You have to pay the registration fee when you become the owner of a vehicle whether you buy it in France or whether you import it. Is the fee different if you import it than if you bought it here? As you say it depends on the puissance fiscal and the age of the vehicle plus pollution tax depending on the emissions - but all these things will be the same for a particular model whatever country you buy it in…
Hi Anna… as I understand it vehicles imported (new or 2nd hand) have to pay the full bit… whereas secondhand French cars, have already paid the full bit and therefore get an allowance off… if you see what I mean. I have raised the question before (for a friend) and this is what we discovered.
It is something to be considered/checked-out before buying abroad…
Two different things. The registration fee is paid in full each time a vehicle changes hands until it reaches 10 years old. After that the fee charged is 50%. The eco tax is paid once, when the vehicle is first registered in France. It reduces on a sliding scale according to the age the vehicle is when it is first registered here. For a vehicle over 10 years old you pay nothing.
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As far as we could find out last year…if someone imports a vehicle from abroad… it counts as the first time… and from what we then gleaned earlier this year, even 2nd hand french cars had to pay a bit nowadays-(its ok, I may well have got the wrong end of that stick…)…perhaps it is if they never paid it before… not sure on that…
and not even sure if I have given the tax its correct name eco-taxe, but it certainly is an expensive add-on and is worth looking into on the government site…(though it took a fair bit of delving… )
I recently registered a (UK) Discovery 3, 2006, so over 10 years old. I only paid 50% of the 13cv charge, but I did have to pay about 80€ extra for pollution/CO2 tax on top.
you were ok then Mark…
the guy I am thinking of… and how I wish I could recall his name… ended up paying something like 7k or 9k euro because his CO2 levels were high…he was extremely miffed as it cancelled out the savings he had achieved by buying abroad… and he had the added expense of travel/delivery etc.
Diesel engines are more reliable and more powerful. on’t believe all the hype about diesel being more polluting. It was only a few years ago that the UK government said exactly the opposite. If you want to be really non polluting, go for diesel and use bio-diesel in it. The older Peugeots, for example (my old Peugeot 405 estate) ran on 100% veggie oil bought in bulk from a supermarket for a fraction of the price of diesel, and in summer, ran like a dream, even getting more MPG than on straight diesel. The 406 had a hissy fit and refused to perform though. My current thirsty Chrysler grand voyager, also runs happily on veggie oil and I manage to get more than the usual measly 25mpg out of her on veggie oil.
Personally have driven petrol and diesel vehicles over the last 30 odd years, I’d go for diesel every time.
I’m wondering if there might also be more VW campervans available in their country or origin?