Hello everybody, complete newby here looking for a little encouragement really, i’m starting to run out of steam with my UK car registration. It seems to be a never ending battle which i’m slowly losing.
Apologies for the long post, but it is what it is.
I’m currently staying near Limoges waiting for our house sale to complete.
I’m transfering a Vauxhall Zafira to France. Its a old car but is in beautiful condition with no issues and i’ve had it for over 10 years, and i just like it and want to keep it.
So far i have obtained the CoC and thats when i hit the first issue. The french authorities think my car is LHD, because of something on the CoC, i kid you not.
No where does it state on any piece of paper regarding this car does it clearly say whether its LHD or RHD, believe me i have checked everthing. Photos are ok but they want paperwork. The CoC says the ‘Drive is on the left’.
I’m not going to bore you with all the details, but a week later i have now been informed that they are happy that my car is now RHD ???
So now i have been told i have to have a DREAL test. I have all the paperwork to comply with this, so wasn’t to preturbed by this latest demand.
The car has passed customs and i have the 846A document, the car is Insured with a french insurance company which i was told is mandatory, but am a little sceptical of this.
So it appears i have to open a Demande de reception a Titre Lisole, and this will produce ( if sucessful) a Proces-Verbal de reception a titre isole.
As a extra piece of fun it was mentioned that the car may need a ’ Single Vehicle Approval Report’, what on earth that’s for i have no idea.
Next thing is i now have been told the car must have proper LHD headlights (not stickers) or it will not pass the technical DREAL inspection. So thats a right pain, but hopefully i can find some on ebay.
So that’s where i’m upto, i sometimes think i’m being led by the nose down a never ending road of pointless paperwork.
Having read other folks experiances it seems i am being put through the ringer, but maybe this is the process to be followed for 2023.
Sorry for boring you all, but just wanted to vent off a little.
Happy Days.
Thanks DCB
My suggestion is to contact this man who many of us have used over the years. Mark, if he takes it on, would likely argue with them on your behalf and tell them they don’t know their own policies, or at least that’s what he’s often done in the past. Given you’ve already started the process I don’t know whether he’d want to get involved, but he’s the man to ask having been doing this for many years for what may well be thousands of people at this point.
Sounds like the standard procedure which has been required for at least 20 years (to my personal knowledge) for certain vehicles … apart from the headlight stickers waiver/thingy which is more recent…
While the documentation might seem onerous… it’s all actually quite straight forward… if you take it step by step.
DREAL have been very helpful and friendly in the past…
and even if the examiner (with whom we’ve had several dealings) has now retired, I see no reason to suppose any new bod will be less so.
If you feel unable to do the necessary yourself… as others have suggested… contact Mark Rimmer. He has successfully helped many folk on this forum.
(EDIT: Apologies @DCB61 … I should have started with… Welcome to the Forum 
)
Bienvenue en France 
The whole thing about CoCs having the statement about left hand traffic seems to be a bit hit and miss, with some suggesting to cancel the application and then apply again as it’s the luck of the draw with whoever picks up the file.
I strongly second the recommendation for Mark Rimmer, he did 3 vehicles for me with no pain at all.
Until a few years ago it was a fairly straightforward process,all done at your local Préfécture.V5,COC, controle technique,proof of address,quittas fiscal,small fee,job done.As soon as it was all moved online with ANTS the problems started and it has been a complete disaster.You never had to have anything to do with DREAL thankfully.
If you have all of those things then ANTS is pretty straightforward too. Can’t really complain too much when the CoC explicitly states that it’s only valid for right hand drive countries.
Not quite the case… for certain vehicles DRIRE (as it was then ) or DREAL (which is what it became)… has been and still is … very necessary.
Thanks to you all for commenting, I’m not much of a paper work person, so I find it hard to fill out forms etc, and my French isn’t up to speed either, but that’s my doing. I find it interesting to see what the DREAL inspection will do, are they looking for defects in the build quality of RHD cars. I would guess that the LHD models were built on the same production line as RHD models, but I could be completely wrong.
Anyhow I will plough on and thanks again for helping me, I shall endeavour to update when I can. Cheers everyone.
No - they are checking that the vehicle presented meets French regulations. For British sourced cars this generally involves the dip direction of headlights, field of view afforded by rear view mirrors etc…
Indeed they are…
The length of the inspection varies, depending on the vehicle and the official information already provided with it…
They check the technical requirements , safety and emissions etc to ensure the vehicle will be OK for French roads.
On one occasion (many years ago), when we were importing an “unknown” car-trailer, the DRIRE man even queried the tyres…
EDIT: we subsequently provided him with “official” details of these “unknown” tyres … and the dossier was passed… phew.
@DCB61 From personal experience, I can confirm that DREAL/DRIRE check LHDrive and RHDrive vehicles and all oddities, as well as car-trailers, horse-boxes… etc etc
I remember doing an emergency brake stop with the DRIRE inspectors back in the day, like doing the driving test again. They checked everything and had a huge pit long enough for coaches and big lorries where they went underneath and checked suspension, exhaust fittings and all that stuff. It was a dreaded but obligatory visit if your brought your UK car over back in the early 90’s plus the visit tothe Impôts to get the quitus fiscal first.
It was/is dreaded by folk from any country… including France…
but passing successfully through DREAL/DRIRE enables folk to use/drive an “oddity”… something which would otherwise be “verboten” and possibly wasting away in a barn/garage/overseas… whatever/wherever… and it covers old/classics as well as more modern…
Well I did very well back then because AGF paid to have both headlights changed to french spec at no cost to me and being VW it was quite easy for them to have done. I doubt any insurer would pay nowadays for a foreign registered car to have its lights changed if they needed to be.
They obviously wanted your business… which worked out very well for you…
If it is any consolation, importing a French bought and registered Renault 5 to Germany 34 years ago, had to go through a similar rigmarole with the TÜV, customs and local German prefecture.
Two return visits later, and we were finally “geprüft” and instructed to head to the prefecture and get the coveted number plate. Bringing the vehicle back to France 4 years later was even more kafkaesque…
Yes,i know in the past that certain vehicles needed to have an inspection at DREA,but the vast majority did not need this done.Can anyone explain why the original poster,s car which is a standard Vauxhall/Opel Zafira needs to have this inspection?Is this part of the post Brexit disaster or something else?
Since Brexit, if the car’s CoC mentions ‘driving on the left’ then DREAL take a look.
It appears that since Brexit all UK RHD cars have now somehow developed possible issues not previously noticed before Brexit 
But at 90 euro a pop, its easy money. Actually i would think the amount of bureaucracy thats probably involved, i imagine the fees wouldn’t cover their costs. Not sure where i got the 90 euro from, but i read it somewhere i’m sure.
Thanks all.
Actually, I’m not sure that “all” UK RHD cars are thus tainted
It would be interesting to find out how many folk have needed to use DREAL since 1st January 2020… and why.
We’ve not had 'em exactly clamouring here on the forum…