Fiona, you say "..the car was registered in UK logbook to French address.." but this is not possible. Do you mean that the dealer wrote your French address in the New Keeper section?
Hi Elaine,
You may buy whatever you like from either the UK or France but do buy a car built for the EU market & not a "grey"import. You have ONE month to import a car by law but insurance companies & most authorities will allow up to 6 months grace.
Before registering a car here you will have to be a French resident, ie, you will need to supply a household bill or bank statement with your French address as proof. Importing a car which you have bought in the UK & has UK plates is straightforward if you follow the steps laid down by the French government website. If the car is more than 6 months old there is NO import tax to pay. Your costs will be for a certificate of European Conformity (still a government requirement although occasionally some have got away without), a pair of suitable headlights (do NOT buy from main dealer, try Ebay.fr), the cost of the CT if the car is more than 4 years old (like an MOT) & the registation fee which is the same whether the car is an import or a local car. This fee varies depending on age & size of engine etc.New number plates cost around 30 euros a pair but may not be necessary if you bought a french car whose last change of ownership was after 2009. With regard to the CT you may complete the registration process provided the CT was conducted within the last 6 months. You may also complete the process if the car failed the CT but you then have only 2 months to do this. You can continue to use the car during this time but you must have the car retested. If this is done within the 2 month window the retest is usually free, after this you have to pay in full again.
There are other bits of paper you will need but I wont bore you with those here!
As usual, the friendly, helpful, SFN'ers seem to have covered all the bases, I'd just like to add that, generally, second hand cars are MUCH cheaper in the UK. Speaking for myself, I have no problem driving a RHD car here in France and neither do most people I know; overtaking might be a tad more difficult sometimes but it can be offset by the advantage of seeing through the inside if the road curves to the right a bit - which it obviously does half the time.
It seems that you can often pay up to three times the price for an equivalent car over here than you can in the UK. It's a consideration. Worth doing comparative research: UK>French, on whichever models you're looking at.
One more point I've not seen mentioned is you will have to change your headlights on a UK car to pass CT over here. We went for second hand for both my van and my wife's laguna - no problem. Some models you can just change the lenses.
Brian the place I used had all my French home details, bills, documents etc. They contacted the car company for COC, gave me a wallet of documents for impot but at that time the car was registered in UK logbook to French address till I physcially changed it
I was a bit surprised about the buying registered/with French plates already. Cars are registered to people at fixed addresses where you need to live or work. I asked a friend who had an agricultural machine and vehicle hire company until four years ago whether he knew. He had a few Transit type vans he rented out which he sold on and said that only cars with the old black plates that are still on the road are exempt from re-registration but in all cases they must be registered by the prefecture and carry the department's number in the registration. If people move from one department to another they are obliged (although many do not bother) to re-register. Therefore, how a UK dealership can possibly sell a French registered car without all of the necessary components in place that include evidence of residence at the given address, one utility bill, showing a driving licence and even a passport or id card if demanded remains a mystery. That is one not to be trusted. Sure the cars already carry a number plate but that does not make the new owner the registered owner under present legislation. Beware of such offers.
Its not an obsession it's just that French parts are much cheaper when you need to get work done on the car. Depends on the model not the make, we have a Peugeot 5008 but wouldn't be given a 807, will buy a Ford Galaxy instead. Had a VW before, never again parts and servicing costs a fortune. Drove my brother Picasso for a couple of months, again, wouldn't have one given.
However, buying your car from the UK makes sense if you have to watch the pennies, not everyone has to. Our next van, which we actively looking for will be a Peugeot - from the UK- anyone got one for sale? Not fussy where the steering wheel is so long as it has one at the front!
Hi and welcome Elaine. Yes importing a car to France you will need a COC (certificate of European conformity) it does cost 150 euros and you get it from any main dealer of the make of car you have. Be aware it takes up to a month till they send it to you after you pay. This is required for all cars being imported to an EU member state and you need it before you can have the CC (control technique, French MOT) done. The CT in France lasts 2 years which is good and costs around 65 euros for the test. You then have a couple of weeks to have any repairs done if it fails or if not then you are handed you CT window sticker to proudly display! After this is done you must then go to the Prefecture with the COC, CT, Registration log book, proof of address and ID (passport). You have a couple of forms to complete and sign and then wait for the Carte Grise (French logbook) to arrive usually within a couple of weeks. You then go to a garage that makes number plates with your new Carte Grise and pay around 20 euros to have your French plates made and fitted…et voila you are done! I am currently selling my Renault Espace which is petrol with a gal gas conversion as Rossi says it’s too big for her to drive…even with parking sensors! It is newly CT’d and registered in France. Anyway, I know this is not a classified ads site but just to let you know as will be advertising it shortly.
Good luck and hope all goes smoothly for you.
Ralph, Rossi and Baby Harrison
I used LHD place in Basingstoke and they were excellent and much much cheaper than in France. Everything was done when I collected car bar exchanging plates, which was a short visit to prefecture a few weeks later. They also arranged French insurance so could drive off into France but was valid for short period in UK.
Also they gave AA value part exchange as you will get nothing for RHD car in France
Can i ask without being rude, why do you want a citroen?
They along with other French makes, Renault, Peugeot, don't particularly have a good reputation, They are also no cheaper to insure over here than other foreign makes.
We owned one of the Xsara picasso's briefly in the UK, and although it had plenty of space for kids and dogs and armchairs in the front, it wasn't the best drive, and the turning circle on it i remember as particularly poor. Can i suggest you get a free trial membership to 'Which' i have had a membership for many years and found it has saved us far more than it ever costs in subscriptions. At least that way you'll get an unbiased review of all makes.
If you are one of them people who is willing to go to the extreme to save a few quid then you can probably save a lot of money buying from abroad. Our current car however, we bought from the local garage in town, we take it there to be serviced and they are brilliant, often doing little things for free, because we bought it there and are local.
probably many points have already been covered but to answer your question :
) you need a french address and proof of domicile (edf bill or similar) to register a car here.
Some well established LHD dealers in UK such as Chesham LHD, Heathrow LHD & The LHD Place can provide a car already with French registration but this reduces your choice as they will have cars from other countries also available.
Generally they are cheaper in UK than the equivalent model in France but there would obviously be a problem if work was needed to be done under warranty.
The JD Power annual reliability survey always shows French cars to be amongst the most unreliable compared to Japanese & German cars.
Whoever you buy from make sure the car has a full main dealer service history and as low a mileage as you can afford. One garage in France I was speaking to could not produce a service booklet but kept telling me the car had been owned by a Gendarme as though that would suffice!
In 2012 we dealt with a local Citroen main dealer & achieved a 4 year guarantee on a 4 year old Citroen C4- probably because the car trade generally is in the doldrums - so it pays to shop around.
Absolutely right about the proof of purchase, but I still think that you will have to register it locally. My VW Caddy cost nothing to register... .
Hi Elaine
I recently bought a VW Golf in Germany, in order to get it registered here in the south, I had to get a certificate from Volkswagen to say yes it is a VW 150 Euros later!! So if you are going to buy in UK, get the dealer to give you this certificate, also make sure you get a receipt for proof of payment. My German vendor didn't give me a proper one so now have issues.
Hope this helps a bit.
Brian.
Second hand cars in France are very expensive. I have bought two German made cars LHD in the UK. You have to go through a homogolation process (unless they are already registered in France) in France, but it is straightforward. The garage we bought from in the UK said that car dealers from France come to him because he is so much cheaper!
We have two garages we use, my OH one and I the other. Both say avoid Citroen and Opel (German) like the plague because the newer models of former fall apart too quickly and the latter, especially models like the Zafira, are terrible to maintain and spare parts not easily enough available in France. My OH has a Zafira :-(
Thank you sandy good to hear, whereabouts are you based?
Sandy and Sheelagh thank you both for sharing your experience/advice - so now I am on a hunt in the uk for a LHD Citroen C3 or C3 Picasso…and while we are chewing the cud over cars…Citroen…Renault…or Peugeot which is your preferred French car. My family talked me out of the 20 year old 2cv as totally impractical for a life in rural France but what an iconic vehicle!
Thank you pam, very useful advice, so much to consider.
You can certainly look for a LHD anywhere, when you buy a vehicle in France it is registered to you and given a registration number, even used cars are given a new registration number when you buy them. keep in mind also that you will have to pay to import the car when you register it here, the larger the engine or CO2 emissions, the larger the price. 4x4's are especially pricey. To give you an idea we paid about 550 euro's to register our Vauxhall Vectra in 2010. Used car prices are high here, a lot of people where we live (South West) buy cars from Spain. I've also been told that Romania is a lot cheaper, but it's a long way to go back if there's a problem, you have to think of future servicing etc, i won't say aftersales as that doesn't exist in France.
Thank you both Brian’s, so Brian M if I understand you re. French registration, I would need to get it registered in my name before driving in France or run a risk? So this would mean registering it to my home address and if I only have a uk address it will be registered as a uk car… If this is so then I can open up my search for a LHD from anywhere in Europe and simply register it in France when I have a home there. Have I got this right? And thank you Brian E for the compliment -)