Scots in Treignac

My apologies for taking the Thread"Buying a used car in France" a bit off topic. I have also had a look at the 3 page thread in August about re-importing a French Car to France. There is another possibility I might consider:- The Dacia Dokka van which bought new looks good value . Last year it did not look as if Daccia had RHD versions available. My idea would be to import an LHD version to Scotland . paying all the necessary tax and register it and insure it in the Uk. After a period of at least 6months (but well before an MOT was due), I would drive the car to my house in France and then apply for the documents so that I could keep it and drive it in France.

cyrian

Sorry, I am missing something.
Why not just buy it in France?
The title says "non-resident" but that I assume is only for tax purposes.
If you have a home in France then you can buy a french-registered vehicle in France registered to a french address.
The problem arises in getting french insurance - you need to provide proof of No Claims Bonus.

EuroTrash

Why is that such a problem? Do you know something about SiT's driving record that the rest of us don't?

cyrian

Because if you don't then it costs you lots more for the insurance.
My initial quotes were for €1k + until I produced a paper which indicated the current NCB.
Then it became €300 +.
UK insurance companies don't issue a certificate of NCB unless you leave them therefore you need to find something which states NCB.
It is not a problem if you live in France full-time but it can be otherwise.

EuroTrash

Well I dunno but I bought and insured a car here before I moved permanently, while I still had vehicles insured in the UK, and I got top bonus malus on it. Can't remember quite how that worked but I don't remember it being a major problem. I think I just collected up all the renewals documents that I'd received since time began and gave them that. Of course it helps that I almost never throw anything away - also that for the last 20 years or so I had had two vehicles continuously insured in the UK, a car and a campervan, so there was PLENTY of paperwork. Maybe it was the sheer quantity that convinced them

south_bound

I assume its got something to do with everything suddenly becoming 20% cheaper in the UK (measured in Euros) compared with the start of the year?

I don't see any reason why you could not do this, more so if you made sure you have comprehensive insurance to include up to 6 months or 1 year of continuous European cover (which are available if you look around).

EuroTrash

Do find out what the fee to register it in France would be first. I don't know anything about Dacias and how eco friendly they are, but the one-off registration tax for new or nearly-new vehicles can be pretty steep if they don't happen to be the type of vehicle France wants to encourage ownership of, ie non polluting and fuel efficient etc.
Also if it's a classed as a commercial vehicle, which vans normally are, I believe it will need an emissions test every year unlike cars which only need a CT every 2 years. But, could be wrong on that.

cyrian

Fair point about exchange rate but you have to look at the bonus/malus in France and then consider eventually having to change the speedo and headlamps.
Don't know about France but in Ireland you need to provide documentary evidence of the date the vehicle was imported.
Therefore, as the OP said, he would wait until it was at least 6 months old.

ET - I was simply trying to give the OP a "heads-up" re the insurance in order to make sure that he had the appropriate paperwork.

EuroTrash

Yes absolutely. Was just surprised because apparently I cleared that particular hurdle without even noticing there was a hurdle - unusual for me, usually even the tiniest hurdle trips me up!

south_bound

Isn't the registration fee just the cost of a carte gris which is the same whether importing used or registering as a new owner (please correct me if I am wrong)? If so, them this is based on CO2 emissions and is the same whether the car is 6 months or 10 years old, reducing by half thereafter. Or am I missing something?

EuroTrash

Was just pointing out to the OP that it's a good idea to find out the registration cost before you choose your model, not after you've bought it. There was a post on another forum recently from someone who had just done this, bought a car in the UK (I think it was a big Kia, which the poster claimed had low emissions) and taken the paperwork to the prefecture to register it, and nearly fainted when they were given a bill for around 8,000€. They queried it and were assured it was correct.

I assume it follows that cars in low tax bands in the UK are cheap to register here and vice versa but I thought it was worth pointing out, no? Paying 8k to register a car you're going to drive a few times a year would make no sense to me.

south_bound

I agree that saving a quid in the UK and then having to pay £2 to register in France does not make sense. But if the cost of registering the same model of Dacia thingy in France is the same whether brought over from the UK or bought directly in France then it kind of becomes irrelevant.

EuroTrash

Very true but I think you're still missing the point of my post. What I was trying to do was help the OP avoid a potential situation where he says "If I'd known it was going to cost xxx€ to register a Dacia Doodah in France, I would never have bought one in the first place".

He may of course have already found out the cost and taken it into consideration in deciding what car to buy but he hasn't mentioned it. In the UK of course this would be less of an issue because if the road tax is high he could economise by SORNing it when not in use, but in France it costs what it costs whether you use it or leave it in a garage most of the year.

dmu

A bit off-topic, but we've lent (aka unofficially given) our Express van to DD2 in a distant Département and at the moment it's off the road. We aren't bothering to try for a reduced insurance, but the Contrôle Technique is coming up. Question: if she decides not to have it done before next Spring, should she make a Déclaration de véhicule non-roulant (French SORN) at her Préfecture, to avoid a probable fine? (She's allergic to bureaucracy, but since the car is still officially ours, we're concerned!)

EuroTrash

What would she get fined for? It's not illegal to own a car with no current CT, it just means she can't drive it on the roads. And obviously it has to remain insured.

I have a notion that déclarations de véhicule non roulant don't exist at all any more but could be wrong on that, but in any case, I thought they were only used when an un-CT'd car changed owners, to enable the new owner to register it without the usual 18 months CT.