Buying a Car in Italy

sogno2009 Image
05/27/2009 - 11:29

Hi Folks,Have received some really useful information to this point and thanks to those of you who have contributed.Apologies if this has been covered before, as a newbie I may be duplicating questions already asked - please forgive me.When we make our move to Ricadi, Calabria in July I will be hiring a car to get us down there but don't intend keeping it for long (just a few days) and will need to buy one pretty quickly. Have received several pieces of advice but thought I'd ask the forum. It has been recommended to me to buy a new car due to the 'amount of paperwork' around buying one second hand, however I do believe that one has to have the certificato di residenza before one can buy a car.  Is this correct? I would be interested in hearing other peoples experiences. 

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well its not true that you have to and if i had paid more attention to other posts in the past i could help you with the rules.. so sorry for not helping... someone else might..however these are Italian rules and apply garage to garage..... some know some not ...could be worth doing a search on the old forum.. basically because we are residents... and have bought cars as such its been of little interest... shows how  its better to read everythingi guess what i am saying is that whatever has been told you... is most probably how they are applying the rules.. but it is not true... and if its areal problem... who wants to pay a full new car price... then it will take at least a search on the old forum and pretty good Italian to argue your case...

Hi, We have just had the difficult job of buying a car in Calabria! We did have to show our 'certificato di residenza' to the garage owner. Luckily for us we had a very good Italian friend with us who spoke very good english! None of the cars we were shown had prices on , in fact no cars at any of the garages had prices on. We had a budget of £3.000 and did not want to go above this amount, but due to the fact that Italy is giving a 'green discount'  of £4.000 on all second hand cars if you buy a new 'greener' car it was hard to find second hand cars in our price range. We found a little Lancia which we are very happy with for £2800!! I hope this info is helpfull.

A friend of mine says that cars, new and used, are much cheaper in Belgium & Holland than elsewhere, particularly Italy.  He went and bought a used car, drove it to Italy and then reregistered it. In England, for information, you have to have owned your 10+ year old car for at least one year to get the £2000 trade in.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Having owned a house in Italy for the past 2 years but not having residency posed a problem for me in purchasing a car. As far as I know, it is not legal/possible for a non resident to buy a car in Italy. Fortunately for me, I have close Italian relatives and my cousin puchased my second hand car in his name and also insured it in his name. There is some liability on his part and thus I am extra careful when driving this car. If you have relatives or close friends in Italy you should be able to purchase a car in this fashion.