1093 Take the car or not?

Hi
We're from the Uk ( part of EU), and we didn't bring our car from the Uk as it was on it's last legs any way, and assumed we could buy a car fairly easily here after about a month..
Unfortunately , in our case anyway....NOT SO !!
.
We can't buy a car until we have our residency which we should have in a couple of weeks but we have been here 3 months and have had to hire which has cost an awful lot of money which we hadn't budgeted for.

All the leasing companies we looked at, would only lease for 12 months and it wasn't cheap. Obviuosly US companies may offer better deals.

I suppose you need to weigh up cost of shipping car over and hiring for a few months until your residency comes through.

This is our experience but hopefully someone else may have some suggestions for you which are not so gloomy !!!!!!

If you bring the car over you have 1 year to get it registered as an Italian car. They will need to make a few adjustments to make sure it conforms to Italian standards. That being said I would not bring the car. It is a red tape nightmare. One of my members has had his car (that does conform and he has followed all of the steps to the letter) sitting in his garage for 2.5 years because it is still not legal to drive. Every time he goes to the motor vehicle office to find out why he still has not received his Italian registration they come up with another excuse. Leave the car, rent when you need to drive and buy as soon as you have residency. Normally you need to first have the actual permesso di soggiorno to be able to apply for residency. This can take up to 6 months in some areas. Getting residency takes another month. I tell people always to take the cedolino (receipt) for the PdiS that you get (remember you only have 8 days to apply for this) and go to the comune with copies of your passports, copies of your housing contract and a big smile and ask if they could speed it up because you need to buy a car. It has worked for every person I have told to do this so it can't hurtt to try.

You also have 1 year to get an Italian license. You cannot convert your US state license like someone in the UK can. To get an Italian license you wil need to sit the exam which takes between 4 and 6 months to complete. I have an article on this here [url]http://www.expatsinitaly.com/how/patente.htm[/url] . You can buy a car with your US license if you do so within the first year you are here. You will need to have an IDP as well as your home state license to be legal for the first year.

I seem to recall that Renault have devised a leasing deal that's "not bad" but restricted to US/Canadian citizens..... it might be worth looking at?

I'd Google on something like -> Leasing Europe Renault

So I need to have a Italian licence if I have an English one?????

Take your UK licence to a Scuola Guida and ask them to send it for registration, they will copy it for you, then send it away for about a month, it will be returned with a sticker showing your new address in Italy which you affix to it. it costs around €40, you will also need your residency certificate, and I would take your permesso too. you have a year to get it registered.

No if you have a license from the EU you just need to get yours converted to an Italian one. No sitting exams. The OP though is coming from the US and those licenses are not valid here after 1 year.

[QUOTE=Diane and Peter]We're debating whether to take our car (2003 Nissan Murano) with us when we move to Italy next summer. In some respects it seems like it would be less expensive and less of a hassle then leasing a car until we got our residency and then purchasing a new car.[/QUOTE]
If your intention is to permanently import your car then it's not going to be as easy as you seem to think. American cars are not type-approved for use in Europe so you will have to get the car converted. The speedometer must be converted to kilometers per hour, the indicators need to be converted to European specification and you will also need certification of horsepower for taxation purposes in Italy. You will also need certification of the pollution control systems on the car to show that they meet the current Euro IV (Californian +) specification. The process isn't cheap and it isn't simple.

It's possibly slightly easier to import the car into the UK first, but if yu do that then the headlights need to be changed for British ones then changed again when you move the car to Italy.

If you're really interested I can dig out some references to the testing in English. It's referred to in the UK as the Single Vehicle Approval scheme (SVA). Oh and of course unless you are in the US armed services and can get your car moved for free, you will have to add shipping costs of $5000 to $6000 for the Transatlantic trip to the costs of SVA. The costs really aren't worth it IMO, especially for a Murano which is sold over here anyway. I'd sell it and buy another one. Italian taxation on a Murano will be crippling anyway.

Thanks to all of you.

You've convinced us to leave the Murano in Florida. We have checked out the long-term lease options, which will cost about $5000 for 6 months. However, given the problems associated with bringing our car over (not to mention all the expenses) leasing seems to be our best bet until we become residents and can buy a car in Italy. While Crespiano has many, many charms, it does require a car.

Now, if we can just keep the sequence and timing of all of the steps in mind, we'll follow your excellent advice.

:confused: We still have the old Uk licenses ( not photo ones) , is this going to be a problem when we need to have ours updated by Italian authorities.?

Can we still buy our car , hopefully in a couple of weeks when residency comes thru', with this license and then get it updated after ?

Have read all posts with interest but not clear on this....we are desperate to sort the 'car' situation out and finish hiring and buy our own a.s.a.p :(

The licence is not relevant when buying the car, the problem is insurance, being a non resident, you should still get the licence recognised though within a year of residency by the method above, the sticker goes onto your paper licence.

thanks George...any idea about best insurance companies to look at....both got full no claims ( don't know if that means anything here !)..we know it is expensive here and apparantly no-one has fully comp...also apparantly car tax is astronomical ..about 500 Euros...have i got that right ??? :eek:

I insure with a company recommended by the previous owner, I pay €600 per year for an ancient, filthy but cute (ish) panda 4x4, insurance company do not allow no claims but work on bonus /malus system where they grant you a certain no of points then add, or subtract each year... Tax depends on the horsepower of the car, the panda costsunder €100 per year (it can run on either petrol or gas), the Alfa costs €250 per year. So, you make the decision what you want and how much you want to pay, it doesn't matter what cover you get over here, the companies will only VERY reluctantly pay out, most bumps settled at the roadside by the "bumpees" (yes I have a story...)
WILL,
Many years ago, I worked for an insurance company, I will almost guarantee that if there is anything even remotely suspect about the accident, or condition of the car, the company will refuse the claim, also, I would see enormous potential difficulty, should the driver, or any passengers end up hospitalised as a result of the accident, I suspect that the people have their car "legitimately" insured at a UK address with a long term green card, ohhhh, I wouldn't do it myself, but they'll all be OK because nothing will ever happen to "them", and, if it does, they'll blame the Italians, or the Italian system. I also, still think the law ststes that the vehicle must be registered once within six months of you obtaining residency, I would maintain that simply because you pop back to England every year in it, it doesn't change the legal requirement, and, remember, while they are trying to argue the point the car will very likely be impounded, BUT, they'll have saved a few bob ehhhh.

Spyder, I WISH... Once had a very protracted talk with the local mechanic about driving the Panda down to Pescara airport, mainly consisted of him shaking his head and saying "George, Panda, Pescara, Noooooooooh", his brother also joined the chorus, they looked amazed the following day when I was walking around the piazza with a couple of mates, took us for a caffe and checked with friends I had used the panda :)

You shuld have seen people's faces when we told them that we had driven from Rome to Pescara in a Daewoo Matiz. Mind you, you should have seen us after the ordeal, I think my tractor or an Ape would have been faster and more comfortable.

They may be agony to drive, but they sure do look cute, with that smiley little face at the front, my brother in law from Newcastle fell in love with the Ape Web when he was over here, and over the third bottle of red, started ruminating over the possibility of buying one, then he chirps up with " It could be a bit of an adventure to buy one and actually DRIVE it back home, Whaddya think", I replied, "Let's face it, you're pushing on 50, I'm not sure you'd make it matey boy, not enough time left, you buy it, leave it here, I'll look after it for you...". I knew we should have opened another bottle... Still Waiting. ;)

There are the new Ape voiturettes, I'm tempted to get one of those.

I'll have to look, saving my pennies though at present. Hey, you can call me Pat now, woo, woo.

Hi Pat, just don't go buying any cows.

There's even an electric powered Piaggo and I've seen in the UK some nutter, Errm sorry enterprising individual, has converted a Bedford Rascal into a solar and wind powered electric van. That's soooo tempting.

Do ALL Abruzzans come up here to steal cows, or just some of them ???
When we lived in England, M'Lady wife had a Subaru van, 650cc., and 4x4, what a vehicle, great for getting the dogs into the craggs, never got stuck, *eyes misting over*
LOL, windpower.......Vision of insurance claim, "While tacking to make most of available wind..." Ohhh, the majesty of a fully rigged Rascal, with the sun setting behind it

Hi, I think that car leasing is better than car buying because it has lots of benefits. I hired two cars from [url=http://www.frontierleasing.co.uk/]car leasing uk[/url] and I am getting very service without any problem. You can find so many car leasing website on the net but its one best for car hiring among of them.
Hope this will help you out!
All the best!