How much !!!!

Sometimes it can be a bit of a tricky situation living here in Portugal, especially when one of us has to go for our monthly pedicure and what’s the other one, oh yes, coiffeur, which as you have probably realised by now, isn't me.

When faced with situations like these, one really needs a second car when one doesn't want to be trapped in the house and those of you that have followed my ramblings recently, will understand that cars aren’t my favourite subject at the moment. However, these are the small tribulations that we suffer for living here in the sunshine, sunshine that this past week has been rolling down the gutters overflowing into the neighbouring fields.
Portugal is well known for is beurocracy and red tape and very recently I tested one of its finest.
As I have been saying before rambling off course a little, you need a second car for those occasions as previously mentioned, unfortunately, the Portuguese really wallop on the special car tax's, which makes it almost unaffordable to buy a decent car in Portugal. Currently, the equivalent model of any UK car is approximately 20% more expensive in Portugal than in the UK. Faced with this situation, scores of English people drive their cars from the UK to Portugal. The problem with this is that you still have to take your UK registered car back to the UK every year for its MOT and road tax.

The alternate option to this is, you can "matriculate" your UK car into the Portuguese system and put Portuguese number plates on it.
So this week I made enquires to matriculate my second car, an 8 year old, Mercedes ML270, worth maybe around €7,000 at a push, to see what it would cost.
The information that came back from the authorities was staggering, apparently it would cost over €14,000 in Portuguese tax to do so. But that’s double what the car is worth I said, sorry Senhor, that’s the system.
However, if I was Portuguese and wanted to do the same in the UK, which would be silly as it’s cheaper to buy one in there, the cost to put UK plates on it, would be less than £200.

So much for the European Union and working as one, another priceless example of living in a country that is the UK’s oldest ally and all because the lady of the house needs her beauty bits doing, personally I think that’s a complete waste of time anyway, but I’m only saying that because she doesn’t read this drivel.