Rups14

Im and Er,

You seem to be so knowledgeable and understanding. I sent you a pm.

Thanks also to all you other helpful people.

Rups14

Domino,

I will do a floor search first thing tomorrow.

Tweedpipe

An interesting thread with some good advise offered so far. Pity we've yet to hear back from the original poster.

Regarding Lexus VIN number, if it's anything like our Toyota (assembled in Valencienne, France), the VIN No. is stamped on a metal plate which is riveted inside the engine compartment - on the l/h side (looking in from the front) - see below. It's comprised of 17 letters & numbers, and is also to be found on the French carte gris (Certificate d'immatriculation) referred under paragraph (E).

Our other car also has the VIN comprised of 17 letters & numbers, so I guess this may be fairly standard across manufacturers.

bigglesworth

Rups, I understand your affection for the car, but as per Im and Ers earlier post the car being R/H drive should be more valuable in the UK. It might therefore also be more saleable. I imagine there are dealers in the Far East who will ship it across, (for a staggering fee of course) but there might also be people in the UK who would do the same.
Certainly worth emailing a couple of dealers - You will find grey importers listed on the net. They must get their cars from somewhere.

Tweedpipe

Like Im_&_Er I'm somewhat intrigued by the fact that you cannot sell the Lexus in Malaysia.
One assumes it was legally imported from Brunei with all the correct documents and tax/import duties paid, otherwise imho even thinking about importing into France or another EU country is a non-starter.
I can think of a few other reasons too, which would be insensitive to mention here.
The Lexus has a reputation of being a fine vehicule, but when the practicalities of the situation outweigh ones personal feelings, in my mind the decision should be an easy one.

Im_and_Er

AFAIK the car in question is LHD.

Rups14 has PM'd with her situation and reasoning but I don't think I will be breaking her confidence in saying that selling the car in Malaysia is absolutely NOT an option so we need to completely forget about that as a potential solution.

My current advice is to see if one of the UK LHD dealers would consider buying it or taking it in PX against another car which will be less problematical to register in France.

Montyvator

Hello Skelly84 (& to other contributors)

This is a just quick reply, so if you are interested for more info we will be glad to help.

After a lot of research, We decided to purchase a new LHD car from a dealer in Bordeaux. We bought around in Nov but delivery was in Dec 2012. Late delivery was due to the fact we did not have our own address. However we had a bit of help from the owner of the property who's Gite we have rented for a month.

We do not speak French but the car salesman spoke just enough English and with use of Google Translator we made the deal by ourselves. We have the best price as we had 30% discount. (Bordeaux Car dealer has a big stock of second hand cars as well any make of new cars they can offer at discounted prices).

Since getting our car we have traveled to UK from France, back to France (using channel tunnel), France to Spain and now in Portugal, about 6,500 KM journey so far. We are loving the car (Hyundai i30 with 5 year warranty) This is by far the best value for money with high safety and high quality a car we have ever had bought and driven.

So in our experience best option is to purchase the car (new or old) in France and get the Car dealer do all the necessary registration of the car.

We are lucky with our purchase but we had done a lot of research over 5 month period. We wish good luck with your purchase.

Kind regards... Montyvator

jrc

I have just finished the export of my car into France from the UK and got my french reg plates about a month ago.

The process is a bit long:

1) you need to contact your car manufacturer to get a certificate of conformity (cost me 150 euros)
2) you need to change your headlights - the local dealership was going to charge about 450 euros but we managed to find a scrapyard which had headlights for 100 euros and a friend fitted them (although local garages probably wouldn't charge a fortune)
3) You need to get your controle technique (french MOT) done at a local centre (about 65 euros)
4) You need to go to the tax office and get a cerificate (free if your car is over 6 months old)
5) you need to get a form from the prefecture and provide them with all of the above. You will also need to pay a one off fee for that car (it depends on the horse power of your car as to how much but could be anything from about 200-1000 euros)
6) Once you have your carte grise you can then take it to the garage to get your plates (about 30 euros)

I have found an amazing company who specialise in expat insurance. They gave me a document which lists everything you need to do, they also insure your car on UK plates and are english speaking if you have any problems.

PM me if you would like any details on the company or the import process. It is possible but you do need to keep up the momentum to get it all done within 6 months.

cyrian

Why don't you post a link or a name for the insurance because this comes up regularly.
As long as you are not advertising your own company then this should be OK.

jrc

I wasn't sure if I was meant to reference the name or not which is why I didn't . I have found them to be incredibly helpful, they all seem to speak english and the person that was halping me with my car insurance was actually irish!
They are called schreinemachers - www.insurance.fr/

Im_and_Er

There are only two that I've heard of.

Stuart Collins

and

Gie Generali Agences previously know as Schrinemackers.

Quite how they work I'm not sure. Stuart Collins used to say that they require the car to go back to the UK once a year but that is not stated on their site anymore, I don't know anything about Generali.

IMO they must both operating close to if not on the fringes of the law for two reasons if not more.

1. EU law states that vehicle may only be use in a another country for 6 months in any 12.

2. French residents are not permitted to drive foreign registered cars.

Neither have a sample policy to examine.

A small point relating to item 4 on jrc's list:

You need to go to the tax office and get a cerificate (free if your car is over 6 months old)

The certificate itself (quittus fiscale or 1993 REC) is always free, 6 months (and/or 6000km) refers to the age of the car and if below that then TVA may be due in France.

BrianA

Hi just joined this site, my wife and I are hoping to move out later this year, have to have a vehicle available to bring us from UK, currently have company car which disappears when I quit work. Have viewed lhd cars in UK till I am totally bemused, is it best to buy UK registered lhd (headlights wrong way?) or at what seems a much dearer cost imported European registered lhd (second hand)?
Advice appreciated please.