I’m thinking about importing a car from Italy and can’t find insurance to drive it home.
Any of you wise folk know who or how to organise this?
Thanks
I’m imported a car from Belgium, and I insured it on the chassis number. It was a long time ago, I think it was with Swinton.
What are you buying?
Lancia Fulvia. It’s an itch I’ve been wanting to scratch for decades!
The four insurance companies I’ve tried won’t cover a trip home but will do European cover starting from home.
Having it transported starts to put the costs out of hand and I don’t know anyone with a trailer and tow car to borrow.
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Gorgeous!
Let me ask around. The friend who arranged my purchase in Belgium buys and sells camper vans around Europe. He might have an answer.
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TBH I wouldn’t want to drive a car of that vintage across the Continent on its first journey with me. Brave move.
Assuming you take out a very good recovery policy, I’m guessing it will probably end up on a transporter one way or another 
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It’s fairly recently been restored and has 1500k under its wheels since. If it felt good on a test drive I’d drive it back and not worry. Any drama on the way would be part of the adventure!
Trailering or getting it delivered would be easiest. Not least because it’s illegal for a UK resident to drive a foreign registered car in the UK.
Hagerty said that this part they could do. Is this really the case as I see loads of foreign plates and cant believe they’re all holiday makers. Also a car dealer I know regularly drives his purchases home. I’d ask him how he does it but he really wants me to buy one of his cars!
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As part of our vehicle registration process you’ll need to deal with different Department for Transport (DFT) agencies. Some information is not automatically shared with DVLA and the process you follow will depend on how you bring the vehicle into the country and whether it is a new or used vehicle.
If you bring a vehicle permanently into the UK You must complete the steps below or pay an importer or shipping company to do this for you:
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Tell HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) (www.gov.uk/ importing-vehicles-into-the-uk/telling-hmrc) within 14 days of the vehicle arriving in the UK.
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Pay VAT and duty (www.gov.uk/importing-vehiclesinto-the-uk/paying-vat-and-duty) if HMRC tells you to and get vehicle type approval (www.gov.uk/ importing-vehicles-into-the-uk) to show your vehicle meets safety and environmental standards (see section 6).
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Register and tax the vehicle (www.gov.uk/importingvehicles-into-the-uk/registering-an-importedvehicle) with DVLA – they’ll give you a registration number so you can get number plates made up. DVLA cannot register and tax any imported vehicle that has been seriously damaged.
Visit www.gov.uk/ importing-vehicles-into-the-uk After notifying HMRC about the vehicle, you must register, tax and insure your vehicle (Vehicle insurance: Overview - GOV.UK) before using it on UK roads.
If you’re a UK resident you must not drive a vehicle displaying foreign number plates. To avoid difficulties, we advise you to:
• transport, rather than drive, your vehicle from the port to your home or its first destination
• keep the vehicle off the road until it has been registered, taxed and insured
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I spoke with my mate in Belgium. He asks:
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Is it private or dealer? With a private sale you get the numberplate and documents. With a dealer sale you have to apply for a new registration number which will need an Italian address, or export plates which is a whole other level of faff.
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If private, has the car been de-registered during resto? Often done like SORN to avoid road tax during restoration but needs to be re-registered after.
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What part of Italy is it in?
He is often collecting vehicles in Italy, was there five times last year. He’s knows someone who bought Cinquecento last year and drove it back to Wales. He’ll speak to him to see what way that journey was insured.
Please reply by PM if you prefer not share publicly.
When I bought my car in Belgium, my mate gets a 20% discount on Fiat-Alfa so I bought it in his name. In Belgium the road tax and VAT are paid when the registering body supplies the number plate BUT you have 14 days to return the plate before paying.
So my friend drove “his” Alfa to London. We unscrewed the plates, took photocopies of them which I laminated at work to put back on the car. He took them back on Eurostar and returned them. We paid no road tax, no VAT.
I went through the registration process with DVLA, including paying VAT to HMRC (but based on the invoice I paid my friend), Certificates of Conformity, etc. As you can imagine this took a long time and many calls to DVLA.
One day driving to work in my Belgium registered car I was pulled by the police in a routine road tax inspection. Dozens of officers, dozens of DVLA officers.
‘Scuse me sir, you are not displaying a tax disc’
‘I know, it’s Belgian’.
‘What d’ya mean?’
‘The car is Belgian. It doesn’t have a UK tax disc’
Plod looks at the numberplate.
‘Oh’
‘Actually, while I’ve got you and your colleagues here, I have some questions on my importation process which is currently stuck’ Michael picks up the large DVLA folder he was carrying with him to and from work every day.
A DVLA officer takes one look at my massive file of papers and says:
‘Oh, you had better speak to Swansea about that.’
And waved me on.
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