Angeldimana

Hi,

Can anyone help / advise?

I am trying to sell and re-register a UK registered American Ford F150 in Italy.

I have agreed a sale and the people who are buying are trying to sort out the re-registration but we are having a lot of problems and great difficulty in re-registering the truck.
It seems that the sticking point at the moment for the Italian authorities is that they have requested a ' European Certificate Of Conformity' (they call it a 'techna scheda' here) and it seems that this is only available for vehicles that were originally manufactured for the European market.
The truck was actually made for the US market and so far i have only been able to supply a COC that was suppled by Ford USA and generally used in America.
They are also querying the documents for the emissions (that we generally dont have in the UK ) other than a photocopy from the last MOT test.

I'm a little stuck now and as far as i know i cant supply any other documents to enable the re-registration.



Thanks

Nigel

chris120

I don't want to discourage you but I would say you've taken on a mission impossible here. Re registering and getting Italian plates is notoriously difficult and costly even when (relatively) straight forward. Here it seems that you have a vehicle which was not marketed in Italy or the EU, was on USA plates and now has UK plates (and V5C presumably).
I tried to nationalise a motorcycle in Italy from UK, it was a make and type the exact same of which was sold in Italy and had its original UK plates (and a V5C) the difficulty was that it was a 1960s model. At first the process seemed feasible and affordable at EU300; the estimate to complete eventually crept up to EU950 with no guarantee of a successful outcome. For instance the vehicle has to undergo what amounts to a super revisione (or super MoT) where they check the vehicle against the official original technical specification. If the vehicle does not comply with the tech spec it will fail and you will have spent the money for nothing. In my case I was scared it would fail on tyre size (tech spec quotes inch sizes which are no longer available) and the brake setup (I had a twin leading shoe brake from a later model, much better and a modification that most owners have but, alas, not correct for the year).
If you haven't spent any money so far my advice would be to give up or sell the vehicle to the buyer as not road worthy, spare parts only and leave it to them to sort out.

Angeldimana

I agree that it does seem like mission impossible but what i cant understand is what have other people used to register US spec cars here?

I often see similar makes and models of cars were originally manufactured for the USA and are now registered in Italy.

In my case the car was never registered in the US but shipped straight to the UK and registered their.

Is it a case for ACI being too strict and Italian bureaucracy taking over again or is there some quite simple solution to enable the registration? (probably not)

Nuvoletta

I re-registered my BMW here a couple of years ago and it was pretty easy. Maybe I was just lucky.!

I thought the certificate of conformity was the log book? it is afer all a European document.

I think we had to translate the log book and get that sworn, and pay a small fee for a number plate... that was about it. I don't know why you have to translate everything as when the guy put the frame number in the computer it came up with the Euro style cert anyway! Bloody Italians!

What we did do though was go to the ACI office first and they told us the guys to go and see at the office. He was a grumpy sod, but as I said before, it was pretty easy, maybe going along in person helps... who knows? It's Italy after all.

chris120

Really? I can't say i've noticed lots of US cars driving around unless the same type is marketed in both countries. Apart from ACI it is the PRA (motorizazzione) that make life difficult with these thing. I know it seems odd and against what most Brits think of as the Italian way but when it comes to technical stuff what counts is the written word even if it doesn't make sense. In my experience they go by the book, thats why i was scarred off but the tyre size issue. it doesn't make sense but what is written in the tech spec is gospel for the PRA.

Angeldimana

Thanks Nuvoletta,

I think the difference between registering my car and your is that yours was a BMW so presumably manufactured for the European market and mine is Ford F150 pick up truck. - Only made for the US, Canada, South America etc but not for the Europeans. The car was privately shipped from new to the UK and registered on UK plates.

The 'Techna Scheda' is what i have since found out to be a 'COC' but only available for euro spec cars - it lists all sorts of details that to be honest are pretty irrelevant and can be found in other documents that weve supplied anyway.

I haven't been asked to translate anything.

I suppose when you have an american car you seem to notice more US vehicles on the road over here. (They are generally big, bulky and take half the road) - Theres also a dealer in Grottamare who imports Dodge Rams and last week i saw two Ford F150's on Italian plates locally.

Maybe i will enquire with the dealer who he uses for registration.



Thanks

Nigel

chris120

Correct, a BMW is a car made to EU standards and marketed in Italy - much easier to deal with. There are Pratiche auto people that specialise in oddball situations like yours, in Rome there is DIA (Diplomatic International Agency) give them a call on 065744522 and they will tell you if it’s possible and how much it will cost. I used them to buy a car that was on EE plates and they were very knowledgeable and helpful and got the job done in 2 days.

Angeldimana

Thanks Chris120,

Do you know if they speak english? I'm fairly sure that my italian language skills would only confuse them if not.


Thanks

Nigel

chris120

i've only ever spoken to them in Italian but their bread and butter comes from FAO, WFP, IFAD and the other UN organizations in Rome so i think that there is a good chance that they will speak English

duffer

Do a search for American cars in Vicenza because I do believe there are a couple of used car dealers servicing the US troops at the Caserma Ederle army base. They will be able to help I'm sure, even if for a fee.

Angeldimana

Ok, ive spoken to to DIA and they seemed to know what they are talking about but stated that registering a US car is now very difficult.

There quite a number of dealers still importing similar vehicles and they can be found quite easily via website such as ebay and autoscout24 - some of them are almost new. I'm, not sure what they will do for the new reg but they are going to be my next port of call.

6monthshere6monthsthere

Ford F150

The pick up that caused uproar as Italy is 150 years old and Ferrari had F 150 on their F1 cars - Funny that - fast pick but still no Ferrari