Hi Everyone.

We have a new car on French plates.
We want to change to Italian plates and have taken advice from an agency who will deal with the whole process once we have our residency.
The information we have been given is that the whole process will take about a month at the cost of 900 Euro. The car is an Audi Q3 which he said will then be expensive for the tax, but that we will deal with later.
What he did say was that if we tried to do this process ourselves, baring in mind that my partner is Italian but lived in France for seven years, that we will get bogged down in paperwork and the cost from the motorazzazione will be around 1400 euro.
Does this sound about right please?

I could understand why he would say the paperwork might bog you down, this is true of most things in Italy. Why it would cost you anymore however I am not so sure.

Kenzo

I would just go to the Motorazzazione and see what they say. The office in our town was very helpful when I exchanged my licence and it cost a lot less than the Pratica quoted. The agency just wants to sell their services.

Is it necessary to have it registered in Italy? I know of a couple, resident in Italy, who have always used their German registered cars in here.

Yes PlanB, if you have been resident for a year you're not allowed to be driving a foreign-plated car. Many people seem to do it without any issues but equally you are liable to having the car impounded if the police/finanzia decide to pull you over, plus there can be issues around insurance validity.

I'd imagine for a French car to be put onto Italian plates wouldn't be too difficult because you won't have to get the headlights converted or worry about dashboard markings.

From memory, the main things you will require are:
- Certificate of conformity (can be obtained from your car's manufacturer)
- Proof of purchase showing you paid the VAT. I think this is because of people buying cars abroad and importing them themselves and potentially avoiding taxes.
- Proof of your residency
- The car might have to go for a revisione (MOT) but from what I understood that's somewhat at the motorizzazione's discretion depending on age/condition of the vehicle.

More info here: Motorizzazione Civile - Veicoli - Immatricolazioni

In the end, we opted to sell our UK car and buy an Italian one because having a RHD vehicle was too awkward.

BTW, you should be able to look up your car's road tax cost on the Agenzia delle Entrate's website, most provincie are available on their online tool (and even if yours isn't, use another one to get a ballpark number): https://www1.agenziaentrate.gov.it/s...articolata.htm

It's based on your car's power output.

Bearing in mind a Smart costs about 800 to matricolare, I would think a big Audi would cost about 1200 - but it all depends on your KW/Cavalli.

We took all our paperwork down to the local ACI office and they said it would take about 2 months so will be going back next week to ask about progress. We bought a LHD in the U.K. before moved in the hope it will be quite straightforward. We have a Range Rover Evoque and they said the tax will be €600 euros and that the whole process including tax would be about €1000