David.A

Ciao,
Can someone please offer some advice regarding getting mobile for the first time after becoming a Resident in Italy?
I am now an official Resident in Northern Italy, and have a Carte D'Identita, Codice Fiscale and Tessera Sanitaria etc. I am looking to buy a small (bumper) car to get around and am after some advice about buying a car, and the pitfalls and red tape that come with it. I will obviously need Insurance, Tax and Mot advice too before I enter the world of the unknown. Buying the car can't be that difficult but I've heard that theres a lot of extras to consider. I am not yet fluent Italian (no where near) and definitely do not yet understand 'car lingo' so if anyone can offer some guidance to what I should know and ask when arranging all of this it will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much everyone in advance! I await your replies..

modicasa

Are you buying new or 2nd hand? A fiat is always a good option, parts and labour are cheap - especially compared to Japanese cars. It depends what you want and need.

David.A

Thank you for the reply. It will be a second hand Fiat 500 (around 5 years old).

Geordieborn

The ACI site here may be of help.

Geordieborn

The above site also has this page to calc the road tax if you have the reg...

Accetturese

We've just bought an Italian car, a 2004 Opel Agila. The car dealer is local and sourced the car according to our needs. We are very happy with it - to the extent that we are returning our UK plate car to england next month to sell - but the dealer is well known to my wife's brother and made sure he got us a 'good' one.
We have paid 550 euros to insure the car for 6 months, 237 euros to transfer ownership, and 105 euros to tax it to the end of the year. Car running costs in Italy are high, but not prohibitively - the insurance is the real killer. We also had the provisione (mot) done, cost us about 40 euros I think, and lasts for two years.

Serrano

Your costs look about right - tax, transfer, revisione all in the right ballpark. And while I agree insurance is expensive, yours does look very expensive - for a 2004 Opel Corsa (i.e. very similar car) we pay €500 for a year, as opposed to your €550 for 6 months. Two possible reasons come to mind:

1. Do you have a very bad insurance record? / have you been able to get your UK No Claims record taken into account? If no to the second question, it would be worth looking in to. We were lucky, being with Direct Line in the UK we simply transferrred to their subsiduary here. But I understand there are other ways to fix this.
2. Have you (out of habit?) gone for fully comp? If so, look very carefully at how much that part costs, especially in relation to the value of the vehicle (i.e. how much the insurance would pay out, not how much you paid)

And, while the insurance costs are undeniably high, they have the advantage that it is the car, not the driver, that is insured. This means that all cars are insured 'any driver', so borrowing other people's - or lending yours - presents no problem. It doesn't sound much, but when you get used to it you realise just how convenient it is.

Plan B

We are thankful that we had weather cover included which meant that the hail damage we suffered a few months later was paid by the insurer (over €1,000). To some extent the need for this cover will depend on your circs; if it's an older car or is garaged most of the time then you may not consider it necessary. You'll know who didn't bother with the cover when you see their car's roof and bonnet look like it's suffered from an unfortunate attack of smallpox.

Geordieborn

Someone on our local forum mentioned you can get ‘ eventi atmosferici ‘ added to your car insurance. Seeing the number of cars here badly marked not many must have cover...

Accetturese

Thanks for your comments, Serrano
We didn't know anything about insurance and were guided by wife's brother (who made the appointment and told the lady what we needed). My wife is the registered owner and has at least 10 yrs cnd - and we have gone the equivalent of tpft, not fully comp. I did not realise we could use our UK ncd here - do we need to use specific companies?
I know now about it being the car insured, took some getting used to!

Geordieborn

From our own limited experience, you need a “ATTESTATO DI RISCHIO” from your UK insurance company. This is used by any Italian company to convert your UK NCB (NCD) to a CU (conversione universal) status. Get back if you need more info, it will cost you mega less..

GingerFlowers

If the insurance is for the vehicle and not the person how the No Claims Bonus is relevant? Some drivers have it, some not..

Geordieborn

Just try getting a quote online using a Classe CU of 18, then try another with a Classe of 9 and you will se the relevance! It is the car that is insured, but it is a "person" that gets the insurance for the car and this "person" carries the CU based on their history. I guess if they let someone else drive it's at their (CU) risk. I went to get this DirectLint.it link for you to try, it it looks like they have been bought by Verti.

GingerFlowers

Oh, I see..thank you Geordieborn. We will be buying a car very soon so all the advice is appreciated.

ononno

Might just be worth mentioning to all these potential car buyers that if the vehicle is more than 5 years old, most insurers will not give you casco, i.e. fully comprehensive.
ciao for now,
'o nonno