Taking a second hand car to Italy
I will be coming to live in Italy next year and will be applying for residency. I am thinking of buying a second hand LHD car in England and driving it down. I have seen a car for sale that already has Italian plates. Does that make any difference to the conundrum of legally owning a car? What would i have to do once I have residency to make things legal?
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BEWARE!
We are just finishing up reregistering an Italian, then British car back to Italian reg. Should have been straightforward but the car had not been 'exported' properly and it has taken us 6 months and quite a bit of extra dosh to do so. Could solve a lot of problems for you but please check the status of the car. If it physically has plates on it it HAS NOT been exported according to regulations as in Italy you need to send the plates to the authorities as part of the export process. You can't just drive it out of the country, take the Italian plates off, and then put UK plates on it. Not sure if you can then buy an Italian car in the UK as the second hand sales process here in Italy is very different. Worth investigating certainly but may cause more hassles than you avoid.
We have bought several UK
We have bought several UK cars in the UK and imported them here. No problems. Given what Tartuffa says that might be a better option!