Ok, I have a humdinger of a problem.
I live in Toronto Ontario Canada. my business occasionally takes me to France. I have decided to purchase a motorcycle to keep in Lyon to use when I am there. The motorcycle I am buying is one I found on a website called Auto Scout 24. it is currently registered in Germany. It seems reasonable that there will be hoops that I have to jump through in order to register a German (registered) motorcycle in France, and more hoops yet for me to get it insured. I have many questions.
- how hard/expensive is it to register this bike in France?
- does it have to be insured first?
- There is something called "The International Motor Insurance Card, known as the green card, because it is green in colour, seems simple enough to get if I am bringing a motorcycle from Canada, however it does not seem to apply for a motorcycle purchased in the E.U.
- Can I drive it with my Ontario “M” Class (motorcycle) drivers license? or
- Will I have to get a French Motorcycle License?
- Any other information you can possibly offer would be helpful as I dont even know what I need to be asking.
Thank you in advance for the help.
Derek Birch.
It should be straightforward but… what is the bike? If it is new enough to have a European Certificate of Conformity and is either under 106 BHP, or over 106 BHP with ABS it will be OK. Too old or too powerful without ABS will cause problems. When buying vehicles in Germany for export it is usual to register them on ‘export plates’ which makes them easy to move to and register in another EU country. Another problem that you might encounter registering a bike in France is residency; if you are visiting on business will you be able to supply a utility bill or other proof of residence in your name? This could affect insuring the bike as well.
Regarding the licence this may help, https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1459
I’m fairly sure that to register a motorcycle in France you have to prove that you are licenced to ride it. It would be worth checking that that would be possible with a non-EU licence but I can’t imagine that it wouldn’t be.
On another forum last year there was a long running thread started by a New Zealander who wanted to buy and register a motorcycle in France to use on a six month tour of Europe but found too many obstacles in his path.
In general there are few hoops to jump through when buying a vehicle in one European country and registering it in another, your problems will be because you are a non resident (or non property owner) here.
Thank you David, that is very useful information.