VB,
I believe you can only buy a duty-free (new) car on the assumption that you are going to register it in another country (ie. tax payable in country of use rather than country of purchase). The usual Vat-free for tourists deal only counts if you're taking the item out of the EU?
In the UK tax is only payable once on a vehicle, usually when new, the only exceptions usually are vans bought by businesses and then sold to private users.
I don't know what the various laws are concerning non-residents buying and registering vehicles are around Europe. Here in the UK they system is fairly slack, there is no link between vehicles and drivers licences (other than name), so you just need an address for the registration docs to be sent.
Most UK residents looking to buy a new car on the continent go to Holland as the deals there are good and most dealers speak good English and are used to dealing with the export paperwork.
Are you not better off hiring? (then no need to worry about tax, registration, insurance, servicing, breakdowns, selling the damn thing etc.)
