tangerine0072000

Hi,
thinking of buying a run around for when we are over in Italy as im fed up of forking out £250 every time I hire a car, but deciding on which way to go....

1. Can I insure a UK car in Italy
2. Can I mot a UK car in Italy
3. Am I better off getting an Italian car and insuring it in Italy?
4. How does Italian car insurance work ? is the person or car insured ?

cheers.

superman2

Answers

!) Yes
2) Not need one if you use a company like Stuart Collins from Swansea
3) If you are not a resident in Italy you can't buy or register a car
4) It is the car not the driver as in the uK

Hope this helps

tangerine0072000

Thanks for your reply. Maybe I wasn't clear about point 4. In the UK the driver is insured to drive the car, not the actual car, therefore two different people could have different insurance costs against the same car.

Just wondered if that was the same approach in Italy as someone mentioned you just get the car insured and anyone can drive it.

Regards MOT can you clarify a bit on that ?

thanks,

superman2

With regads the MOT it is not an offence to drive in Italy with no UK MOT or road Tax only an offence in the UK. so the car has to stay in Italy.
It has to be registered somewhere so you need a UK address and sworn it off the road, then you need an insurance company who will insure your UK car without an MOT, Stuart Collins of Swansea does this, there are other companys who do, direct line or the like do not they will only insure for 90day overseas you have to ask for an extended overseas cover.
For people who have holiday homes in Italy or Spain might only use the car a few weeks a year this is the best option, I have a land rover on Uk plates for the last three years
Italian insurance is on the car so anybody car drive the car, unlike the UK where it is the driver who is insured. Insurance is very expensive in Italy and fully comp rare.
I have a Uk plated car in Italy for sale if you want a cheap run about

Pica

[QUOTE=tangerine0072000;10593141]

Regards MOT can you clarify a bit on that ?

You get a Revisione which is a type of safety check, certificated, that's what we've done and other owners of UK registered cars here.

mikethomo

If this helps I have an english and an italian car the english car is used mainly to return to the uk in as I still have intrests there. we insure through saga as we get unlimited cover in the eu however we will have to have it mot'd in the uk. the italian car is insured for any driver, I think generally it is the car that is insured in Italy.

Isakat

It might be worth checking the legality of driving a car on foreign plates here, I think it is a year.

superman2

As far as I understand the year is only relivant if you live here full time or if you have Italian residancy

ononno

Think you need to be a bit careful with all this. You can only use your UK reg. vehicle, or vehicle with any other EU reg.ONLY IF IT IS ROAD LEGAL in its home country. A UK reg. vehicle is not road legal unless it has a valid tax disk, a valid MOT, and valid third party insurance. And resident in Italy or not, not longer than 12 months at any one time. May I suggest that doubters have a good read of some EU directive sites on the subject. Am speaking from 50+ years of experience of running UK plated vehicles in Italy; and not infrequently being challenged by Italian law enforcement.
Oh, and I had to 'scrap' my last Landrover because it would no longer have managed a run to UK for MOT etc.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

linseed oil

boh non lo so

tangerine0072000

Is it not better to just buy an Italian car and insure it in Italy ? I would expect that right hand drive car would be more to insure than a left hand drive from a risk perspective or doesn't it make any difference.

I've not yet looked at what Italian cars cost in Italy compared with the UK, much difference ?

superman2

It is just you have to be a resident to buy an italian car so for people who have a holiday home buying Italain is not an option
Italian second hand are more expensive than UK

ononno

Actually you can buy a new car in Italy even if you are non resident. You can buy it VAT free for export, it gets export plates, and you can use it for 12 months but then it must be exported.
But I don't know if this works with 2nd. hand. Recomend www.subito.it for prices of used cars.
ciao for now,
'o nonno

mikelincs

The posts that were saying you could just run a UK car on UK plates in Italy without tax disc and MOT are so very WRONG. The same applies to Spain. To be used in any EU country a car MUST be street legal in it's country of registration. Many companies will insure a car in any country, it's just money to them, but beware, the fact that your car isn't street legal in it's country of origin may well, and usually does, invalidate the insurance and many expats in Spain have found this to their cost. You can get the relevant version of MOTs done in the country you live in, hoewever it does not legalise the car. In these days of EU countries needing to rake in as much money as they can, then a clamp down on foreign registered vehicles is a very simple way.

LivingHere

There are UK companies that import cars from europe and put them onto UK plates. We have one and have run it here for seven years. Take it back every summer for the MOT. The only problem we have ever had was when the tax reminder got lost and it was a bit of a faff to replace the tax disk a couple of months after it had expired.

We pay about five hundred a year for third party insurance via Stuart Collins