Italy's revisione: the test and its record

The revisione is Italy's periodic roadworthiness test. Two kinds of body may carry it out: the offices of the Motorizzazione Civile, which belongs to the transport ministry, and private test centres (centri di revisione) approved for the purpose, usually workshops with their own test lane. For cars, most keepers use such a centre, because it is closer and appointments come sooner.

The price is not a free market. The state sets a uniform tariff for a revisione at a private centre, the Motorizzazione has its own, and fees are charged along with the test. The amounts in force are published by the Ministero delle Infrastrutture e dei Trasporti. So centres differ less on price than on appointments, waiting time and whether repairs can be done on the spot.

When a car must first go for its revisione, and how often after that, is set out in the Italian highway code, the Codice della strada. Nobody is summoned; tracking the date is the keeper's job. Drive after it has expired and a roadside check can mean a fine, after which the car may not be driven until it has been tested.

If you add your car under “My vehicles” in your Carvexia account, you can store the date of the next test from your documents and get an email reminder. Carvexia does not work out the deadline; what counts is what your papers say.

As everywhere in the EU, the scope follows the roadworthiness directive (2014/45/EU). Nothing is dismantled: the revisione judges what can be seen and measured without taking parts off. It is a snapshot, not an appraisal of the whole car.

The gas system deserves a sentence of its own, because Italy has more of them than almost anywhere, factory-fitted and retrofitted alike. The tank carries an approval with an expiry date. If it has expired, the revisione will notice at the latest, and replacing the tank is not a small bill. On a car running on gas, the tank's expiry date belongs on the same list as the test date.

The inspector works through the assemblies in turn:

The faults found are sorted into three levels — carenze lievi, gravi and pericolose, meaning minor, major and dangerous. The most serious level sets the result of the revisione, which is recorded as one of three words.

For a buyer, a poor result in the car's past is not a warning sign in itself. It only means something once had to be put right; what matters is why, and whether the next revisione was passed. For the keeper, though, the word decides the weeks that follow:

The result of the revisione is recorded in several places. The test centre gives you a report with the result, the faults found and the odometer reading. The vehicle document — the carta di circolazione or the newer documento unico — is also marked with the result, usually by a label. And the data go into the Motorizzazione's national vehicle archive.

That last place matters most to a buyer, because it is out of the seller's hands. On the transport ministry's Portale dell'Automobilista you can enter the plate and see when the car was tested, with what result and at what mileage. The keeper's consent is not needed.

The mileages from the revisione are the most reliable series you will find for an Italian car: read officially, at regular intervals, stored beyond the seller's reach. A series that climbs steadily backs up the service book. A reading lower than the one before ends the conversation.

Ownership and charges on the car, such as a lien from financing (ipoteca) or an administrative block (fermo amministrativo), are not the Motorizzazione's business but the PRA's, the ownership register kept by the ACI. An extract from it, the visura PRA, belongs next to the revisione when you buy.

Put two questions to every Italian seller: when is the next revisione due, and may I see the last test report? The first decides whether you will be paying for a test, and perhaps repairs, a few months from now. The second shows what was noted last time, including the minor faults that did not stop the car passing and may still be there.

Then compare the mileage in the listing and on the clock with the reading at the last revisione. Does the difference fit the time that has passed? A car that has barely moved since its last test may have a good explanation — in which case the seller should be able to give it.

If you are taking the car to another country, the revisione there is usually just an indication of condition, because the destination country mostly requires its own test. The other way round, Italy requires an Italian revisione before registering an imported car above a certain age; the guide to importing into Italy covers that.

Because many test centres are also workshops, a small fault can often be fixed the same day. Ask when you book whether that is possible, and get the price of a repair before it is done, not after.

Most ripetere results come from a handful of familiar places. Check them yourself or have them checked beforehand and you save the second appointment: