Buy a Renault Trafic here, and build a relationship with your local garage. I had a trafic for years and I loved it.
Chatente
Thanks for all the replies. I still had difficulty working out the tax even with the puissance calculator.
But sortedā¦ i think the T6 is 150 = the CV number 9 fore the calculator.
So for tax i will enter 9cv assuming i get a 2l 150 engine euro 6.
Result!
I ws getting ridiculous answers because i was putting in engine size, not power.
NOT a language barrier as I speak excellent French but just me entering wrong numbersā¦
9 makes much more sense .
It gives me import tax of 467. Much more what I expected. Assuming I get the conversion passed with all certificates of conformity before I import.
So next question guys!!! Can i get French plates and insurance before I drive from uk to France???
Thanks. My friend (local to me in hautes alpes)has one and loves it.
Main problem with price is the terrible exchange rate which i donāt see improving this year.
and campervan conversion issuesā¦
Id have to go back to full time teaching 
I do know my local garages.
But for bigger purchase i would have to go to grenoble or marseille. Maybe gapā¦
I will investigate it in September. Thanks for the recommendation.
No - you need to be a French resident to register the car, the process of registering will take a couple of weeks to jump through all the hoops.
I should be a resident by the time i get the van sortedā¦
I will be coming back to uk to buy itā¦ sort conversionā¦ drive it homeā¦
Declaring residency 17 July.
Get an MOT in UK prior to buying as you can use it to both check the vehicle and also during French registration.
You will need to go to local tax office in France to a Quitus Fiscal.
You can get French car insurance on a UK car for a limited time - speak to @fabien
Once you have all the relevant documents you can apply for the Carte Gris - or simpler pay Mark Rimmer to do it for you.
Once you get the Carte Gris you can arrange the number plates and change the French insurance policy to the new reg no.
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Earlier in this thread I posted this website to use to find the power for tax purposes
The power in Kw and the emission figure in grams are on your UK registration document.
As you have entered 9 thatās probably correct.
Thanks Michael! Thatās the one I used!
I was putting the engine size in by mistake instead of the horse power.
But laughed when I realised.
Not using locals Mat 
Yes Sarah, if you have a French address and the vehice is less that four years old you can register it in France without it actually bing here. The only reason to have it here is for the CT. Last year I drove a car which Iād just bought in the UK but didnāt intend to keep here, yet I wanted a French registration (donāt ask) back to register it. Duh! A wasted couple of thousand klics but at least it
was fun to drive.
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Thatās a new one on me and good news. I wasnāt aware a foreign test could negate the need for a CT at registration time. Are you sure? A CT will fail a vehicle with LHD headlights, for example.
Good. I thought that wluld be possible.
I am going to hope my skoda makes it through a ct without too much pain, plate that first then drive back to UK in autumn,
pre book van conversion in uk, register and insure in France then drive over to collect new platesā¦
Only hurdle then is the motorhome conversionā¦
It will have to be basic to afford itā¦
Only question there though is that it would be exempt as under 3 years for ct or mot ā¦
Also will need basic conversion doing b4 registrationā¦
I am having enough language problems as it is!
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I thought so long as MOT is less than 6 months old you can use it for the registration. Once MOT done get the headlights swapped.
All EU roadworthyness certificates less than six months old can be used to register a vehicle in France. The problem with an MOT is that it only lasts a year at the most. Iām surprised you are asking about having the headlamps as you have recently imported a car less than four years old that did not need a roadworthyness test and therefore didnāt have its lights tested either.
The BIG problem with registering a car on French plates before itās in a France is that the Quittance Fiscal is only issued for an imported car. When it was issued by the local tax office you could risk them not asking to see the car but itās now the responsibility of the Douanes and they might not be so trusting.
Is this a very recent change? We used the tax office in January/Feb this year.
Itās either changed or is in the process of changing.
Youāre right BUT 6 months is the theory. In practice the certificate has to be valid when itās processed by the French public worker and there is often an important delta between the date you sent them the file and the day they process it (a couple weeks usually but could be more although I can never exceed 4 weeks). If the certificate is more than 6 months when they process it (even if it was still valid when the file was sent to them) itās an automatic denial of the file so better consider 5 months rather than 6ā¦ as this is the trend nowadays, stay safe 
Hi Matt, do you have Markās details or know where I can get in touch?