bilmar

We will be moving to Brittany very shortly and, at the same time, we want to replace our Ford Scorpio with a newer second hand car. Should we buy in the Uk before we go or would we be better off buying a left-hand drive car in France? What are the pros and cons either way? Does French insurance work on the size of the car or on emissions? We look forward to your comments.
Bilmar

lebones

Hi Bilmar.
Firstly ,you will find secondhand cars are very expensive here in France.

I would suggest,if you can manage driving a RHD car, as i have in the 3 years we have been here then you would be better off buying in the UK.

There are quite a few websites in the UK that deal in secondhand LHD cars though you seem to pay a premium for them.
i guess they play on the fact that we are all millionaires who have moved to France to live in our chateaux,how wrong they are !!.

As for insurance it works on horse power i think,i have a citroen C5 diesel and it costs me 350 Euros ,fully comp including breakdown cover,which i feel is comparable to what we paid in the UK.

As i say , if you can manage driving a RHD i think its the better option,to buy in the UK.
I dont find it a problem really, as a matter of fact when my car was in the local Citroen dealer for a service he loaned me a car, a LHD, and i found it to be quite confusing really, i think after driving a RHD for close to 48 years i feel quite comfortable even on the " wrong" side of the road.

All the best in your move, Keith.

bilmar

Hi Lebones
Thank you for your quick response and helpful advice. My car insurance is due in a couple of months. Is it better to change to a French company when the time comes as we will be living in France by then? What about MOT and road tax for your UK car in France? At what stage does one need to re register the car in France?

zel

A General rule of thumb throughout the EU is that the insurance should be with a company that is from the country the vehicle is registered in (Brit car = Brit Insurance)

There are countless threads on here in the european section that says they will be quick to take your money but when it comes to claiming they will back out seeing as your car is not registered locally.

You can drive your RHD vehicle in France for upto 3 months before having to register it (tho EU law says six months, it's all a bit of a grey area) and it needs valid insurance, mot, road tax.

As mentioned cars in France are expensive, this is the same for the entire EURO LHD zone as there is far more demand for second hand vehicles than there is in the UK (as it's many countries not just one fighting over the market)

The process of registration in France is called "immatriculation" and if you like I can give you some pointers on how to go about it.. It's very straight forward.

lebones

Hi Bilmar.
I can only endorse what Zel has written on the subject. You would be better off insuring with a French company,dont forget to get a written proof of no claims as you will need it to get insured .
As far as road tax is concerned ,there is no road tax in France < UK> take note.
The MOT ,known here is called Control Technique, and it lasts for two years.
Its much the same as the UK MOT,the only big problem or at least the costly item on your getting a CT is the headlights,you have to have HL that conform to French regs,IE, dipping to the right not left,apair of HL for my Citroen cost 500 euro,OUCH.
As Zel says ,its not a difficult job to get a car registered here as long as it is nothing obscure and i hear that Japanese grey imports can be a nightmare.
If you get a car in the UK,it would be worth your while getting on to the manufacturer and asking for a Certificate of Conformity to register a car in France,it should cost you nothing!!.
As Zel said you have 3/6 months in which to get it done,there are i might add probably thousands of English driving over here for years with English plates and some that i have spoken to say"ive still got insurance" which is usually OK until you have an accident then as we all know it doesnt take much for the insurance companies to bale out.
There are a lot of insurance companies here that do the business in English
Hope all this will clarify a few things, if you need any more info i will be only to glad to offer my assistance.

Cheers Keith

zel

Not to contradict but a Certificate Of Conformity is not free (if it was free for yourself congrats! )

We have ordered more C.O.C documents than I ever care to remember and they have never been free unless they have come with the document pack to begin with.

Normally a C.O.C document costs anything between 50-100 pounds and it only available to vehicles sold originally within the EU. If a car was a grey import then a C.O.C document will simply not available and it will be an absolute nightmare to gain registration in any other EU country.

Unfortunately the only way to find out if your vehicle (or any) has a document available is to apply for one and cross your fingers.

It's also worth noting that a C.O.C document is a relatively 'new' thing, within the last 10 odd years. If your vehicle is older then you will probably need to get a 'compliance letter' from the manufacturer to help with registration.

lebones

As you are obviously in the business i hand the ball over to you Zel.

It does just happen that a friend has just registered his Izuzu Trooper here in France and he got a Cof C before leaving the UK and he reassures me it cost him nothing,and his Izuzu is only 5 years old.

Cheers Keith.

bilmar

Thank you very much to you all. I have learned a lot.

Bill

JohnMac

Zel

You offered to provide some information on the immatricularion process and I would be very grateful because I have a particular problem.

We plan to move to France and whilst we look for a house plan to live in a camping car. Everything points to it being better to buy the camper in France because it will be French spec and thus easier to sell when we want to however registration looks as though it might be a problem because when we buy it we would not be French Resident and we won't have an address. Any help gratefully received.

zel

Hi John,

Dreadfully sorry about the delay in responding, afraid the good old British cold got a hold and didn't want to let go

Yes, I see your dilemma and it's one many people stumble upon when moving to another EU country.

You are indeed correct that you need to have some sort of residency and most definitely an address to register the vehicle to.

As far as I can see you have two choices.

1> Would be to consult a general needs lawyer within France and see if there are any ways around this, perhaps you could set up a PO.BOX type scenario to register the vehicle with. It's a long shot, but a possibility none the less.

2> Source yourself (or a company) the vehicle you need, have it registered in the UK in your name and everything legal then once you have residency you can quite simply transfer it over.

The process is very easy as long as the vehicle is less than 10 years old and has EU type approval. Never purchase a vehicle for export unless it comes with a document called a "certificate of conformity" (C.O.C for short)

If you have got a company to source you the vehicle they will have to have used this document to gain UK registration, so if you find the document is not available, walk away from the deal until it is.

I say this as there are a lot of 'the here today, gone tomorrow' kinda people who exploit the mass exodus of Brits moving abroad. They supply them with non EU type approved cars and the unsuspecting purchasers know nothing about it until they try to register the vehicle abroad.

As far as registering an imported vehicle in France my guide can be found on this thread :

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=429172

Hope this helps.

bilmar

Hi again and thank you Zel. You were right about the CofC. I got mine from Ford quite easily but it cost £58.
My other problem is that I am going to take my UK car with me. I have to renew my insurance very soon and I have a problem in that the insurance companies will insure for 90 days - only for one month at a time for France. This is ok for holidays but not for living in France. I read somewhere about a green card that you can buy per month that would cover me but I cannot find anyone who does this. I don't know how long the process of re registration will take in France so that I can get insurance there. Can you suggest a solution?
Bill

annamalones

Hi,
I am in exactly the same boat. However I've done some research and I think the solution is this (please someone correct me if I'm wrong)

get a temporary carte grise from the government. It lasts for 4 weeks after which piont you can renew it. There is no limit on the number of times you renew it. It costs 70euro each time you renew it.

I'm not sure yet as to the impact of french car insurance ; i'll keep you posted.

TW1

Hi,

We have lived in France fo 4 years and like most Brits bought our car with us - we insured it in France fully comp - but unfortunately my husband had a bad accident and wrote the car off - under the fully comp insurance we were told that in the event of a accident we were fully covered - what they forget to mentioned was that as it was a English car valued at 16,000 euros if we had a accident we would NOT get the full value to replace the car as it was RHD in fact after many letters from us and Ford in Bergerac the insurance company would only pay us 10,000 euros - which ment we could not get the car replaced here or in the UK. We had a Ford Galaxy.

We have now bought a brand new French registered car (the second hand market is to expensive here - there was only 3,000 euros difference between the new car we have bought and a year old one) and have French insurance fully comp.

The moral of this story is - buy in France and Insure in France.

Hope this helps on your decision.

bilmar

Thank you for your replies. My insurance in the UK, where I am still living, runs out at the beginning of next month. We will be going to live in France very shortly and will take our car with us. To renew my UK policy, I will have to pay for 12 months but, when I get to France, it will only cover me for one month at a time and for a maximum of three months which means I will have to bring the car back to the UK three times during those three months. I was thinking that it might be better to get a French insurance now that would also cover me in England while I am here. Can anyone suggest what to do?
Bill

annamalones

Does anyone know a workaround for this:

I am purchasing a french car in April.
I am not moving to France until June/July.
Therefore I do not have a French address until July.

I can get a temporary carte grise for the vehicle registration situation.
However, I have contacted a french insurance company and cannot get insured with them unless I have a french address.

I have contacted a UK insurance company; they say they will insure it no problem, but I don't think the girlie on the phone understood that I was not importing the car to the UK and that the car was still registered in France. As far as i knew, you can't insure a car in the country it isn't registered in?

What can I do?

Help muchly appreciated