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reregister uk camping car


blacklab
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Has anyone reregistered a uk camping car RECENTLY. Yesterday I went along for the CT, so far so good. I had already contacted mercedes UK for a certificate of conformity which they insisted was not available for a UK reg vehicle and issued a certificate of compliance accepted by the CT garage no problem.

The prefecture in Angers would not accept this and sent me to a merc garage who want to inspect the vehicle,despite the CT, send forms to mercedes France to issue a coc and charge me 150 euro!!!!

This will take EIGHT WEEKS TO SEND!!!

I am at the banging my head against the wall stage, please will someone advise.

Thank you
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I cannot believe your good luck, in fact that is the understatement of this new century, if you get this vehicle French registered without a manufacturers COC by a garage inspection followed by Mercedes creating a COC and do it all for only €150 and 8 weeks wait then you are either the luckiest man on earth or done of us is dreaming.

I know this is a bit harsh for a new member but you asked for advice, mine would be to bash your head a little harder against the wall, I wont even go into the grief that would normally await you registering a motor caravan without a COC suffice to say that you should thank your Llcky stars if this comes off.

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I am not a new member I have had to reregister on the site as password does not work. I did reregister a car years ago without a coc with one trip to the ct station and one trip to

the prefecture with NO problem.

I would appreciate a reply offering advice from a recent rereg , as requested.

The vehicle is a 2009 sprinter based Autosleepers conversion.

Thank you
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Not sure what advice you're hoping for as every case like this will be unique not least of all because of the disparate reactions of individual prefectures ?

Unsure also why you think that your experience with a car 'years ago' would bear any relevance to what you are trying to do today ?

Even today commercial vehicles will rarely if ever have EU wide approval which in turn means that EU CoC's are not available for them and the best you are likely to get is a territorial or partial one which will not fully cut the mustard in France.

Given that then it should come as no surprise at all to find that hybrid campers built on such base vehicles will fall outside even that and therefore prove even more problematic.

That you even got it through a CT without a proper CoC is a aberration but if there is any banging of heads on walls in frustration to be done then let it not be at the prefecture but at your own self for failing to do the necessary homework before buying the vehicle !

You only needed to come here and ask [blink]

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I have to agree with Chancer that 150€ done and dusted seems too good to be true, and 8 weeks will pass in... well, 8 weeks.

I have a classic Merc Hymer UK reg motorhome, about ten years ago I started I trying on and off to find a simple way to register but I gave up. It lives in Wales from Oct to April, I bring it over for the summer (yes I know, a French resident etc but it's a rare vehicle, I've owned it for over 20 years, it's my pride and joy and I'm not going to part with it), and in a few years it'll be old enough to be a voiture de collection and I'm hoping that will open up an easier route. If anyone had offered me all the paperwork I needed for 150€ or even far more than that, I would have bitten their hand off.
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I will take a guess and say that the 150 euro fee and inspection by Mercedes will be for a certificate of PARTIAL conformity and will only cover the base vehicle....ie cab and chassis. You will then have the usual camper rigmarole of getting certificates from the coachbuilder who made the camper conversion, electrical inspection, gas inspection etc etc.

You need to clarify this, as its all a massive pain in the balls and if your 150 fee covers it all and is certain to get you a French Carte Gris, then grab that offer and do not let go until you have the papers in your hand.

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Mercedes Uk did give me a certificate of COMPLIANCE, which does seem to cover what the coc covers. The prefecture pointed out three areas on another coc which as far as I can make out are missing from the v5 but are covered on my cert. The cert of compliance does state that the base vehicle is compliant with eu directives.

So there has been no mention of the conversion yet but I do have paperwork from the converters covering gas etc.
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I recently registered a Bailey Approach Autograph 740. Built in 2014 and imported to France in 2016. No inspection needed as first CT is not due till 4 years old.

Certificate of conformity (relating to base Peugeot vehicle ) and CNIT certificate relating to motor home build both supplied by Bailey.

Carte gris from prefecture at St Lo was a one visit affair.
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I think you may be labouring under some misconceptions.

Being compliant with EU directives is not what it's about, they simply (simply ???) lay down the design and construction rules by which a vehicle should be manufactured however before being placed on sale it must still gain approval which is done by independent testing, including a crash test, which in turn awards it the all important Certificate of Conformity, the proof that it complies with the directives in other words.

Note that on top of a basic CoC individual member states may also impose their own additional requirements which although likely to be only be minor would produce a new CoC, one only fully valid in that state, and an entirely different number only relevant in that state.

Vans and other commercial vehicles typically will fall into that category, your base UK Sprinter included never mind the camper conversion which is an entirely different subject.

The crucial item I'm sure you're missing then is a valid CoC number which, despite all the forms and rigmarole, is really all the prefecture need because punching that into their computer will immediately retrieve the matching CoC on which will be every scrap of information they require to process the registration, absent that number there is nothing they can do and your only option then is a trip to the DREAL for an individual inspection but with no guarantee that they will approve it without potentially expensive modifications. Think of that as analogous to the SVA (Single Vehicle Approval) that things like kit cars and heavily modified vehicles have to go through in UK in order to get them registered.

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Hi

I think your biggest problem is the caravan doors open on the wrong side of the road and gas fittings and replacing the head lights

I suggest you flog it in the UK no one in Europe is going to buy it later with a French registration and buy a registered Left hand drive vehicle its difficult enough driving one let alone on the wrong side of the road
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Yes I was pretty sure that its recieved wisdom AKA rubbish that is so often repeated that people end up believing it and repeating it themselves, I have seen plenty fo camping cars and caravanes with French matriculation with the door on the (continental) road side.
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[quote user="AnOther"]I'm amazed anybody still believes that door on the wrong side nonsense, I would have to surmise that they are probably the same feeble minded folk who fall for 419 scams and phishing emails which the vast majority can spot from 500 paces !

[/quote]

So I am feeble minded but managed to live in France for 20 years and still short of 2 years of retirement get a life AnOther and do don't insult others you do not know

I would like to meet you in real life and have a man to man slagging
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OK Grumpy was wrong about the doors but his other comments were spot on IMHO.

Absolutely no need for such vitriolic comments - a quick reference to the requirements would have been sufficient, together with any personal experience.

My personal experience is from the other road users point - keep well away!

A colleague of mine once spent lots of money on a brand new one and sold it after just one year - got fed up with having to pack and unpack everything when moving from place to place.

I suppose the response to that is to get a small car and tow that. My response is why not just have a caravan them.

I always think that caravanning is a bit of a matcho thing though - mine is bigger and has more gadgets than yours.
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" got fed up with having to pack and unpack everything when moving from place to place"

I'm baffled by that - one of the great things about a motorhome is that there is no packing or unpacking to do (as long as you keep stuff tidy), when you want to move on you just turn off the gas, shut the roof and windows if they were open, unhook from the electric if you were hooked up but mostly I don't, and off you go.

I think the colleague in question must have not understood quite what a motorhome is for...
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I think it was more about when they were on a site and needed transport locally they had to use the van and hence lost their place as well as ensuring everything, including awning, was packed and stowed away properly.

It may well be that they were not as tidy as some.
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What a strange chap. We had our camping car for 14 years here in France. We spent a very small amount of time in camp sites, mostly wild camping, cliff tops, beaches, forests, all over France. Never a problem, always safe ( did not do this in Spain). A bike on the back if you needed to stay in place and go shopping. Mostly the 4 of us and it was not a big camper. Sold it last year, had over 30 emails within 60 mins of putting it on line.

The only time we have had such an interesting life having a "snail shell" was the 3 years we lived and worked from a 50 foot narrow boat in the UK.
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If his idea of a holiday is campsites for a week here and a fortnight there, then a motorhome was the wrong thing to buy in the first place. That's what caravans are for. Motorhomes are for touring, staying in the same place two or three nights max. And as Lehaut says you can put a bike on the back if you want to explore the area further than you can walk, or to go fetch your croissants in the morning.

Over the course of a month I typically stop off at at maybe 15-20 different places, staying mainly on communal aires or wild camping (a few euros a night or free), and I book a night at a campsite maybe once a week for the luxury of spending ages in a bigger shower, using the washing machine and suchlike. Part of the fun is the amazing places you can stay overnight, just you and the beautiful scenery.

Having said that, it doesn't work so well in the south, the communes have signs up at all the nicest spots banning camping cars and they try to make you go to campsites all the time.
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richard51, there are thousands of aires in France. You can get books (in English) which list them all, showing location and costs ( if any ). Many villages and most towns also have aires de service which are basically places to dump waste water. empty chemical toilets, top up with drinking water and recharge batteries. The latter two functions obviously cost.
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Last year's guide to camping car stopovers lists around 6,950 places in France where motorhomes can officially stay overnight. Most of them are communal aires, a few of them are campsites that offer special deals for motorhomes to stay one night and use the services. Beyond that, as long as there is no local byelaw, which if there is you see it on signs as you enter a commune, you can stop for the night anywhere you like, within normal parking restrictions obviously, but you're not supposed to "camp" as in putting your awning out or lighting a barbecue outside the van or that kind of thing.

That's the difference between motorhomes and caravans. Caravans are expected to use campsites, motorhomes aren't. But the motorhome culture doesn't really exist in the UK.
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