1512 Bringing a Land Rover to Italy from the UK

Colin
I think that to try and re-register with Italian plates is a horrendous exercise, not having personnal experience but reading previous posts on this forum.
You will probably be better off insuring it for as long as you can and sticking with UK plates although MOT may be a problem.
Sorry if this sounds defeatist but in my opinion unless you have a vehicle that means a lot to you don't bother.

Stribs

The point is to take mine with me because I already own it, and it is one less expense for me. I doubt I could afford to buy one overseas. Also it is to transport my belongings when I go. Do you have any information as to MOTing foreign vehicles in Italy?

Any idea of the correct authority in Italy/Campania whom I should contact about this?

[QUOTE=coliNAP]The point is to take mine with me because I already own it, and it is one less expense for me. I doubt I could afford to buy one overseas. Also it is to transport my belongings when I go. Do you have any information as to MOTing foreign vehicles in Italy?

Any idea of the correct authority in Italy/Campania whom I should contact about this?[/QUOTE]

The right authority is the Auto Club Italia, however, the costs to register the car here are high, and the paperwork concerned extremely complex, but, there are much lower taxes for a 30year vehicle, and, well, it's a Landy, it would be a bit like leaving your favourite dog behind wouldn't it MOT every 2 years, checking the basics (and you can't get much more basic than a Landy !!) there are dealerships over here, but, mainly deal with the ones with wind up windows :eek:
Best of luck.

We have just got our 2 cars registered here in Italy. The local driving school took care of it for us. Haven't had the bill yet but it will be about €800-1000 for both.

One was very simple as it was a LHD new Fiat Panda bought in the UK. Before everyone says "why on earth would you do that? It was becuase we couldn't sell our old one ("too expensive to run" was the general opinion) and had to part exchange it to get rid of it before we moved - so we found a fiat dealer who would sell us a LHD panda. It took about 10 days to register here.

The second car was more complicated. It was a Japanese import to the UK and RHD. This one took 3 months including August.

The RHD bit doesn't seem to make any difference it is just whether your vehicle shows on the computer. If it is older than around 10 years it probably won't and you will have to provide a technical schedule from the manufacturer so that they have all of the information for the libretto (log book). This is much more detailed than the UK one. The technical schedule cost €270 (!!) for a printout from Toyota.

You have a year to register your car and remember to get your driving licence homologated too. This costs €45.

I don't know where the reputation for it being a complicated process comes from but our experience was very simple. We did nothing and the agency did it all for us. I definitely wouldn't attempt it yourself.

Some people would say we are nuts to pay that kind of money to register our cars but look at it this way - how much do you lose when you sell an old car and buy a new one? I can guarantee it is more than we have paid. Also, when you buy a car here you have to pay to register it so all in all I don't think it has cost us more. As for driving a RHD here in Italy, we had two LHD cars in the UK so there's no difference to us really.

We have just insured them and the Toyota 4x4 was €702 and the new Fiat Panda €414. This is with Direct Line who will take your no claims bonus into account so long as you are still insured and show the proof in years. (I have my fingers crossed here as we have the policy and have sent off our proof but haven't had confirmation yet!)

The road tax is pretty hefty though. Not got figures for that yet but the Toyota will be at least €350.

It is quite nice to be fully Italianised now, although I still get strange looks when I am driving the 4x4. Is it becuase it is a huge vehicle for a woman to drive or because the steering wheel is on the other side?????? :confused:

agree with penny.... have followed the same route here with a rhd 4 wheel drive...all done for us.... and roughly the same cost...

a consideration for all addicts of left hand drive cars is that you have to remeber that although simple as regards overtaking if you started off rhd and have spent the better part of your life driving that way you will almost certainly never arrive at a point in your lhd driving to be as aware of the vehicle size and space on the road.... its not a matter of competence just experience.... so you will always be a better driver of rhd vehicles...

the other thing is costs of cars here.... if you do own a car...especially a 4 x 4 already you will most probably find that the equivalent car here will cost you about twice as much... i could have sold mine back in england but when i looked at comparable vehicles here they were a lot more than double what i had paid for mine in england...so i regard re-registering as a very good value and simple way of having a vehicle here.... also the other problem is if you do arrive here minus vehicle and residency pending the only option is to hire a car...hire costs in italy are astronomical so say three months is going to cost you at least in the region of e3000.... so add that to your italian car bill...

finally your uk insurance will cover you on a vehicle until all the changes have been made... ie as long as it is legal in the uk so is it here for the time period in which you can keep it in italy...which when moving house applying for residency...getting to know your way around ...is another big bonus...at least in the first three months you will not have that problem.... and you will have managed to carry an awful lot more junk down when making the move as well... than on the aeroplane

Hi, We bought a lhd ex military ( landy destroyer) (18yr old) before we left UK, It is the best car we could have for rural Italia, and you can get parts and service in just about any country you take it to, but getting it over here was a major event.
If you love your landy then you need to bring it but dont expext it to be easy.
It has taken 6 months to get the plates changed, and a further 3 months to get insurance ( I have other posts on this) Direct line were useless, you need Italian friends and lots of cash.
The revisione (MOT) is ev 2 yrs and if you have a trailor that has to be checked and registered also.
Insurance is priced on engine size so the fact that its prehistoric wont help, unlike UK.
My best price was E488 for 6 months I think! But one quote came in at 2K.
But the good news is if something goes wrong its easy to fix cos its a proper car (they are used to fixing tractors round here) No computers or complications,Power steering whats that?
When it snows you can laugh at all the stranded fiats! (breadbins)
and discoverys!!

The old 2.2 litre engine has been swapped out for a 2L diesel from a Montego, I wonder if that will have any bearing on the price (positive/negative). What is the maximum length of time I can run it in Italy before I would be required to have it registered there? If it takes ages, and I end up being without it for some length of time, I will be completely screwed.

Perhaps the thing to do is just sell it and try to acquire an already Italian one? But with that comes numerous other problems I would suspect (need for ID papers, blah blah).

Who would have thought that simply taking your car from one European country to another would be so bloody awful.

The more I read about it, the more I am beginning to think that owning a car in Italy is more trouble than it's worth, which is unfortunate, because I really want to take it with me.

I have emailed the Automobile Club d'Italia (hopefully I used the correct email address) to ask exactly how I go about bringing a Land Rover to Italy, and the costs and paperwork involved in doing so. Now to see if I get a reply...

I think you will find that the engine size affects the TAX only and not the insurance as posted above.
Here in Marche we are charged 2.79 Euro for evry horsepower.

Wol

Also forgot to say that Classic car insurance and tax also exists over here as i will be using it, not sure how old your car is, but it may qualify. Again the ACI are the best people to speak to.

wol

[QUOTE=coliNAP]The old 2.2 litre engine has been swapped out for a 2L diesel from a Montego, I wonder if that will have any bearing on the price (positive/negative). What is the maximum length of time I can run it in Italy before I would be required to have it registered there? If it takes ages, and I end up being without it for some length of time, I will be completely screwed.

Perhaps the thing to do is just sell it and try to acquire an already Italian one? But with that comes numerous other problems I would suspect (need for ID papers, blah blah).

Who would have thought that simply taking your car from one European country to another would be so bloody awful.

The more I read about it, the more I am beginning to think that owning a car in Italy is more trouble than it's worth, which is unfortunate, because I really want to take it with me.[/QUOTE]

Good engine swap, my last one ended up with a bored out 3,5 V8 :D , but, I suspect that it may lead to difficulties with registration, you can run it for at least six months, but I have also seen a year quoted, the figure is, I beleive six months after obtaining residency. There really shouldn't be any difficulty in transferring a vehicle from one EU state to another, and in another decade or two, or three Italian laws and regulations will have to change, but, at the moment...

V8 is my engine of choice, in anything. I used to run a Range Rover Classic with a 4.6 V8 from a later RR in it. Apart from the crippling fuel consumption (7mpg, 33L/100km urban, 11mpg, 21L/100km extra-urban) I loved it. Unfortunately it cost me far too much, and it just had to go ): I can now get 40mpg (!) from my wrecked old SIII. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Well, I say that, but it looks as if I may have to!

[QUOTE=coliNAP]V8 is my engine of choice, in anything. I used to run a Range Rover Classic with a 4.6 V8 from a later RR in it. Apart from the crippling fuel consumption (7mpg, 33L/100km urban, 11mpg, 21L/100km extra-urban) I loved it. Unfortunately it cost me far too much, and it just had to go ): I can now get 40mpg (!) from my wrecked old SIII. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Well, I say that, but it looks as if I may have to![/QUOTE]

Igot 11mpg from mine... There used to be loads of Panda 4x4's about in Scotland, they only ever came in LHD as i seem to remember might be worth trying to find one, although there are lots around over here and, they hold their price well and, mine is cheap to insure and tax, and runs on GPL.

hi

You can run a car out in italy on foreign plates for upto 12 months before having to change to italian plates.

There is a broker for insurance in London that does a policy with a 12month green card.......(sorry can't remember the name as yet....but when i find it i will let you know if u want, hammonds or something like that). But any good broker should be able to find the policy.

The policy was underwritten by norwich union, and for a 4 year disco it was circa £990. Would prolly be less for a series 111, but the policy had all the uk benefits abroad.

Axa also did an insurance policy but you have to be over 30 to get the insurance.

hope this helps..

personally we are still deciding whether to keep our landy and deal with the paper work or just take it back when it's works done sell it and replace with a LHD...the decision is easier when it is a new one, we got rid of our 2 series 111 and hope to replace once we are over in italy.

[QUOTE=herealready]
When it snows you can laugh at all the stranded fiats! (breadbins)
and discoverys!![/QUOTE]

Land rovers are undoubtedly good and the preferred option for police, fire etc in the mountain regions but please don't knock Fiat - we have had a Panda 4x4 for a number of years and it skips and hops about better than any heavy old Chelsea tractor. Combination of thin tyres light weight and very low torque make it an all time winner. I hope the new model performs as well.
Having said all that it is about the unsafest car in the event of accident so better off sticking to the back roads.

Hi, I realize that this is an old thread but would be interested in an update if anyone has more information on importing cars to Italy? I'm relocating from the US, and want to bring my US car - not sure what the import duties would be, or the registration process. The cars are both quite new and I'd lose a lot in selling them here before I go. All advice welcome. Thanks

Carole, I'd look into exactly how much you'd lose by selling a US car in the US (as com[ared to selling a US car in Italy)

I'm sure that many US buyers would baulk at buying a Euro import, so suggest that Italians may be of the same mind & not want to buy your US import once you've done with it........I'm not trying to be a wet-blanket, but it's a consideration ;)

.......you may also find servicing/support/insurance cheaper on a local vehicle than a US one too.

Thanks. I am quickly coming to the conclusion that it would be crazy to bring it. I found out yesterday that Lexus won't honor any warranties if I take it out of the country -- and that could be very expensive. So that brings me back to the topic of how to buy a car in Italy. We have to wait to get our residency before being able to buy a car, is that right?

Dear Colin, I had shipped in same container my Landrover Freelander (5yrs old) from the Midlands to Puglia. I agree its just as easy to drive in Italy as it was in UK especially as the Italians drive in the middle of the road. Apart from the fact I would have lost money to sell it and I needed a 4x4 as we have quite a bit of land. I am in the countryside near Lecce (where there is a Landrover dealer) but also farmers here need landrovers to get around their land so you could also re-sell it once you had finished with it. I have already someone interested when I have finished with my vehicle. so bring it if you feel its worth it and it will do the journey - 30 yrs is quite old in car terms!!
Diddy