Cars arrive in the Algarve from the UK, Germany and Switzerland every week — relocations, retirements, second homes. Before one becomes your daily car here, it deserves a technical arrival check at the Loulé workshop: the underside inspected on the lift after transport, the paint measured for undeclared accident history, fluids, battery and air-conditioning brought up to Algarve reality, and the car prepared for its Portuguese IPO inspection. Technical preparation only — honestly scoped.
Transport and relocation are hard on a car in quiet ways: weeks on a truck or in storage, a battery that stood discharged, fluids at the age the previous climate forgave. The arrival check puts the car on the lift at the Loulé workshop and reads it honestly — the underside after transport, leaks, brakes and tyres judged by age and condition, the battery measured rather than guessed, the air-conditioning tested before the first Algarve summer asks everything of it.
The verdict follows the house rule: test first, price after. You get a plain-language list of what the car genuinely needs now, what can wait, and what it doesn't need at all — with repair prices quoted the same day, after the check, never instead of it.
“An imported car arrives with the story its seller chose to tell. The lift and the depth gauge tell the rest of it — and I'd rather you hear that in my workshop than at your first IPO.”
Underside, fluids, brakes and tyres by condition, battery measured, A/C tested — findings priced the same day, after the check.
Tested before any regas — a leaking circuit is found first, not refilled twice.
The correct specification for the exact car — coded on cars that require registration, BMW and Mercedes among them.
Final scope and price are confirmed at inspection — these are honest public anchors, not teaser rates.
A car bought abroad arrives with the history someone chose to tell. The paint tells the rest: a depth gauge finds filler and resprays in numbers even when they hide from the eye, and the diagnostic scan reads the error history — including errors cleared last week, which leave traces. On an imported car this matters twice, because pursuing a seller across a border afterwards is close to impossible.
It is the same method as our pre-purchase inspection, applied after the move instead of before the money — and if you are still choosing a car to bring over, the pre-purchase inspection is the better moment for it.
Imported cars end up at a Portuguese periodic inspection (IPO) sooner or later, and failing one costs a re-test. The pre-IPO check goes through the usual failure points — lights, glass, suspension and the rest — so the car passes first time. Where specialist mechanical work is needed, we coordinate it through trusted partner workshops and confirm parts, route and warranty before anything starts.
One honest boundary: JustCars is not a customs or matriculation agency, and we don't handle import registration paperwork. Our paperwork experience is specific and real — window-tint certificates with legalisation, and IMT registration of colour changes after a full wrap. For the import itself, we prepare the car technically; the registration process stays with you or your agent.
No — and we say so upfront. JustCars prepares the car technically: arrival check, paint reading, fluids, battery, A/C and the pre-IPO points. Our documented paperwork experience is window-tint certificates and IMT registration of colour changes — import matriculation stays with you or your agent.
Because transport and standing change a car: batteries discharge, fluids age past what a milder climate forgave, and the first Algarve summer is the hardest test an air-conditioning system has faced. The check tells you what is genuinely needed now — and sometimes the honest answer is 'nothing'.
We can read what the car itself records: the paint measured with a depth gauge to find filler and resprays, and the electronic error history — including recently cleared errors, which leave traces. You get a plain-language verdict of what the numbers show.
Car + what you need on WhatsApp — real options with real numbers.
