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Buying a Car in Italy
By admin | June 10, 2008
So you have bought your Tuscan villa. All has gone smoothly because you took sound, professional and independent advice. Now you want to buy a car. Nothing fancy because you don’t live in Italy but you do spend long periods at your house, especially in the school holidays, and the cost of hiring a car mounts up over a few weeks. You pop into your local second-hand car dealer who has good range of vehicles and you decide to buy one.
For as long as we can remember the Italian law permitted only residents to purchase cars (at least other than for export). In recent years the law was changed, for the better, so that you could purchase a car if you obtained a permesso di soggiorno (permission to stay). Sadly, a step backwards has been taken and you now must be resident in order to buy a car. This effectively means that all those non-resident holiday home owners who wish to have the use of a car must choose between some less-than-ideal options.
Option A - hire a car each time.
Option B - bring a car from home.
Option C - buy a car but put it in the name of a trusted resident.
Option A is convenient but, as we have said, can be costly. Option B is feasible but it has downsides that may not be immediately obvious; imagine that once a year you will have to drive the car back for an MOT Test in order to be able to have a valid road tax certificate! And insurance is frought with problems as many insurers place limits on the time the vehicle can be abroad. The risks of Option C are countless.
Such restrictions are outdated in a modern democracy. They force people to cut corners. Isn’t it better for the Italian economy to have property owners (you don’t have to be resident to buy a property!) spending money with an Italian car dealer, paying Italian road tax, buying Italian insurance and spending money for servicing in Italy, than have them driving around in dubious foreign registered vehicles, some of which you can see at a glance are barely roadworthy and many of which haven’t had valid road tax or an MOT in years?
We can only hope that the Italian Government sees the sense both economically and in terms of security in changing this restrictive law urgently.
Meanwhile, we are pretty sure that somewhere in Italy non-residents will be manging to buy cars. So please add your comments and help create a global picture.
Topics: Share your wisdom |
June 26th, 2008 at 9:50 am
Well, I would like a Ferrari if I lived in Italy so I would buy a car in a neighbouring country rather than bring one from the UK. The noise of a 5 valve Italian V8 going through the tunnels is just awesome!
June 26th, 2008 at 10:02 am
You would need to check the rules for the neighbouring country - EU is EU but things are far from clear. Anyone out there know something about this subject? I love Ferrari too but remember - if you live on a white road you may find it inaccessible in such a low-slung stallion.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Interesting discussion - thanks for the information, very useful!
June 26th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
the ideal place to buy the ideal family car - a Fiat Multipla
June 27th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Given the relatively expensive (and increasing!) car-hire rates in Italy, buying a car there must be given serious consideration. Thanks for the thought starters on this!
July 8th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Having recently moved to Italy I took my foreign car with me, thinking it would be a relatively straight forward procedure to change the plates. Nothing could be further from the truth!
I have had to obtain countless pieces of paperwork, including a tax exemption certificate from the customs office and an international certificate of authenticity for my log book! The easiest thing would have been to have sold the car before I moved and bought a new one here. Which is what I would recommend.
The only way to buy/register a car in Italy if you are non resident is if you have Italian citizenship. If you are of Italian origin somewhere down the line then you can apply for this if you don’t already have it. If you do end up registering a car in Italy the one good thing is that insurance companies in Italy do allow you to stop and start your insurance during the year. So if you only visit Italy 2-3 times a year you won’t end up paying for a full years premium.
August 15th, 2008 at 7:53 am
For me this a big sorprice..But how do we take this messages to the autorities?IBeing non residence ,t doesent make sence if you can be owner of a house but can not be owner of a car??Some has to take this to autorities,and not bending rules