8479 Car use in Italy

Not sure if you re going to keep your car in Italy all year round because there are requirements to re-register after a certain length of time. However we drive our car out to Italy in Spring and return in Autumnwithout problems
NB the following
You must comply with Italian regs for dayglo jacket and first aid kit and don't forget to change direction of dipped headlights.
Advised to carry yr UK driving license and ID at all times and some copy of proof of ownwership and yr UK registration must be current.
Most Insurance co's only allow up to 30 or 60 days abroad BUT Saga insurance allow unlimited time abroad! you might have to qualify for age!
We travel via Reims, Luzern and Palma, staying one night at each. Buy yr Swiss motorway pass before travelling.Motorail ex Calais only goes to Nice now and not very nice at that .v slow unloading.
Good luck!

Has anyone had any success in tracking down companies which will lease a car rather than conventional car hire?

[quote=elliven;79471]
Advised to carry yr UK driving license and ID at all times and some copy of proof of ownwership and yr UK registration must be current.

Good luck![/quote]

Of course even then you'll have to explain things to the average carabinieri. We've been taken for Ukrainians on the basis of a UK license!

[quote=Cassini;79487]Has anyone had any success in tracking down companies which will lease a car rather than conventional car hire?[/quote]

Do you mean like the French six month deal? Or do you mean a more normal lease?

[quote=annec;79493]Of course even then you'll have to explain things to the average carabinieri. We've been taken for Ukrainians on the basis of a UK license![/quote]

Oh don't remind me, we got stopped near Sarnano by the Carabinieri as we headed home via Ascoli Piceno. It was a combination of Keystone Kops, with a touch of Carabinieri off the TV series. A carabiniero jumped into the road waving the red lollipop of doom. I asked him what was going on and he said it was a document check. I handed over my licence and he immediately took umbrage at the state of it. It's fifteen years since I last needed a new one, so it's very battered. Then he refused to believe the expiry date (too far in the future) and didn't like the absence of a photograph. He couldn't pronounce my name and assumed from my accent I must be Albanian (the dialect around my home does sound like a Balkan language rather than Italian).

Then when I explained that I'm English and a consultant to British police forces and to an Italian law firm he snapped to attention, presented me with my driving licence and wished me good day.

I've noticed that one of my Italian colleagues always hands over his licence with his document that identifies him as a barrister folded into the licence. That ensures that the encounter is brief and polite.

And its all pretty pointless. We were stopped twice on a stretch of road once. I explained to the second carabiniero that we'd already been stopped and he waved us through. We could have been up to anything!

Still, makes for good stories though.

[quote=annec;79493]Of course even then you'll have to explain things to the average carabinieri. We've been taken for Ukrainians on the basis of a UK license![/quote]
Last time wife was stopped by the Carabinieri in our Italian registered car, she just showed her German Driving Licence. Photo 20 years old, no expiry date on licence........... no problem at all

We took over our UK LHD car to Italy, it took 6 months plus 600 Euro to get IT plates.
Then they wanted 600 Euro for 12 months insurance, which I finally got down to 300 Euro.
Road tax plus fine 190 Euro
We've spent 150 Euro on repair bills.

The only reason we have our own car is because the my mum stays out there for months at a time.

For the five to seven week I spend out there I wouldn't bother, But it does cost 85 Euro for a taxi each way from Pescara.

Six weeks car hire works out at about £720, £120 per week.

Poor old carabinieri, I have found them OK and polite, and you must forgive them when waving the lollipop at a foreigner adds a bit of excitement to a dull day. We get quite a lot of them round here , armed to the teeth when prisoners from Rome being transferred to the local lock-up. however back to cars I seem to remember you can get 50% reductions with some companies when hiring for longer periods. Ask and you may receive.

All this talk about the Carabinieri reminds me of the first time i came to Southern Italy with my friends in 1999. It was like a scene from the 1st ever Star Wars film.

My friend was driving, my father, Italian in the front getting us lost, and me and 2 others in the back. We had driven past our junction on the A3, to get to Potenza, so we went to the next junction to turn back, where we then got pulled over.

At first they appeared to want to arrest us all, by their body language. My dad then said a couple of things, they looked around the car in amazement that we all had seatbelts on and they waved us on.

I asked my dad what he had said to them. He said that my friend, driving, works for the UK Police (he worked in the kennels looking after Police dogs) and as soon as he said that, their attitude changed completely and waved us through.

For those Star Wars fans, it reminded me of the scene, about a 1/3 of the way through, when the Stormtroopers pulled over Lukes speeder with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the passenger seat. In the scene, the Stormtroopers were looking for some robots and wanted to do checks. Obi-Wan then used 'The Force' on them, taking over their thoughts.

'Their is nothing to see here' he got them to say. 'Move along now' to get them moving away again.

We've found that, driving a UK plated car, the caribinieri rarely bother to stop us. They did once, just after we arrived, when Bob drove the wrong way round a roundabout ( he can be forgiven, it looks like a wide straight two lane road in the direction we were going). At the time we had almost non existant Italian, the caribinieri officer chuntered a bit but gave up and told us to go away!

Yes Nick, I was thinking of the french style car leasing. However, that isn't available to UK/EEC citizens. Of great interest to people from places like Canada, the States or Australia though. Wondering if there is anything else in either France or Italy that people from the Uk can access?

It's a better deal then renting but last time I looked it wasn't a better deal then just buying. IIRC they had you paying full list price for the car plus other issues.

If you have to have a new car I think it might be cheaper to buy and every 12 months trade it in.

I've been lucky so far, not having been stopped by the carabinieri in my UK registered car. Nor have they so far stopped me in my little classic Fiat sports car. I drive it with the roof down even, shock horror, in November/December, if the sun's shining. They probably assume I must be barking when they see me and don't dare stop me.

Many thanks for all your suggestions ref car use in Italy, we are going to stick with car hire this year. Tim has managed some small discount after contacting just about every car hire company that exists !
We may consider taking a Uk car and leaving it there in the future but needs a bit of investigation first......does anyone know if you can MOT a Uk car in Italy the same way that you can in France?

[quote=Jan Moscovitch;80532]Many thanks for all your suggestions ref car use in Italy, we are going to stick with car hire this year. Tim has managed some small discount after contacting just about every car hire company that exists !
We may consider taking a Uk car and leaving it there in the future but needs a bit of investigation first......does anyone know if you can MOT a Uk car in Italy the same way that you can in France?[/quote]

Hi
No experiance of that myself, but 3 very close buddies have to drive theres back to the yUK to get theres done ...

[quote=Jan Moscovitch;80532]Many thanks for all your suggestions ref car use in Italy, we are going to stick with car hire this year. Tim has managed some small discount after contacting just about every car hire company that exists !
We may consider taking a Uk car and leaving it there in the future but needs a bit of investigation first......does anyone know if you can MOT a Uk car in Italy the same way that you can in France?[/quote]

Jan,
Afraid the answer is 'no'. There ought to be an EU-wide system of vehicle testing and certification, but there isn't.
We eventually bought a car from the Left Hand Drive Place near Reading (a Rover previously owned by a British ex-pat in France), and insured it here in the UK for 12-month use in Italy (watch out, while people will tell you that the normal 90-day foreign use provision in regular insurance policies will cover you for the whole year, it doesn't. Which is fine until you have an accident...).
We then must return the car each year to the UK for MOT, in order to comply with the insurer's requirements.
No doubt there will come a time when it is possible to buy regular insurance to cover one's driving throughout the year in other EU countries, and to have one's MOT done across the EU. But that time is not yet, so we're all stuck with buying insurance in the country where we are legally resident, and complying with the consequent MOT requirements.
In general, while buying a car rather than renting can look a bit financially questionable at first, we've found that it adds a great deal of convenience once one adapts to the cost. It's certainly an improvement on arriving at a hire desk and finding that the paperwork has been lost, or the car isn't there, or they want to surcharge you etc....
rgds
Eddie B

I think the LH/RH drive issue is over-rated as a practical problem and I had no problems in Italy with RH drive, or when I return to the UK with my now LH drive car. Just the once when I pulled out of a car park onto a quiet town road.... but rapid lane swap and grins all round, thank goodness.

When I first moved over I was covered for long enough by (I think) More>than. I didn't bother re-registering the car here as it would have cost more than the car was worth. Perfectly decent Fiesta, and I'd have probably got 2/3 years more out of it in the UK, but some rusting and salted mountain roads made it not worth the bother so I used it for a trip back and sold it. I'd try and keep your visits to the 6 month visit and use UK insurance as here it is extortionate.

Many people here only have third party (myself included), not even for theft, which situation recently happened to a colleague on my football team.

I bought a car in August last year after renting for a long time. I asked the insurance company for fully comp insurance, and thought that was was I paid my E900 for - I even took out additional hailstone insurance. When I had an accident (errr...drove into a black, unlit lamp post in the dark in horrid super windy rainstorm) I found out I had been sold only third party....and from that experience learnt that third party is the norm over here...The car cost me E5500 to repair...I walk alot more now and am on the look out for a sturdy pushbike.....ps...the supermarket made me pay for the lamp post too!!!

Going back to the earlier part of the thread. They are very fond of sitting by the side of the road in country areas and using their little bats. It can take ages whilst they check documents on their computers. The Fiamme operate roadblocks, sometimes at motorway exits and on some of the tunnels in and out of Italy/France. Of course special mention needs to be made of the armed customs presence at the last paystation between Nice and the autoroute dei Fiori. The local paper is usually full of 'happy' Carabinieri and smugglers' hoards of drugs. Perhaps this is why the Carabinieri cars are so often seen waiting at the side of the road.

[quote=sueflauto;80552]I think the LH/RH drive issue is over-rated as a practical problem a[/quote]

I've seen LH drive commerical trucks. So it must be considered a positive for some.

[quote=LizzyF;80554]The car cost me E5500 to repair...[/quote]

Ow - that's a big hit for anyone! That's a grand more than mine cost - a little Fabia. I'm not sure my nerves could stand a more expensive car in Italy!

On the Carabinieri/Dogana front, they flagged me down on the Italian side of the Mt Blanc tunnel a week ago. A quick look as I put the handbrake on and they waved me on, so they may well have been looking for someone/thing fairly specific.

I have it on good authority (from someone that sells car insurance to brits in italy) that from an insurance point of view all that is required of any vehicle owner is that, if required to do so in the event of a claim, they can furnish proof (bills) that demonstrate that the car is suitably maintained. I'd welcome some discussion on this from those better informed than me. I currently run a UK reg vehicle here in italy with UK MOT current valid UK road tax paid. In advance of these expiring I will be asking said expert to quote me & send all the small print for close scrutiny.

Italians, I am told, hate paying for insurance... its so expensive here, so I spose thats why plod is always pulling them over. Recommend to run a reliable cheap UK reg wreck; I brought a very nice Audi here a couple of years back & it seemed to attract idiots to run into it. So an old wreck wont have you crying when they bend it.
I also was once pulled over by the italian police, an embarassingly long time ago, for speeding. I argued the fine down from a zillion lire to about 5,000 lire, didnt get any paperwork &, off course, it went staight in their pockets. Times MUST have changed.
Pilch

Pilchard has repeated some spot-on advce. If your car is legal in the UK (MOT, road tax, insurance) you are probably okay. If it is not legal to drive in the UK (ie. out of road tax, out of MOT) then it is [B]not in any way legal [/B]to drive it in another country. Period.

EddieB also posted 90% correctly (IMO), although to suggest that your car must be insured in your country of [B]residence [/B]is a tiny bit misleading. The 'nationality' of the insurance must match the nationality of the car, not the driver. There is absolutely no problem for a British person with a holiday home insuring an Italian registered car which they own with an Italian insurer (there may be signifcant hurdles to overcome to buy the car, but I am talking about insuring it in this post). There may be possiblities (though I remain to be convinced) to carry [B]all [/B]the insurance on an Italian reg car with a dedicated 'ex-pat' insurer - certainly there are solid options to add to the 'third party' element with a non Italian insurer. Liketheroman posted a lot on this subject.

Sorry to hear about Lizzy's 'misunderstanding or mis-selling' of a non comprehensive policy. RC (responsibilta civile) is the minimum (equates almost exactly to third-party); the word to look for for fully comprehensive is 'kasko' - although there are huge variations in the type of 'kasko' on offer, so - just like in any country - you need to read the small print.

[QUOTE=Charles Phillips;80570]Pilchard has repeated some spot-on advce. If your car is legal in the UK (MOT, road tax, insurance) you are probably okay. If it is not legal to drive in the UK (ie. out of road tax, out of MOT) then it is [B]not in any way legal [/B]to drive it in another country. Period.

Actually Charles that was not what I was suggesting. I am, in fact, looking to explore the legitimacy of the suggestion that if you drive a car in Italy that is registered in the UK then:-
(A)Italian plod are concerned only that your car is legaly yours, that you are legaly insured to drive it in Italy & that it is safe to drive & do not give a hoot about UK Road Tax & MOT's cos they carry no legitimacy here in Italy.
(B)That in the event of an accident the insurance provided by my above mentioned expert would do as it's supposed to do & pay up once it is satisfied that my car was in a well maintained & safe condition prior to the accident.
I don't personally have the answers. I'm just trying to get to the truth: either by being appraised of any Italian or EU law that covers this or even some case law. Uninformed opinion is not enough.
Pilch
PS. That last sentence was directed at no-one.