Buying or Leasing a Car in Italy for a Long Term Stay

With a residence permit and an Italian address, you should be able to buy a car there through any typical method, more easily than a tourist on the move. See also this related thread today. The leasing programs through French automakers are for a maximum of 6 months (about $3,000).

You might want to do some research on the requirements for owning a car in Italy. Curious about your question, I Googled and found a couple of interesting resources. I'm sure there are many more. There are lots of expensive hurdles to jump to do this besides the cost of the vehicle.

Motoring in Italy from Understanding Italy.

Buying a Car in Italy from Expat Arrivals.

I also looked for long-term rental or leasing, but the term really wasn't very long. You might have better luck Googling for that if you have the patience to dig through the results and try putting in time periods longer than a month.

It is interesting that there are plenty of articles about leasing and buying cars in Italy but when you try to contact a dealership to talk about doing either, it's amazingly difficult to get straight answers. I have also tried calling Fiat's national headquarters to obtain a list of dealerships to no avail.

I don't believe you are limited to buying a car in Italy. We once spent 7 months in Europe and bought a new car through our local US dealership under their Tourist and Diplomatic sales. We were able to get a new car for less than buying it in the US, drive it around Europe with insurance and have it shipped back to our state when we were finished using it in Europe. We happened to pick it up at the factory for the experience but there were also options to ship it to major port cities in other European countries. These programs are still in existence in Sweden and Germany. Sorry but I don't know about Italian car programs but you shouldn't be limited to Italian cars if you want to expand your possibilities.

Mona,
That is extremely helpful. Did you actually arrange the sale with your U.S. local dealership then pick up the car in Europe? Not sure that will work with every car manufacturer but I am certainly going to ask the local FIAT dealership about that possibility.
Thanks very much!
Jim

A bigger problem might be your driver's license.

A non EU citizen acquiring residency in Italy can drive using their home DL with an IDP (International Driver Permit) or certified translation up to one year, after which one needs to get an Italian DL. There are no bilateral agreements between US and EU on this, therefore, unless you are a member of the diplomatic corps or diplomatic employee, you will need to obtain an Italian DL, if you stay longer than one year. As a newly licensed individual in Italy there will be restrictions on the vehicle you can have in the first year (up to a certain horsepower based on weight of the vehicle) and also stricter speed limit restrictions for the first 3 years (100km/h on freeways and 90km/h on regular highway, unless a lower limit is posted). There is zero tolerance on alcohol for the first 3 years. Another difficulty is the DL test, which is only in Itslian and it is particularly difficult (.mechanical questions are part of the test).

I am sure you can find info on some expatriates' sites. Now it is possible that you can get away with driving using your US license for longer if cops don't inquire, but I don't know about consequences with the insurance in case of accident.

Buying a car would not be a problem, new or used. You don't need to have a DL license. For example one of my father's cars was purchased in my mother's name,although she never had a DL. You don't need to be a citizen to buy a car either, in fact I sold my dad's car to an Indian friend of mine a few years back (he is an immigrant resident but not yet a citizen). All you need is your Italian Carta D'Identità (ID card) proving you are a resident. Actually non residents can buy one too under the Escursionisti Esteri rules, but that is a different process.

Good luck.

We bought a car through an Italian friend. It was in his name and he used it as a back-up car when we were not in Italy. It worked ok and it was cheaper than renting, but not as cheap as I'd estimated. There are always more costs than you think, and it was also a PTA with insurance and the bollo and inspections and maintenance and repairs. If the costs are even in the same ballpark, I'd spend more and drive to Nice every six months to switch the leased car (by going to France you avoid the sizeable lease car delivery fee in Italy).

Jim
We negotiated the sale and obtained financing through our local car dealer and picked up the car in Europe. There was a special six month lisense plate on the car. You may have seen them when people return to the US with a car they've purchased in this way. They have a long rectangular plate with 2 numbers for the month and 2 numbers in red for the expiration year to the left and right of the regular lisense numbers. In your case I don't know what you would have to do for a two year license and insurance.

There was no charge to ship the car back at the end (one month process) and we paid no state sales tax when it arrived and we licensed it in California because it was considered to be a used car after so many months.

The first dealer we went to in our area was really unfamiliar with the program but then we tried our own towns dealer who had had experience with this process--just flipped open his binder and said this is what we do. It was a very easy process.

We had looked at leasing a car through AutoEurope but this worked better for us because we were going to need a new car when we returned. We also got a free airline ticket to get to and from Europe.

Hope this helps but I don't know what happens after one year for you. Like others have suggested, look on expat forums.

Mona

Thanks again. That was extremely helpful!
Jim

My husbands response this AM was do you really need a car on a daily basis or would your Northern Italian city and your reason to be there allow you to use efficient trains for much of your transportation and just rent a car for excursions where trains don't connect as readily. We have some big city friends in the US, and many more in Europe who don't own a car but rent occasionally.

This woman - txgirl620 - was active on this forum some time ago, and ended up buying a car for her year long stay in Italy. Her posts are listed here, of particular relevance are the last few: https://community.ricksteves.com/users/115354/posts

Mona,
We would love not to own a car but will be living in Campione, a very small city (<3000) with no train service so will need a car. When we move to Florence in a couple years, we would likely sell the car and use public transport.