Buying a car in Estonia
 

Hi All,

I'm planning a trip through eastern europe around September 2010. The vague plan is to cut out the drive from the UK by flying to Tallinn and buying a car there (no bikes this time unfortunately). From there we'd head south through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and into Romania. Then depending on the time left might drive back towards the UK or fly from Bucharest.

I'd appreciate any advice on...

1. Buying the car, can we sort it in advance (to save time, we only have 2 weeks)? How to we try and ensure we don't get a lemon? We want something cheap, preferably characterful, but which has a decent chance of lasting at least to Romania!

2. What are the likely issues with insurance, border crossings and other paperwork with the car being Estonian and us from the UK?

3. Anything else which springs to mind?!

Thanks all!

There's something to start with.

Sõidukid - Kuldne Börs

I was actually looking at this today for different reason, the residency thing appears to be a problem for buying a car [ to get it registered], although you may be able to buy it on export plates as some EU countries offer upto 12 month export plates but you have to remove the car I think within 3 months.
I looked at buying/registering a vehicle in estonia, poland,spain and france and there was loads of hoops to go through in each country, spain dont even follow EU law and get fined every year apparently.
Germany has the most straightforward rules, it does offer a 12 month export registry plate and you will find that alot of the cars[secondhand] in that part of the world tend to come from there anyway. You can also get insurance for the car.
Germany also has the most straightforward way to register as living there or even register a vehicle there but of course you would need an address.
You would also need to check if those countries would let you in with an export plate.

I know someone who may be selling a Moskvich over here.

They are characterful, and despite being quite old, it has very few miles and is in good nick as it has only seen summer miles!!

Either way, sounds like a fun trip!!