I think you might be better off just buying your 'old' car here in France. My 1988 Renault 21 GTD cost me €700 when I bought it 6 years ago and it's still going strong. Paperwork was a doddle: French car, French papers, French address. Why complicate things?
.....Whereupon everybody will want to talk about CG's. Funny old place here innit?;-)
Hi Vic, All useful stuff. I think I'll be flying off to sunny Essex next week to pick up a 2004 LR Disco, so my next issue will be getting lights to get it through a CT...
Rob,I know you didn't but I was talking about CT's to my mate on the other side of the dinner table:-)
;-)
Top man Andrew. Many thanks. I was beginning to think I'd asked a question about CT!
Cost of carte grise also depends on Departement where you live. Can't say why, maybe it is related to how much they spend on maintaining their local roads?
Andrew's link explains all........
the bonus/malus only applies when buying a new car. What you pay for the carte grise depends on the CV (chevaux fiscaux) or put simply the power of the car. See here for more info ;-)
I had my CT just before Christmas. Went in with trepidation. Got some comments about my brakes but a pass. My OH did hers in January. It has parts missing, tyres were past passing according to her garage when she had a service a month earlier, two lights were not working and her handbrake was slack. Passed with no comments!
Make what you all will of that. CT seems to make people sweat for a few moments, fails appear to be picked out of a hat (fourth one in today fails, then the twelth, etc...) and when you see some of the cars with a two year's worth sticker in all but held together by sellotape...
Nice one! Ours is still sitting quietly in the garage so maybe one day. Certainly did us proud coming over here. Good to know re the CT!
I have not long put my aged 806 through the CT. It failed the first time as unbeknown to me the exhaust system rear box had become detached & the emission test could not be done (no it didn't make any extra noise, don't know why it was needed ) Anyway I had a new box fitted & represented it. The Boss tester connected up his machine, revved it up & down as instructed by said machine & declared a pass. When I asked if he had many failures he shrugged & said "they always pass" :-) By the way Dave, on a recent trip to Orkney & back it recorded 5.2 l/100 km over about 3000km.( 56mpg) Not bad for a big old gall.
Not sure about the whole thing Rob but if you pick up an 11 year old gas guzzler it may not have the emissions certification which (I BELIEVE) newer cars do. This you have to get from the manufacturer and some (well one to be fair i.e Volvo in France) want an up front fee (in our case in 2009 it was 300 or so euros) to "consider" whether to issue a certificate but won't tell you up front whether the car will pass.
Also, I don't know how the french Contrôle Technique compares with the UK MOT but I've heard (and again am happy to be corrected) that it's more stringent.