Buying an Italian or UK car?

A few other insurance choices for you: Clements International, www.ajinsurance.co.uk & Italsure do expat policies. There seem to be others with a good googling ;o) Saga used to do one but only if you have a U.K address. In here is an interesting post from an old forum member called liketheroman about insurance here:   http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/cost-living-utility-services/5638-car-i... in bocca al lupo

You don't say how long you intend to spend in the UK or in Italy. 

 If you do not have 'residence' in Italy - don't bother even trying to buy a car over there - a search of this and the old forums will throw up a myriad of postings on the problems.  And the insurance in Italy will be horrendous, even if you can buy one  If you are UK resident, you have two choices;- Either buy a RHD car in UK, or get a LHD one [there are companies listed on the Internet that do it at a reasonable cost] If you buy and insure in the UK - some companies do insure for more than the usual 90 days per year abroad - Saga and AA being just two [again search the old and this forums]   Good Luck - you'll probably need it!

 Bottom line is that you will spend circa £3,000 per annum (over say a five year period) due to the higher cost of the car itself (even a FIAT !!!), and you will pay extortionate insurance premiums EVERY year (of the suggested five). My 3rd party ONLY (note 3rd Party ONLY!), for a very sensible FIAT, I've never had a claim in 20 years and I am just the wrong side of 60............is..............................................circa....1,000 euros per annum. But if (luckily) you are not an Italian resident you can't do it anyway! Good luck whichever way you go! S

We buy all our cars in the UK and drive RHD here. Second hand cars are extortionately expensive here. Generally, you can get the same car in the UK for nearly half the price. It's not a problem registering and insuring a RHD car in Italy but obviously you wouldn't have many buyers if you wanted to sell it on. I have registered 3 cars here and it's not a problem. It costs about 500-600 euro. The insurance is more expensive here because the car is insured and not the driver. I have found Direct Line the cheapest. Things to watch out for are that if the car has a tow bar it must be a manufacturers fitted one or be on the Italian list of "approved" tow bars. That is not the same as the manufacturers list of approved towbars as we found out to our cost! I pay €650 a year to insure a 2005 Mercedes Vaneo which is third party fire & theft plus breakdown, windscreen and legal cover. It also covers me for natural incidents (e.g. a tree falling on it). Dearer  than the UK but still cheaper than some of the horror stories you hear. Remember to get your no claims bonus certified from your current insurer and it needs to be expressed in years and not %age. Italian Direct Line will honour this unlike a lot of other Italian insurers. If you're not going to be permanently based in Italy, I would stick to buying and insuring it in the UK - cheaper!

  Wo! Thank you all. Refining my needs:  For the next two years we will be 6 months Italy and ditto UK. We both have our residency.  Sounds like best to buy in the UK - whether lhd or rhd.  Is it better to keep UK number plates or re register in Italy?  Prepared to do this if not a nightmare scenario.  But if the former I've heard that you can't drive a UK registered car if living a fair proportion of the year in Italy. Likely to get pulled up by the village policeman.  But if that isn't the case then can I insure in the UK for a car used up to 6 months of the year in Italy?  An alternative is to have the main car UK registered and use for driving between countries/but have an Italian car in the garage in Le Marche.  Prob need piccolo or at least elderly 4wd as hill/comune road to la casa molto steep. Life is complicated, exagerated by buying in Le Marche.  But so far the peace/quite/beauty weighs in its favour. Hope I can return the favour when you post questions. Ciao M

Thanks Sprostoni for last posting. I will certainly follow up on your insurance company. Will also let you know if our very distinquished, seemingly cordial local policeman pays me an official visit! Very helpful indeed.  Appreciate all of the responses.  Some of us have neighbouring villages > so in the spring look out for a nearly new 4wd with UK number plates and a black & white border collie with commedia dell'arte face :( ) staring out of the back alert to potentiially interesting walks and best stops for prosecco. M ps For what it's worth: We were in residence for the Jan tremors.  Scary but certainly not permanently daunted.  But then I was in San Francisco last time around.  No! - not 1906.

  Excellent and, ironically, we are considering getting a Rav 4.  Good for the hills and, on paper, better than average kilometres per litre for a 4wd. Montana > I'm assuming you spend most of your time in Italy.  Did you therefore re register your Rav to become Italian?  Or are you also running the gauntlet with UK number plates, without side effects? Appreciated.   M

We are in the process of buying a new VW, LHD.   VW group cars are available new as UK spec with LHD if required.  No premium on purchase price.  This will save us about 7000 euro.  It will be insured with Stuart Collins as is our present car .   We have had our present car (RHD UK registered) here for nearly 3 years and no one has made any comment.  I think that now all Shengen countries have no restrictions on car registration and usage  I think that even though the UK has not signed up to the accord we are flying under the radar. We also have a very small italian registered car insured with Direct line which has the same insurance cost for third party as our UK car has for fully comp.  Hope this helps Steve      

We have residency, spending about 7 months Italy 5 months UK (+ or -) and normally drive to and fro. I like to use the big car (rhd) for the to and fro but my wife doesn't like to drive it on our narrow lake road, so I bought a lhd Panda to keep in Italy all the time (ish).  The main agent in UK said he could sell me one but it would be on 6 months delivery, so I found one with the help of 1st Car Imports via t'internet. It came from Belgium, pre-registered 09 but with zero kms and very competitively priced. Part of the service was to import it to UK (though it didn't leave Belgium) so it is on UK plates. It is insured with Saga for very low money; they have no problem with the car being lhd, nor for unlimited use in Europe. Road Tax is £35! I figure if I look like getting any bother re the 6 month rule, I can easily drive either of the cars out of Italy for a spell - it's only 40 mins to Switzerland. Terry

  Quite simply for the huge saving on insurance alone, I would NOT buy in Italy...I'm resident all the time so had to but it's definitely not worth it when compared to what people pay back home....and I'm in the top insurance group with only a small car!   Good luck whatever you decide to do!

  Everyone Your invaluable responses to this question ceratinly shows the benefits and comaraderie of this network.  Although I know it's important to integrate into the village society it is reassuring to have a simpathetic community that understands the nuances of the British psyche nearby, albeit electronically. Indebted M

 Certainly  a grey area the Saga insurance!! Thought i would give them another try!! just now, Told them my situation would be, with regard to leaving the car in Italy. Take the car out March time and bring back November, inbetween times i would expect to return to England 2/3 times leaving the car in Italy. There comment was they could not offer insurance as the car was being left for a longer period than they would be prepared to cover, short periods only. I asked what was there definition of short or long periods was, and was told they did not have that information, but whatever it was they could not insure me. Asked if i could have the underwriters contact to see if i can clear the confusion with Saga insurance, but Saga said they could not give me that information.       

Hi  We've been round the houses on this one too!  We just ordered a Panda in the UK which I'll drive over this year, as it's new it won't require an mot for 3 years.  I insured through this company which is very reasonable and covers all of Europe for 12 months.   STUART COLLINS & CO 114 WALTER RD SWANSEA SA1 5QQ PHONE 00 44 1792 655562 FAX      00 44 1792 651126 

  When I have the car i will contact both, with the spec and report back.  Good point about the MOT Andy B. M

 "recently got residency sorted, however in answer to your question, we have friends a couple of villages away who have a RHD English reqistered 4x4 (it was worth more to them than the amount they could sell it for to buy LHD car, so they kept it) and they have lived there for several years with no bother at all on their English plates." When reading the above I did wonder how the friends with the 4X4 coped when it came to the annual MOT.  Do they go back to England every year to have the MOT done to re-insure?  Or can they get an equivalent MOT done in Italy? We are debating whether or not to buy an Italian friend's Fiat Multipla.  He has had it from brand new, it is in immaculate condition and he has been obsessively careful with it in that he has had it serviced and mechanically looked after since he got it, has it valetted every 1000kms and even the slightest door dent from a knock from another car door in a car park was immediately sorted out.  He is selling because he has two cars and doesn't need two cars any more.  And the size would be ideal for us and our visiting family and friends. But I do wonder about the insurance and how to go about getting it.    Maralyn

 We had all the same dilema's last year and after looking at the cost of Italian cars and how much to insure them, we bought an old volvo 960 auto estate with all the gadgets,leather aircon and everything you need in a car for long comfortable journeys. It was in excellent condition, 85,000 mls full mot and cost only £750 pounds insurance from stuart collins and the car is insured to stay in Italy full comp( even when we are back in Uk without it) for the year. we filled it up to the brim with stuff we wanted to take( you can't get all that in hand luggage on ryanair) We cruised to Genoa and got the ferry to Sicily. We will drive the car back when the mot is due and fill it up again with stuff. Simple, stress free, and much cheaper than buying in Italy and insuring. And if it gets bashed, hey ho we have got our moneys worth. The car is there when we arrive, looked after by a local friend.no problem. Trust me its the best way. good luck David and Maria

By the way the full comp insurance from stuart collins was about £400 for the year. David and Maria

1)It was in excellent condition, 85,000 mls full mot and cost only £750 pounds insurance from stuart collins. 2) By the way the full comp insurance from stuart collins was about £400 for the year.

  £400 seems a bit pricey if you have full NCB. Do you have others on the permitted drivers section?

We have also taken a cruise ship from Genoa to Palermo when we were driving back. Saved the long, long drive down through the length of Italy and we had a couple of nights in Sicily and then a short hop across the Messina Strait  to the mainland and a couple of hours drive North to get home.  I don't recall it being particularly cheap but it saved on the stress of the very long drive and we got to see Sicily so killed two birds with one stone.

I have a LHD brit registered Landrover, brought from Nene Overland, they have lots of LHD landrovers, I to use Stuart Collins and recommend both. Its £550 fully comp. I have been driving it around the North for 4 years and stopped once for a document check. We go back once a year for MOT and tax, it cant be done in Italy. Go via Switzerland to avoid tolls and tunnel costs, big saving. We combine with a visit to the oldies and xmas presents. We also have a runaround 10 yr old Seat, 500 euros third party, it cost 2200 to buy last year, expensive. We did toy with getting the Landrover on to Italian plates but this was a task to far, we have been given the number of an agency but its 600 euros. My advice, get a LHD Brit car and save money. Just make sure MOT etc are needed when you want to be in the UK.      

Not been on here for a while, been back and forth bettween UK and Sicily over the last few months. To clarify my earlier post, on looking at the receipt I paid £650 not £750 for the volvo estate and £400 full comp insurance from stuart collins, and by cruise down to Genoa I meant driving eurotunnel, overnight stop in dijon (france) then a nice drive down and through the mont blonc tunnel into Italy and got to Genoa around 6pm for the 9pm ferry to Palermo. The car was full of stuff we wanted to bring from england. During the last year we have writen a list of things we want to bring next time that either we cant get in Sicily, or is much cheaper in UK. The insurance MOT and road tax all run out this month, and we decided as the value of the car was so little, and our first year experiment was a success, we will not return it to UK for mot etc as we want to bring over a newer and better car that we will return back and forth UK/Sicily  for the next 3 or 4 years. The volvo 960 estate although in great condition, will become redundant short of finding someone who wants it for parts, but it has been worth it against what Italian car plus insurance would have cost, let alone the exhorbitant car hire costs we used to pay. We reccomend buying a UK car and insuring with stuart collins (LHD sounds like a good idea) and make the yearly trip back and forth pay by bringing things in and out that you want. Dont forget to offset the cost of this trip against what your air fares would be. Hope our experience helps others. Regards David and Maria