And I thought I'd finished paying for the car

Second-hand car prices being what they are in Spain, and because I could, I bought a car from new. I was actually in a situation where I could have paid outright (pension lump sum), but the dealer offered a better price, even with all the interest, on a finance package. The finance period had to be 48 months or more.

When the last instalment left my bank account on September 14 this year I grinned. The car was mine. Or so I thought.

I have an application on my phone called Mi DGT or My DGT (DGT is Dirección General de Transporte - something like The Ministry of Transport ). Apart from being a bit on the clunky side, the phone app's OK. It holds my driving licence and most of the official documentation on the car. At the top of the details about the car, there is a red band and a warning sign. Basically, it says I'm not the owner of the car, VW Finance is. I've been waiting for the red notice to go away since I paid the last instalment, but today, for the first time, I bothered to read the whole of the explanatory note against the warning and not just the first sentence. It said that, once I'd paid for the car, I would need to register it on the Registro de Bienes Muebles. Before I did that, the title of the car would remain with the finance company as they have something called reserva de dominio, and it could "impede" the transfer or sale of the vehicle. The note said that the finance company would give me the certificate so I could go through the process.

I'd never heard of this, I didn't know what it was, and for once, I didn't go to Google for the answer. I was going into Pinoso anyway, so I went to the office of the gestor (sort of half accountant half official paperwork handler) that does my tax return. 

At first, the woman I talked to had no idea what I was talking about but, after a bit of goading, she phoned someone else. He knew. After the call, she said they could process the paperwork for me. Normally, I'd do these things myself. The digital signature, a sort of certificate of identity on my computer, makes carrying out lots of official things pretty easy, but I'd heard about the huge delays in getting a person-to-person appointment with the DGT, and I'd rather dropped myself in it by asking in the office first. It was a case of "sod it", alright then, you do it. Oh, by the way, how much is it? The 100€ answer was a bit of a shock but, in for a penny. I handed over the certificate from the finance company, I handed over copies of the ficha técnica and the permiso de circulación (car logbook and registration type documents), a copy of my personal ID and two crisp 50€ notes. The gestor prefers cash!

Now, I suppose I just wait till either the little warning note goes from the app or the gestor phones me up.

Knobs and knockers

I bought a new car yesterday evening. I mean new new. Pensions mean I have an income. Pensions mean I can get finance.

The registration letter has just flipped over from K to L and my new SEAT Arona has an L registration. There can only be about 23,382 cars in front of mine in Spain with that registration letter. So far I haven't seen another on the road.

I parked the Mini outside the dealer and drove away without saying goodbye after nearly 220,000 kilometres or around 137,000 miles together. The SEAT had just 10kms on the clock. They'd put a red cover over it. As though there would be champagne and stuff. It wasn't like that. I sat in the drivers seat whilst Juan Carlos tapped the screen where the radio should be to tell me that this activates the automatic parking and that is the on/off for the mirror blind spot warning and so on. He wanted to know what colour I wanted the ambient lighting! I remember my mum being dead pleased that her Ford Prefect had a heater and rubber mats - it's a long way from there to mood lighting in the doors. At least the Arona still has some things I understand like the steering wheel and a normal six speed gear arrangement. It even has a handbrake lever and not just a switch. I suspect there will be hours of fun trying to work out the park assist, lane deviation warning and even how to work the music system

I drove it home stopping off at Lidl to buy some brandy. It seemed fine, a bit sluggish maybe, the car, not the brandy. Maggie came out of the house to wave us home.