Car storage in Menorca: your car waits for you here

Plenty of people with a house in Menorca end up buying a car for the island. It makes sense: it works out better than renting every time you come, and it saves you the counter, the dates and the surprises. But another problem shows up, and we hear it every season: where do I leave it for the eight or nine months I'm not here?

That's why we created ABLACARS Car Storage, our vehicle storage and management service. We keep your car at our facilities in Mahón, hand it to you at the airport the day you land, and take care of the MOT, the garage and the cleaning while you're away.

A parked car costs money too

Leaving the car in the street or in your own garage for nine months isn't free, even if it looks like it:

• The battery. A car that won't start after three months almost never starts after four. And you usually find out on a Sunday in August, with the bags by the door.
• The MOT and the insurance. They expire whether you're on the island or not. A car parked on a public road with an expired MOT can end up towed.
• The weather. Nine months of sun, salt air and Saharan dust leave the paint and the rubber in worse shape than people expect.
• Taxis. If the car is at your house and you land at the airport, someone has to go and fetch it. There and back, every trip.

How it works

You drop the car off once and we handle the rest. When you come back, you tell us your flight and it's waiting for you.

1. Check-in. We record the details, mileage and paperwork, and photograph the car's condition so there's a record of it.
2. Storage. The car stays at our facilities while you're off the island.
3. You tell us you're coming. Date, time and where you want it: Menorca Airport or the Mahón area.
4. Preparation. We check the battery and tyres and do the cleaning included in your plan.
5. Handover. The car is ready and waiting the day you land.
6. Pick-up. When your stay ends we collect it and it goes back into storage.

A handover and the pick-up that follows it count together as a single service from your annual allowance.

What's included

Item	Standard	Premium
Delivery + pick-up services per year	7	12
Cleaning before handover	Exterior wash	Exterior and interior, on request
MOT, insurance and service tracking	Yes	Yes
Photographs and mileage log	Yes	Yes
MOT appointment handled per year	—	1
Garage visit handled per year	—	1

What it costs

The rate follows the length of the vehicle, because floor space is the main cost of the service. Three groups, no grey areas:

Category	Length	Standard	Premium
Compact	Up to 4.00 m	€625 + VAT	€725 + VAT
Touring	4.01 – 4.70 m	€715 + VAT	€825 + VAT
Executive / XL	From 4.71 m	€800 + VAT	€925 + VAT

The full prices, with and without VAT, are published on the ABLACARS Car Storage site, along with everything else: MOT handling at €30/hour, transfer to a garage at €35, exterior wash at €10, full clean at €25.

Storage or rental: which suits you

We'll be straight about this, because we do both and we don't want to sell you the one you don't need.

Your situation	What suits you
You come once or twice a year, for a week or two	Rent. Buying and storing won't pay off
You come three or more times a year, or for long stays	Storage. This is where it starts to make sense
You already have a car on the island and nowhere to leave it	Storage, without a doubt
You bring the car over on the ferry every summer	Storage. You skip the crossing and the entry quota

If you're in the first case, have a look at our rental rates: zero-excess insurance included and no deposit. If you're in any of the other three, read on.

The vehicle entry quota in Menorca

There's one more reason, and it's talked about more every year. The Consell is preparing a limit on vehicles entering the island, with number-plate cameras already running at the port of Ciutadella. Ibiza is two seasons into a similar system, with a permit and a fee required in summer.

It isn't approved yet and we won't oversell it, but the logic is simple: if your car is already in Menorca, it isn't competing for an entry slot every summer and doesn't depend on permits still being available the day you travel. We set out the published figures, and the caveats, in the section on the quota on the storage site.

Why us

We've been renting cars in Menorca for years, with delivery straight to the airport and the port. Moving vehicles around, working to flight times, getting MOTs done and dealing with garages is what we do every day: storage is the same job, with your car instead of ours.

And something you won't see much of in this business: we publish our prices. All of them, with and without VAT, additional services included. If you ask elsewhere and they tell you to enquire, now you know why.