To car or not to car. That is the question

I haven't made the move yet, but my thinking is to get one or two 150cc scooters, and rent a car for longer excursions. A scooter with a topcase can work for local food shopping I believe.

@Steven Hoffman

Unless you you really attached to your car, (maybe a special model, make or one that has an intrinsic value, such as being 'near vintage, restored etc.), I would not be taking the time or making the effort. Work out what you'd get to sell it in the USA, add the value of the shipping from the US, and then look at what that buys you in EU. Small run-arounds are prolific, and even some good value old trendy cars are available in Europe.

I have recently seen an excellent Suzuki Samurai, (4x4, as strong as they come and they never break down) for €2,500. Itb was in France and the owner was willing to pay to get it to Portugal, where it was registered.

I'd have jumped at it, but I had just bought a LR Defender that I had taken ages to find. 

I've done a few different things, bought a cheap car elsewhere in the EU (where some people may have diesel vehicles running on vegetable oil) and driven it over here to bring a load of secondhand house stuff n tools (and a smoll motorbike in the back seat) and at 6 months scrapped the car.  Generally used a smoll motorbike which can be left anywhere like the local town which has carhire place, mainline station and coach station.      And hitch hiked - which is really easy going to and from local town even with a bag of shopping.   If I'm flying in for a short period then there 30ish carhire places at Porto airpor which, at the moment,  are giving quotes from 12 euro a day. Porto is also blessed with public transport so it's even possible to get a local train to the beachs for the day.  If you do want to buy an car I'd suggest you have a look round whatever your local supermarket carpark has parked there to get an idea what people use and then look at some online listing ( https://www.olx.pt/d/carros-motos-e-bar … amp;page=3 )  to see what is available and the prices/locations.

I wonder if you have your decision making ( car vs no car )  the wrong way round if you are talking about renting out in the suburbs purely to save on rent ?

If deep down you really want to live in the central city area of Porto then I would concentrate on achieving that : yes rentals will be cheaper the further out you go  ~but not THAT much cheaper, esp if you are prepared to live on a top floor of a building with no lift.  [ If you need somewhere for children to play that would be different. ]

Bringing a car and registering it on Portuguese plates is doable but VERY complicated.  Plus it is possible that  your car's emissions do not conform to Portuguese / EU  regulations, or if they do you might end up with a very high annual car tax to pay  ( based on the emissions ).

You would need to investigate all those complications PRIOR to shipping the car over.

All in all it is probably simpler and cheaper to sell it in NJ and bring the money ( plus the notional transport cost ) and buy in Portugal  when you see how narrow the roads are and what sort of

size car you feel comfortable driving.

For short journeys , eg tootling around Porto, a good quality fat wheeled electric bike would probably be ideal , though again you might like to first observe the quality of driving before you launch into that fray on two wheels.   Start with buses and metro I would think.

Have you checked out idealista and similar estate agents sites for rentals  ?

If it's transport for one, I would be tempted to go with an electric scooter and car apps.

The former usually work out very cheap to run in both fuel and tax, and are really handy for short trips.

One tip - Better if they  have an internal rather than a hub motor - better in poor conditions. If it's very short runs, the bicycle versions don't need a license in most countries.

Well, I would go for buying a relatively new car (2 to 4 years old with less than 50000km) from a known dealer. Get something that will do the job for 99% of your transportation needs. Go for a brand that is easy to maintain in Portugal. I went for a car with a diesel engine, which is very economical.

I rent a car now and then.

I'm in a small city, about 1 km from the center of town, so for my ordinary purposes i can walk.  Groceries etc.  That 1 km distance includes the train station, and it would be a short and pleasant ride to Coimbra, but so far haven't had any great urge to do it.  It also includes the local Europcar outpost.  The first time I rented, I went out to some other cities to pick a couple of things I'd arranged to buy on OLX.  And buy a space heater and a couple small trash cans that would have been a little awkward to carry home.

The second time ... really I found I had kind of run out of reasons for a car.  I've got a month left on my visa and unless something comes up, probably won't rent again.

Not to sugar coat it - it's far from being the kind of pedestrian paradise some people imagine they'd find in Europe - everyone has a car, and I seem to be the only one on my little street who walks anywhere.  Bicycles are somewhat rare here as well, and not really very well provided for - we have a couple multi-use paths out of town, but if you wanted to really go anywhere you'd be on some very fast roads where you'd wonder if it's even legal to ride a bicycle.  There are inexpensive short haul buses that connect the nearby villages, never been on one.

I don't know what a few miles out of Porto particularly means, but if you were in say Gondomar, you'd probably have more going on than I do here.  Except farther from the train station, and closer to a major city.

@Steven Hoffman

NO CAR!  Get an apartment that's short walk to the Metro.

We live in Rio Tinto outside of Porto. 

Our apartment is a 4 minute walk to the Metro, which is then 20 minutes into Porto.  NO need for a car.  We use Bolt/Uber/Taxi when we need a car.  With the Metro and trains you can easily go anywhere.

We walk to the market, restaurants, etc..  It's 15 minute Metro ride to a large mall with big box stores.  If we purchase a lot, we grab a taxi for the hide home.  Also inexpensive.

Here's a link to our area so you can see rents.  You can use it to search around Porto. 

https://www.idealista.pt/arrendar-casas/rio-tinto/carreira-cidade-jovem-venda-nova/

Make sure the building has elevators.