Buying a car in Italy or France
 

My wife and 3 kids are moving to the south of France for 9 months. We plan travelling around while we are there. I would like to purchase a car (used) and sell it when we leave. Would I be better off finding a used car dealer or private seller? Is there a French or Italian equivalent to Autotrader? Ideally I would like something newer with not a ton of milege.

Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Shawn

For that llittle time you might want to consider a long-term rental typically used for vacations. Starts at 21 days and might fit your time period - and a ot easier than buying and then selling a used car. (It can easily take weeks to do the latter and get a fair price.)

If I recall correctly, the car leases offered to tourists are limited to the three months of the tourist visa.

I think Michael is correct. Plus, I assume you have long-term visas? If you buy a car, you're going to have to go through massive paperwork to get a French or Italian license (and take tests in those languages), plus lots of insurance issues.

In Italy the driving license would not probably be a major problem as people are allowed to drive for an year on most foreign licenses before being forced to take the Italian one. But if you are a non-EU citizen you will probably not be allowed to buy a car unless you have a permesso di soggiorno (you need a resident visa to get it, and a lot of time) and the custom paperwork may be huge.

"If you buy a car, you're going to have to go through massive paperwork to get a French or Italian license "

Not in France. You are allowed to drive 12 to 18 months without a French license depending on your nationality : http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/p...rs/F1459.xhtml

However, it's true that in Italy you'd need a residence permit to buy a car. If you're living in France, you couldn't get an Italian residence permit, obviously.

If you have a residence visa for France, I'd forget about buying a car, either new or used and go with the 3-month buy-back program from Peugeot, getting a new car every three months.

Cars are not inexpensive in Europe. You can buy a new Audi A3 for $30,000 in Seattle, or an A3 in France for around $38,000, not including tax.

I have not checked this info lately, but the Renault buy back program is (or at least used to be) up to a maximum of 6 months. FWIW.

Just for information - when we bought our car in France, we did not live there. We had a house, which gave us proof of residence, and a bank account. Did not need a French license for the first 12 months. We bought through a dealer, although in fact it ended up being a private sale - the owner was buying a new car and the dealer got rid of it for him.

It was great for us, as it was it was about 15 years old, with hardly any mileage. We bought it to use on holidays before we moved to France, figuring it would be cheaper than renting every time (we had our house by then and were coming several times a year to do work on it) Turns out it lasted another 4 years of full time use, and we sold it for about 40% of what we'd paid. A great deal - plus people kept complimenting us on our lovely old car.

You'd do best to go with Peugeot's lease program out of France.

Purchasing a car in Europe would be too risky as you don't have the resources to deal with the resale at the end of your 9 months.

<i>You'd do best to go with Peugeot's lease program out of France. </i>

From the replies it would mean that the OP would be without a car for 3 or 6 months, depending on who is correct when it comes to the maximum length of the purchase/buy back program for non-EU residents.

When we used the Peugeot lease back program last year the guy told us it is fairly common to have a couple lease under the husband's name for part of the time and then use the wife's name to reserve for a second car at the end of the lease to be able to "get around" the 6 month limit. We have been a bit chicken to try this but he tells us that many people do it.

So in theory you could each rent four 1/2 months. Although the way the contract is structured it may be cheaper to have one of you lease for 3 months and the other for 6 months since they generally get cheaper the longer you rent. Also, remember that the lease programs include full insurance for both family members which is good. Also you avoid charges if you pick up and drop off in France.

Compare programs. We've had great luck leasing with buy back option from Renault--new car, insurance included-- No hassles!