top or bottom right. Make sure to do this, since the stickers are read automatically when you drive under special frames installed on all highways in the Czech Republic. If the sensor does not detect the sticker, in a couple of days a fine with a photo of your car and you will be sent to the address where the car is registered.