ThunderPants

Does anybody know where you can buy UK registered cars in France, are there any garages that specialize in this or is anyone looking to get rid?.

Listen Very Carefully

If you are a resident of France you cannot own or sell a vehicle registered in another country other than for the period necessary to re register ie one month
If you are looking at getting one to take back to the UK be aware that many expats have not MOTd them or taxed them so getting them back to the UK can be problematical as well as the potential for buying a car that is not safe In addition the V5 may not be in the current owners name as the car may have been passed from ex pat to expat as they seek to offload a dodgy car that they cannot re register in France Be careful is my advice but if you are more specific as to what you want to do we can give specific advice eg look on expat websites /Le Bon Coin etc

ThunderPants

Thank you for the advise, i am aware of most of what you say, i am not allowed to advertise on here as i was just hoping there was someone in the opposite position to me and would be happy to just swap cars.

EuroTrash

But we don't know what your position is, do we, so we don't know what the opposite position to that would be!
I am guessing you have been living in France with a French reg car, and now returning to the UK?
Are we talking about fairly high value cars, or old bangers?

As LVC says you will always find some for sale in the classifieds on expat websites but you have to ask yourself, If the person selling the car doesn't see a problem in breaking the rules on imports/registration just to save themselves a bit of money and hassle, is this a person you want to do business with, can you trust them? Will the car be as described, are they telling the truth about its history, is it even theirs to sell? If it turns out not to be, you will have no comeback under either English or French law since it was not a legal transaction.

ThunderPants

Your assumption is correct, and when i say the opposite i mean maybe there is someone recently moved to France and has a UK car they wish to either get rid of or are thinking on how to import it and is it worth the hassle, and it would be just easier to swap. And I am not talking about old bangers and I am not talking about breaking any rules!! Look I can just sell it and take a part ex, maybe that part ex can be a UK car as that suits my purposes today.

EuroTrash

Unfortunately I think you might have just missed the boat because the many hundreds of Brexit escapees who were rushing to France this time last year will mostly have got their cars sorted by now (or in some cases changed their minds and gone back), and relatively few Brits have arrived since 1st Jan.
There are however reputable garages in the UK that specialise in buying and selling foreign registered cars. You might do better to take it back with you and make the swap in the UK. Googling something like "buy LHD car in UK" will bring some up.

ThunderPants

Well that is the story of my life, missing the boat is what i am really good at. I understand that it is more than likely I have missed this boat but still i must at least explore and try as you never know unless you do and who knows there maybe someone else that has missed the boat and never got around to sorting out his/her UK car. But yes i will have no choice but to take the car to the UK and attempt to sell it there or import it if that is the only choices I have. But I find it strange that the actual question I was asking you have answered it in reserve by stating "there are reputable garages in the UK that specialise in buying and selling foreign registered cars"!, and these reputable garages do not exist in France doing the same thing?

You know it would be really easy under normal times to just sell the car here, buy a car in the UK bring it back, load it up and return back to the UK. But because of covid and all the quarantine rules this has just become impossible to manage

Listen Very Carefully

The reason that french garages do not do it is that it is not worth the hassle the cars are worthless in France and they do not want the legal problems that could follow
The reason there are garages in the UK selling LHD is because at one time most of the UK population seemed to want move to the EU and as a lot of em couldn't be bothered to learn the language or do the research necessary to sort out their cars so these garages could make a killing in buying low selling high and charging the earth to sort out the registration procedures insurance etc Whether or not many will survive Brexit is another matter

EuroTrash

Well, where is the market for UK-registered, RHD cars in France? Apart from people in your position I can't think who would ever want to buy one, outside the specialist/classic car market. And a garage couldn't sell it to anyone who lives in France without re-registering it first,.
Even before Brexit, there wouldn't have been much of a market. Whereas LHD cars in the UK would have had a much bigger market for people moving to/moving back to every country in the EU, in fact potentially every country that drives on the right. Although I suspect there is a less of a market post Brexit.
If it's a decent car, hopefully you won't have a problem coming to a deal with one of these garages. I looked at buying a car from one of them at one stage, I was very skeptical when I first approached them but in fact they seemed very professional and all the paperwork appeared to be in perfect order. I didn't buy it in the end but if I hadn't found another solution, I would have been happy to do the deal. If you think you might end up doing that, why not have a chat with one before you leave France and see what paperwork etc they will need from you.

I hope you find a good solution, I sense your frustration and I do sympathise.

ThunderPants

Thank you for your help, i am in fact speaking to a garage in the UK right now who deals with LHD, and they seem more than happy to take the car off my hands, even will offer part EX, happy days just one more thing of my list of worries.

Listen Very Carefully

There is ALWAYS a solution to a problem the difficulty is finding the correct and legal one which is why forums like this are always useful as most people on here know what works and what does not

TheGrocer

Take a look at some of the Spanish forum sites. Seems to be loads of UK cars there CHEAP....