Shipping my Ferrari to Italy.

It's a great idea. Shipping isnt that expensive when you compare it to the cost of renting a nice car which will have mileage limitations etc. If you can stay more than a week, it's a great idea.

 

Putting it on the boat is the easy part.

Getting it off and driving it may be a different matter entirely.


You need to look into:

Inspection Requirements

Car Licensing

You Licensing

Insurance.


I am sure other things will pop-up. There are a few here who have done this.

 

I'm interested in this as well, planning a big trip to Sicily to visit my father's home town and family over there for a couple of weeks and would love to send my f355 over there. It's a couple of years out so I have plenty of time to plan, but from what I can tell I'd have to send it to Italy first and then from there to Sicily. That would work fine as I'd like to spend a couple of days on the mainland anyway.

 

ask the people in the vintage section who shipped their cars to the "targa florio" this week

 

I'm an American living in Italy and although I can't speak from experience, I can make some suggestions.

Consider a container to protect your car unless you don't care about theft and dents. It costs more, but it might be worth it. I looked into it when I moved, but rejected the idea because of the near impossibility of registering my American built Honda here in Italy. Anyhow, I do remember that there are some significant outbound U.S. customs requirements as well as some special requirements about how you secure your car inside the container. Your shipper should help you out here, but be sure to ask the question.;

American's can only visit Italy without a visa for 90 days then you must stay out of all the Schengen countries (basically all of Europe except the UK) for 90 days. Then you can return for another 90 days. So if you have time, you could visit Europe for 3 months, go to England for 3 months, and so on.

U.S. drivers licenses and U.S. plates are good for a year. After than you must get an Italian driving license and register your car. Don't forget an International Driving Permit available from AAA. It costs fifteen bucks and is simply a translation of your U.S. license into a bunch of languages. Italian cops didn't care in the past, but my friend's son got a 400 Euro ticket last month, so apparently things have changed.

Insurance in Italy is a mess, but my U.S. company can write insurance through an Italian source and that's pretty easy to do. Check with your company. Otherwise, I can't be of much help with Italian insurance.

I can say this; however. I like driving my Ferrari in Italy, but not nearly enough to ship it over and back just for 90 days. You can easily rent something like a Ferrari 430 or a California for around $45,000 for a month. A BMW 6 Series Cabrio for around $22,000 a month. Fun, but expensive............ stupid expensive actually. But you can rent a Fiat 500 for a thousand bucks a month and an Alfa Giulietta for two thousand bucks for a whole month. The 500 is a little small, but the Giulietta is nice sized and either of them can be thrashed nicely on our roads. You have to realize the days of going really fast on the Autostrada are LONG gone. We have speed cameras everywhere and also those types that take your picture in one location and then again 20 km down the road. They average your speed and ticket you for excessive speed. This isn't a joke and they will track you down.

Yes, you can still have fun on secondary roads, but it need not be in a Ferrari. Plus, you'll go crazy trying to park a nice car. The Italian parking places are small and although most Italians are very good about avoiding door dings (they like their cars too and most of them are pretty nice) there are plenty of foreigners who apparently just don't give a damn. I NEVER park my Ferrari in a general parking spot and that means I simply can't use it for general transportation.

My strong advice is to rent something and have your fun in Italy in ways not associated with being in a Ferrari. You'll have one when you return home, right?

 

May I suggest that you ship the car to Germany and drive through Germany to Italy.
Your car will like chasing Porsches on German Autobahns. 30% have speed limits, 40% traffic jam. Just find the remaining 30%. Even if vou are a little bit too fast (20km/h) it will only cost you 35€ instead of 150€ in Italy.
I imported my car from Italy to Germany. After 300 miles on Italian and Swiss autobahns, I could press the pedal to the metal. The car liked it. These cars are made for speed. Give your F355 this chance of a life time.

 

Now I want to plan a trip to Germany... welcome to FChat on your first post.

 

You will want a shipping broker who is going to be the legs for all the customs paperwork. I don't know how to find a good one but maybe the Automobile Club can help?

 

Depending on how much free cash you've got the cheapest option overall for a longer trip may be to buy a car in Europe, use it & then sell it on afterwards. There may well be people on FChat who could help you do that.

 

Buying a Ferrari in Germany is easy. However, dealers like to see cash. The problem is to register the car. That is only possible if you have a permanent residence in Germany. The only exception is, if you buy the car with the intention to export it. The license plate will then automatically expire after one year. However, in both cases you need an insurance. That will be difficult. At least if you don't plan to spent 10T$ per year.
(with a Germany residency and a clean history you would pay 3T$, full cover)
While buying a Ferrari is simple, selling might be difficult. Especially if you don't want to loose too much money.
I would suggest you to take your Ferrari to Germany. You will have to pay freight and harbour fees - possibly 2*2.5k$. You only have to check, whether your insurance is valid in Europe. Finding a shipper is simple. Just ask google.

 

I've shipped cars to Europe several times for vacation touring. Always used Cosdel as recommended by Napolis. Car can be shipped to Germany or Amsterdam. Cosdel handles everything. You show up at the Europe storage facility and drive away on your US plates. No dealing with customs. You are supposed to have Green Card insurance while in the EU, but no one has ever asked me for it. Nevertheless it's easy to get here:
Green Card
Start the insurance application process 30 days before you leave.
I'm surprised more people don't bring their cars to Europe. It's not expensive if you compare the cost to renting a performance car for several weeks. And the rental cars I've had in Europe have smelled of cigarette smoke. Driving the Autobahn and the Nurburgring in your own car is amazing fun.

 

I'm late to this thread, but feel it's important to comment that you probably need to be very careful about parking in Sicily. I'm not an expert on Sicily by any means, but we stayed there for 2 weeks a few years ago and the caretakers of the villa were very insistent that we be sure to lock the cars in the underground garage at night. They must have told us that 10 times. Sicily seemed to have exported every human under 70 years old from the entire region, so it didn't really look like a haven for car theft, but apparently it is an issue. Maybe somebody who is more familiar with Sicily can chime in with more info.

 

I have a lot of family there that I can talk to about it, and probably have them keep the car locked up if where we're staying doesn't have locked storage and it turns out to be an issue.