Not necessarily, at least in my experience.
In 2016 we sold our UK french registered Ford Cmax here for 2000 euros when the same car was selling in the UK for around £1000.
In 2020 we sold our our 15 year old UK french registered transit van here also for 2000 euros when in the UK they were selling for little more than scrap value.
Both purchasers preferred a RHD vehicle.
Having said that I think Brexit has changed the situation in that fewer backwards and forwards residents/maison secondaire people want to keep a RHD vehicle here due to the cost of re-registering and the diminishing number of RHD cars that are still around.
The big problem 10 years later was that they were not a class of vehicle that was sold in France and a lot brought in the U.K. we’re actually grey imports to the U.K. from Japan. Their plight was a regular topic on Anglo Info.
Re-registering a vehicle that has already been registered in the U.K. isn’t much of a problem but it has to be done online and a British resident cannot drive the vehicle until the registration is complete. It used to be so easy in the old days when you could stop at the vehicle licensing office in Maidstone and it was all done and dusted in five minutes. The vehicle normally keeps its original U.K. registration. The only time that doesn’t happen is if the original has been sold by the DVLA.
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I seem to recall in an earlier post how much I charged for sympathetic encouragement and I replied Free. So here is what might be some help www.gary-automobiles.com. English company in France that buys RHD vehicles and deals with all the paper work, believe it or not it was mentioned on this site back in 2014. They still exist and do rather favour you trading in your vehicle but never the less worth a email. No charge:wink:
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I thought the DVLA only sold “never issued” plates.
Thank you, very helpful – that counts as more than sympathetic encouragement 
Yet again I’m writing from experience not a rule book. I have re-registered several vehicles in the U.K. and they were all before the local Vehicle Licencing Offices were closed. Each time the paperwork stated that the original registration number would be re-issued unless that number had been re-allocated. The numbers were only re-allocated if they were sold. Neither I nor anybody else that I knew in the same situation had a car issued with anything but the original numberplates. I am presuming that the system hasn’t changed. If you have had a different experience please share it.
It’s really quite a faff. You need to get a NOVA declaration from HMRC to confirm that all necessary duties and taxes have been paid (even if 0) and typically that needs to be done by an agent. You then need to get insurance on the VIN, which very few companies provide and probably difficult as a non-resident. You need to get it MOTd on the VIN and then send your application to DVLA (on paper, not online) doing with proof of your UK address. After a couple of weeks (if you’re lucky) you’ll get a new V5c and a replacement MOT with the actual registration number rather than the VIN.
Then you can sell it and the fun starts. Because there will be a big gap in the HPI history, hardly anyone will touch it as they don’t know what’s happened to it over the last few years and you’re likely to be stuck with webuyanycar as your buyer of last resort.
I didn’t say I had a different experience.
And what I said does not contradict your observations.
I *have* bought a personalised plate from the DVLA and the info on the DVLA site states:
Which is what I said.
The problem with that is evident here, yes there were a few jokey remarks but there has been also some good advice given. If only PMs were allowed many who are not interested in buying, but might have useful advice, may not be heard.
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Thank you. Not being a personal numberplate sort of person I have never seen that.
I am sure it is but as it might be save thousands of pounds on some cars some people might be willing to do it. It’s worth pointing out the reality of doing so. Thank you for explaining the details.
And may I suggest you let us know how get along, it might be useful to others.
33 (0) 4 74 438 951.
33 (0) 684 850 461 phone English and French spoken…Gary not me
Thanks – he responded very quickly but said it would be difficult and expensive to get it back onto U.K. plates, although if I were interested in a part-exchange it might be worth it.
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It was a birthday present from my wife, nothing fancy - the cheapest on offer from the DVLA and not, technically, a “dateless” plate but clearly nothing to do with the actual age of the car which has the interesting and useful side effect that I didn’t suddenly become disappointed to not have a “new” registration plate after 6 months.
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Having read the thread on the difficulty’s of importing used cars from the UK and perused other sites the French have been closing all the loopholes, as an aside a friend has just spent the best part of 6 months getting a very low mileage Jaguar bought in the UK for £1500 registered here, basically its all ford Mondeo running gear but all leather and wood interier,its nice,4,700 euros it has cost him! and the reverse is getting that way, very soon a additional tax on used cars bought through a dealer is coming into effect in France , it will be based on the weight and the emissions it runs into thousands on a expensive car, food for thought!.
My Golf missed out on having VW as the final two letters on its registration by about 200 registrations. If I had gone to the prefecture after lunch I might have had one myself. There was an error on the Carte Gris that went unnoticed until the car’s next service. The chassis number on Volkswagens of that era started WVW it had been recorded as WWW. It’s being traded in tomorrow. 
This?
I’ve always liked licence plates that referred to the car rather than the owner.
But never cheap, no matter how mundane the motor.
Mind you, we’ve so far had four cars in France and I’ve been unable to remember any of their numbers, so maybe there’s something to be said for personalised plates.
Follow-up - despite having had a childhood interest in car registrations (as I’m sure many others did too) It’s only just struck me, why use numbers when letters alone would give far more permutations.
As with many other things in life, I wait and hope for enlightenment…