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Depends upon your income really, coming from the UK vehicle insurance is incredibly cheap, we had a large 4X4 for a while and that was insured for less than 60,000Huf per annum.  There was a local vehicle tax which in our county was about 10,000Huf per month if I recall correctly.  The cost of fuel has also gone up dramatically but you will face that problem pretty much any where in the world.  I can't speak for fines as we never got any

We sold our car almost 18 months ago, essentially to stick within our budget we had to go for an older vehicle and the cost of keeping a 16 year old car on the road was prohibitive!

The major cost in our experience was in purchasing a vehicle with the used car market being horridly inflated, so we opted for a couple of mopeds which are cheap to both purchase and insure.

Insurance is cheaper and easier to arrange than in UK, where every year a few extra questions are added to the quote request forms. I got the car dealer to sort mine when I bought a car here and they didn't ask me anything about accidents, convictions etc. In addition to the local tax mentioned previously you also need a vignette to drive on the motorways. I bought a 12 month vignette for my tiny 800cc Chevrolet Spark. Adding this to the local tax, the overall cost is higher than it would be for road tax on the same car in UK.

There are rather few toll roads in Hungary that require a passenger car to purchase a vignette:



Always compute actual use/cost ratios as shorter term vignettes may be more cost effective and there are also alternative roads to most destinations (if you don't mind a bit slower and more "scenic" travel experience).

The few toll roads are all highways outside Budapest :-)
(autopalya, multi-lane divided highway with no level intersections only on-off ramps, speed limit 130 km/h).

No vignette = country roads only, 90km/h outside settlements, 50km/h inside with red lights and stop signs. Not the way to get anywhere far fast.

Yes, in my case the main route I need it is for the M7 for visiting friends at lake Balaton. You can get there on the 7 but it would take a lot longer.

Hello bjonesphotography, can you tell what insucarnce company did you have?
Does any body know good and cheap ones, since it is not sence to bring car fron Finland to Hungary..

I suggest you try Allianz for your car insurance. They are competitive on price and in my experience they more helpful toward foreigners than the others.

It costs more to keep a car going in Hu then the US but the insurance is cheaper in HU.
I know it is very hard to getting a driving certificate in HU, very expensive and takes allot of time.
Our auto insurance is reasonable  but petrol is expensive.
Not really a huge issue though as we only really use our car for day trips during the summer months. Most times it sits parked for weeks on end without being used.
If you go into the town hall in your district and pre pay for the year of parking in your area it is low cost, around $10. or so for the year. Otherwise parking tickets are pricey.Parking violations are given at the drop of a hat. Parking "backwards" in the 7th district results in a almost instant boot being placed on the car.
We often try to warn people who park backwards on our st. by sticking out heads out of our window if we notice the problem.Some listen and some don't, most get a boot within the first 10 to 15 min. that they leave the car parked backwards. The 7th district must be rich from all the boots they give out!
All drivers must pass a physical every 2 years and all cars must pass the safety and smog test every 2 years. One reason many older cars are not on the roads is the rust that forms from parking outside for years.
These test are expensive and repairs are pricey, another reason HU is more costly then the US to drive a car.
I am not sure if the driving test is available in English, I have heard it is only given in Hungarian.
My husband took the test in 1968, went to pro driving school in Budapest for over 6 months and the "written" portion of the test was actually oral back then. One wrong answer given by a board of 5 people and you failed the test.
He missed one answer and had to re do the test for a price. I do not think the test is that hard these days, I have seen some bad driving in HU, everything from someone making a U turn on a red in a main intersection to people not stopping on a red light. I still think however that most drivers in HU are better then those driving in the US, they have to be as road conditions are sometimes on the dangerous side.
The taxes on registering your car in HU depend on the weight of the car.Many people have registered their cars in SK, if you notice many of the plates in HU are from SK. Cheaper there I guess but you would need an address in SK to make it legal.
I don't know the details on it really, we always seem to pay through the nose and follow all the local rules correctly. Suckers in the end I guess, so many people seem to know the loop holes in the system in HU. We don't know them and pay everywhere we go for whatever we have done.