I am hoping some one can shed some light on this for me. First off i am relocating from Uk to France and will bring my car with me. My removals company will not put it on the Inventory as they are not transporting it but i have been told that writing the vehicle details on the bottom of the inventory and putting in big letters “NOT ON LORRY” was sufficient for them and worked. Any thoughts?
Next, applied to VW France to get a CoC for my Tigaun 2011, sent a copy of my V5 and they have replied with this statement.
Quote: Hello,
I am following up on the request received today.
In order to obtain the registration certificate of the French vehicle, you must provide the European certificate of conformity. This vehicle is nationally approved and does not have European certificates of conformity.
We can provide you with an equivalent called an “identification certificate”, to do this we send you a questionnaire which will be completed and returned to us, accompanied by a photocopy of the foreign registration card as well as a payment of 150 € upon receipt we have a minimum of 5 weeks.
Following this, you will have to go through the DREAL (former mining department to have the vehicle approved in France).
In order to send you the questionnaire, can you give us your name, first name and postal address in order to send it to you. unquote.
Does anybody know if this is correct if so how difficult are the DREAL to deal with and is it expensive.
Welcome to the forum. When I first came to France with a caddy van I was advised that to obtain a certificate of conformity you need to email your name, address, contact telephone number, vehicle chassis number and a description as to why you require the certificate to type.approval@vwg.co.uk you will receive your coc for free and sent to you by post. I received one no problem, but then decided to sell my caddy in uk and buy a french car locally as the costs to change over car plates to french and deal with dreal to pay import taxes wasnt a cost saving to me in real terms.
A CofC is not required in every case: sometimes the UK registration document (V5C) contains enough information to keep them happy. It seems to depend on the whim of the individual inspector though, as I have known people with pretty much identical cars have different results
If you start the process through ANTS, they will tell you if you need to supply a CofC, and hills your application in the system until you can supply it.
Ask VW UK, as one should be available for a car of that age.
When you come to register it, there are a couple of good Facebook groups with people who are expert at registering UK cars and they’re worth using at a cost of about €50. Avoid the French agencies as they haven’t got a clue about UK imports.
They are, in one case, one and the same as he’s one of the admins on one of the main facebook groups that was actually created many years ago by a guy in our neck of the woods @_Brian. Pretty sure it’s called ‘Registering vehicles in France’ but it was via that group that I ‘met’ Mark, then I saw he was also here. I don’t like or do Facebook but the guy who founded the group sold me my house so I made a rare exception
pre brexit we imported 2 cars - 1) 2010 Volvo with CoC from Volvo UK. No problems whatsoever to register with the help of Mark Rimmer.
2) 1993 Saab 900 Classic convertible no CoC available (did not exist back then). Did the DREAL route, costs are roughly 90Euros. Once that was done again Mark Rimmer did the registration.
Don’t fall for the VW France spiel, contact Mark who will guide you through all the paperwork required to get your car registered.
Ooh, me too, but mine is a 1990 so qualified as a véhicule de collection and just needed an FFVE certificate. I’m taking this opportunity to add a gratuitous photo.
I’ve just disposed of my 2008 9-3. It was a lovely car but never felt like a real Saab. Too many GM sourced parts! Your 900 and JohnH 's photo are a reminder of what Saab could really do - although the scuttle shake in that era of convertibles nearly broke them!
ours is black - light pressure turbo. Unfortunately we didn’t bring the Canadian full turbo over to the UK.
Still a great car.
Will post photo soon as I find one…
Love the Saab, but it’s OH pride and joy and he only lets me loose ever so often.
Mind you he sold my Landrover 2A to make space for the Saab - I am entitled to a run
sometimes.
I brought my 1985 VW over and re-registered it in 95, no CoC required being a European made car, just the Impôts to take a copy of the registration document and give me a quittus fiscal to proove TVA already paid in UK. Les Mines (DREAL) was basically a visit to an approved garage where they checked chassis and number plates, did an inspection underneath via a very long inspection pit and then I had to do braking test. I expect it has changed greatly now since back then but deffo no paperwork required from VW. There are a lot of crooks about asking for payment for basically nothing and a friend who had a Toyota, made in the EU had to pay Ff1000 for paperwork and then found out not needed.
That’s all way out of date. Since around 2000 all cars sold in the EU (and still in the UK, I understand) have a certificate of conformity and that’s all that’s required.
Cars over 30 years old are collectors cars and need a FFVE certificate which requires submission of a couple of forms and some photographs.
The problem is those in between, i.e. 1993-2000 which need to follow the process you describe and may also need a manufacturer’s assessment of what needs to be changed to be compliant. That’s where the DREAL comes in, to confirm those changes have been made. Usually more trouble than it’s worth unless the car is special.
It was just my experience and the fact that VW were recognised as not needing to supply any sort of paperwork to re register in France. At that time, AGF the insurers in France paid for new headlights, not a cheap thing considering the vehicle was not an ordinary family car.
Hi, I presume your Tiguan was sold new in the UK by VW UK? In 2013 I imported a new Tiguan I’d bought from Alan Day Export sales and the CoC came with it. All new cars should be delivered with CoC which should be passed on to the next owners with all the other paperwork. I traded ours in for the new model in 2017 for but I tend to keep paperwork so here’s copy of the CoC. If yours is a 170BHP diesel, as mine was, all I think all I’d do if I was you is change the chassis number on my one. If it’s a different motor then I’d apply to VW UK for a replacement CoC. Not VW France, all that DREAL stuff is bunkum for a bog standard car, which I presume yours is.
The amusing thing is that diesel Tiguans of that vintage didn’t conform at all. Mine and many other VW diesels are part of a class action against VW in the UK.
That’s a very kind offer, how ever mine is just 140 and bought it second hand 5 years ago. There is no CoC with it but i do have that E1 at the beginning of my type approval number which i understand means it conforms to EU standards.
Trying to contact VW UK is errrr! not easy all they want is to sell you a car. LOL I shall keep on trying i’ll get there i n the end.
I shall have a look at your Certificate John and see what can be done. Thanks again.
Its normally the vehicle type thats missing on the V5, think its sections D1, D2 from memory. If your V5 has these, you probably won’t need the CoC. BTW, I’ve reregistered a VW in France before and I had to get the CoC from VW France
