Importing a classic from Italy

beanderb4

Folks,
Anyone got experience of bringing a car in from Italy to Ireland. I'm not worried about the Irish side of the process, but I have heard it is difficult and expensive to take a car out of Italy. Has anyone got experience of this, and what was involved to complete the transaction on the Italian side.
Thanks.

PaulK_CCI

It's been years since I imported cars directly from Italy, and usually any car that originated in Italy I source through specialists in the Netherlands that do the dirty work for me.

From the old days, it was quite a challenge and idially you need someone over there to perform all the administrative processes that are involved. 

Most important bottle neck is that the original Italian paperwork and the plates themselves cannot leave the country, so the car must be declared for export and you will have to have copies of the original registration documents, which on turn you then have to make legal by someone not unlike a commissior of oaths, or a solicitor in Italy. So unless things changed for the better, it's a complex and cumbersome process.

Agricola

Knowing the Italian's love of unnecessary bureaucracy, I would'nt dream of attempting to import one myself unless I had someone the other end or a company handling the paperwork.

Thinkingaboutit

Still, companies cost money, and with a bit of bureaucratic stress, there could be a Miafiore out of all the effort. Not a massive fan of them myself. I recall how the door skins on my Dad's one rotted at some rate.

BorneTobyWilde

I don't get it, you go there buy the car and drive it home. Where's the paper work?
I thought all that starts here and its straight forward.

alastair

BorneTobyWilde wrote: »

I don't get it, you go there buy the car and drive it home. Where's the paper work?
I thought all that starts here and its straight forward.

It's far from straightforward: http://www.maserati-indy.co.uk/alfieri05.htm