If you’re moving to Norway for a short time to work as a seasonal worker, study, or just try your luck in a new country, you might want a somewhat cheap car to make your life more comfortable. Brand new cars are insanely expensive here in Norway, so a good option is to look for a much cheaper used car.
But where is the best place to buy used cars in Norway? Let’s take a closer look at where you can find used cars for sale, and what you need to be aware of when buying a used car in Norway.
The number 1 place to buy and sell used cars in Norway is on the website Finn.no. This is where over 95 % of all used cars are listed for sale, and where most people are looking for them. It’s common to buy used cars from other individuals in Norway, but there are also some companies that sell used cars.
It’s actually pretty common for people to sell their old used car when buying a new one, or for people to just buy used cars instead of new ones. The reason is simply because brand new cars are insanely expensive in Norway, with almost half of the price being VAT or another type of taxation.
So let’s take a deeper dive into everything you need to know before you buy your first used car in Norway!
Finding used cars for sale in Norway
There are lots of used cars for sale in Norway, and they are actually very easy to find since pretty much all of them are listed for sale on the same website, called Finn.no. This allows you as a buyer to pretty easily compare the options available near you.
Here’s how to find used cars for sale on Finn.no in Norway:
- Go to Finn.no.
- Click on “Bil og næring“
- Click on “Biler i Norge“.
- Use the navigation menu on the left side to limit your search (by car brand, asking price, geography and more).
- Click on cars that are interesting to you.
- Contact the seller to set up a test drive.
Some used car listings have a lot of information in them, while others are much more spare. It is common to give the seller a call over phone, or send a text message to ask for a time to meet and test drive the car.
There are very few alternatives for other places to look for used cars for sale in Norway, so Finn.no is going to be your main website while looking.
Fortunately, there are over 66,000 used cars for sale on the website as of right now, so there should be plenty of options for all price ranges.
How to strike a deal to buy a used car
When meeting up with the person selling the car, the most common thing to do is to inspect the car, drive it for a test drive, then potentially strike a deal if you are happy with the car.
I’m no car expert, so I can’t give recommendations as to what to look for, but you need to be aware that you have responsibility to inspect the car before buying it. The seller will be obligated to tell you of any known issues with the car, but the test drive is intended to let you look for problems with the car yourself.
Sign the used car purchasing contract
To actually buy the car, you need to sign a contract with the seller. There is no pre-determined contract that you must use, so you are free to negotiate a contract with the seller, but many people uses a pre-formatted used car contract like this one.
Once the contract is signed, you should be prepared to pay for the car (with bank transfer or Vipps), then get the car registered to your name.
Register the car
All cars must be tied to an owner if you want to drive it on the road, and the first thing you need to do is to make sure that one of you sends a “Salgsmelding” (which roughly means “sales message”). Either you or the seller can send it digitally, but it’s actually most common to send it together right after the contract and payment is fixed.
Once this is sent, the other party will get a message to accept the Salgsmelding. Once both parties have signed this digital document,
You will need BankID, Buypass or Commfides to sign the Salgsmelding digially. If you don’t have access to either of these, you need to send the Salgsmelding on regular paper to Statens Vegvesen.
Finally, you need to pay Omregistreringsavgift (re-registration fee). This is a fee you need to pay whenever a vehicle changes owners, and this can be paid digitally just after you have both agreed to the Salgsmelding.
Once the Omregistreringsavgift is paid, you are the official owner of the new used car, and are free to do what you want with it.
Make sure to insure your car before you ever drive the car!
When you do buy a used car, you will probably want to drive it home right away. However, it’s absolutely necessary to register the car for liability insurance before you ever start driving it. This is a legal requirement for all cars driving on the road in Norway, and you are not exempt from this law just because it’s recently purchased.
Driving without liability insurance (called ansvarsforsikring in Norwegian) can get you in a lot of trouble: You will be economically responsible for all damages caused by the car (even accidents), which can financially ruin you for the rest of your life. In addition, you will get a fine, the car will be seized, and you might lose your driver’s license if you get pulled over by the police.
Luckily it’s very easy to get the liability insurance, and you can just call your insurance company to get it insured in a matter of minutes.
You are free to change your liability insurance any time you want, which means that you can just get one from any insurance company for the first few hours after buying a used car, then get home and compare plans or look for better options later.
But you will not under any circumcisions want to drive the car without a liability insurance, even if it’s just for a short ride back home after you bought it.
You have very limited rights when buying a used car in Norway
You don’t have a lot of legal protection when buying a used car in Norway, so you will need to do due diligence when buying one. It’s generally you own responsibility to make sure that you don’t overpay or buy a useless car, as long as the seller is not actively withholding information about the car.
This means that you should probably watch a couple of YouTube videos on the topic “things to look out for when buying a used car”.
If you do come across a problem after having bought the car, you might be in for a difficult battle to get reimbursed or any help.
Firstly, you might not even have the rights to it, but even if you do, it might be very difficult to get the seller to agree to reimburse you.
So do your due diligence before buying the used car, and spend some time learning up on what to look out for.