Insuring a german or italian registered car?

[icetea]

I really need another larger car with rear seats and have spent the last couple of weeks browsing mobile.de for suitable purchases. I live in Portugal but don't want to buy here due to excessive prices. The problem is buying in other countries brings issues as far as getting the cars insured goes.

I could buy in UK via my parents and easily insure a car... but with my preference for LHD it would massively reduce my options. So it seems germany and italy are the two countries coming up most for the cars I like the look of. Is it going to be possible to insure either of those without an address in those countries? If so, who can I do it via?

I don't care about fully comp etc... I just want to do the absolute minimum to be legally compliant.

thanks

[Seek]

Get a German export registration (Ausfuhrkennzeichen).
When buying from any decent car dealer they can organise it for you.

Insurance can be organised here:
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl...

[sshenton1975]

I did exactlymthisnwith a Porsche 964. I insured it through a uk company using the chassis number

Cheers

[icetea]

Thanks for the replies - with the chassis number thing was the actual number plate listed on the policy document? If not I could see potential problems in a roadside check

[GC8]

No, the car is identified by the VIN and the policy doesnt mention the registered number.

[sshenton1975]

Insurance docs mention the VIN. However, I had a maximum of one months cover after which the car needed to be re registered on a UK plate and the insurance updated

Cheers

[Fox-]

icetea said:

I really need another larger car with rear seats and have spent the last couple of weeks browsing mobile.de for suitable purchases. I live in Portugal but don't want to buy here due to excessive prices. The problem is buying in other countries brings issues as far as getting the cars insured goes.

I could buy in UK via my parents and easily insure a car...

No, you couldn't - not without misrepresenting the policy. I cannot imagine any UK insurer will insure a car that spends most of its time outside the country.

[crossy67]

If you buy from Holland you don't get the registration number, you get temporary plates with a green circle that is your 2 week insurance cover. These plates dissolve. I think the same applies to German export plates too.

[hdrflow]

If your fiscal address is in Portugal and the car is in your name, you'll most likely need to register it in Portugal and get a PRT license plate (and that can be expensive). Worth checking...

[Kolbenkopp]

As has been mentioned, for Germany should not be difficult to get export plates and basic insurance for it. Trouble is that is only temporary, meant to get the car exported out of Germany.

So at some point you will have to put permanent plates on it. I'm 100% sure there is something in Portuguese law preventing you from driving around with foreign plates for long. EU only goes so far :-/.

[icetea]

hdrflow said:

If your fiscal address is in Portugal and the car is in your name, you'll most likely need to register it in Portugal and get a PRT license plate (and that can be expensive). Worth checking...

Technically thats true but nobody really complies with it and nothing is done about it. You're only meant to keep foreign cars here for 6 months of the year. If enforced I'd move an hour along the border into Spain as I couldn't justify paying Portuguese prices for multiple higher end cars. There are loads of expats out here who've been driving around on the same UK plated cars for years at a time.

sshenton1975 said:

Insurance docs mention the VIN. However, I had a maximum of one months cover after which the car needed to be re registered on a UK plate and the insurance updated

Ah that doesn't look ideal then, I really need a longer term solution as registering cars onto Portuguese plates is not a viable option.

Kolbenkopp said:

As has been mentioned, for Germany should not be difficult to get export plates and basic insurance for it. Trouble is that is only temporary, meant to get the car exported out of Germany.

So at some point you will have to put permanent plates on it. I'm 100% sure there is something in Portuguese law preventing you from driving around with foreign plates for long. EU only goes so far :-/.

It might be worth buying German, exporting to UK and reregistering there, but that is only viable if I can legitimately insure it via a UK company when it would be spending 10+ months of the year out of the country.

[Kolbenkopp]

icetea said:

It might be worth buying German, exporting to UK and reregistering there, but that is only viable if I can legitimately insure it via a UK company when it would be spending 10+ months of the year out of the country.

Ah, OK got it. Using the available UK address for insuring / taxing in the UK instead of Portugal. Hope it works out for you, why should "globalisation" only work for big corporations? From what I've read here so far, UK insurances are really annoying though. Good luck!

As said, getting the car out of Germany and to the UK insured should be no problem. Good link RE: insurance provided by helpful poster earlier in the thread, will need to pay for a few weeks of German tax (not much), a set of plates (peanuts) and half a day of time for the paperwork.

Edited by Kolbenkopp on Wednesday 26th December 22:43

[nacnac]

I used to have my van insured with these people and I spent a lot of time in both Spain and Portugal.

http://www.stuartcollins.com

They will offer you 12 month Euro policies so long as the car is UK registered, it was one of the only companies I found offering long term insurance.

A couple of years ago the police were pulling over foreign registered cars and I got stopped in saying that I know a guy who had a UK registered car for years and years and seemed to get away with it!