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Car and caravan, where best to buy? UK or France?


Aussie
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Morning all! Hubby and I are planning to move to France as son as we sell our property in Australia. We both have UK and Aussie passports so that is not too hard. We both also have relatives in UK, and will go there first, flying into London and probably hiring a car to travel round. We then plan to travel round France, really checking out each area before we decide where we want to live. We thought the easiest way to do that would be to buy a car ()that we can keep) and a caravan that we can sell when we settle.

So do we.

1. buy car and caravan in France, if so where and what (be mindful that we have been in Aus some time and don't know the brands over there). Our French speaking is not great yet and I am not really confident in buying a second hand car, even in English

2. Buy a car in UK, do our travelling in UK and then ferry it over to France and buy caravan there (will electrics etc match?) And if so where. Advantage of that would be that we don't have to hire a car to travel in UK and we do understand English! Disadvantage is that we would have steering wheel on wrong side, and would have to take it back to UK to sell eventually.

3. Buy both car and caravan in UK and ferry them both over.

4. Forget the caravan idea and stay in gites/similar???

Appreciate any advice, thanks.

 

 

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Others will add their comments but mine are:

1. Cars seem to be expensive in France. The advantage is that it will be French registered, wheel on the right side and you can keep it long term. French caravans have the door on the correct side but my understanding is that French equipment levels can be less than UK ones. Perhaps buying a secondhand car is a lottery wherever you buy but perhaps more protection from a main dealer.

2. There are two electric systems, the 13pin system that was not common in UK but in about 2009 became the norm on caravans and the 2 7 pin sockets before that. You can buy converters to go from 2x 7 pin to 13 pin and vice versa. More modern UK cars will have 13 pin electrics or a decent auto electrician could rewire for the socket. So, if you buy a UK car with 2 x 7pin sockets get a converter or rewire.

3. Perhaps more your decision.

4. Depends upon length of stay but caravan site fees will be less than rent plus you have an asset in the caravan.

Best of luck
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Just a thought. I can't answer the other questions for you, as many (IMO) are a matter of personal finances/preferences, but if you end up visiting France out of season, a lot of caravan sites will be closed. You're more likely to find available and reasonably priced gites out of season.

If you plan to come in summer, it'll be less of a problem. However, many will agree that if you're planning a long-term future in France, you're going to learn a lot more about what it's really like if you visit out of season, because it's significantly different in winter to the France you will see in the summer months.

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[quote user="Boiling a frog"]A small but important point. You will not have a French address so will be unable to register the car or the caravan

[/quote]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that people have been able to use temporary accommodation addresses for registration ("proved" with an attestation sur l'honneur). The traveller community does something similar, doesn't it?

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Some neighbours (also from 0z) lease a car for the 3 or 4 months they are here.  They tell me it's cheaper than hiring.

They do, however, have a French address as they bought a house last year.

I think it's less hassle with a gite.  You can drive around the different areas that interest you, have a temporary base in a gite for a period of time, scout round the places, get a feel for the attractiveness or otherwise of the area, pick the brains of the gite owners and people you meet.  Need not be too expensive if you are going to do it in the winter as you have been advised to do.

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I did wonder about registering a car in France without having a permanent address. If that is impossible then I guess it answers my question. I can have an address in England as my father lives there and we may well use his home as a base.
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When I first bought a vehicle in France I too didn't have a permanent address (in fact no French address at all), but I had a friend who was happy to let me use his address instead. That was quite a while back (15 years or so) and there may be more checks now.

I've seen people say that re-registering a UK caravan in France can be quite a chore (it probably depends on its age). You might be best buying the caravan in the UK and then taking it back there to sell.

I have both LHD and RHD vehicles, and obviously the LHD option is preferable when driving in France. On the other hand (see what I did there?) if you're used to the location of the gear-shift in a RHD car, and when driving with a caravan you don't mind overtaking a lot less often than you might otherwise, RHD might be a good short-term answer. RHD cars do seem to be quite a bit cheaper in the UK compared to their French LHD equivalents.

It's easy enough to re-register cars in France provided they are mainstream models and not something exotic (try asking here first before buying), but there is a cost: you'll need to change the headlights, and this can add quite a bit depending on the model. It's another thing to check before you buy the car.

Good luck with the move!

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  • 5 weeks later...
Hey mate,

we are doing the exact same thing. (also Ex australia although Saffa orginally)

After lots of research and thinking we decided a car + caravan gave us the options.

We purchased a LHD vehicle & Caravan in the UK - much more choice, value for money due to larger more active market and yes its in english.. (kind of ) :)

we have used the car & caravan here a little - the LHD no issue and we are hitting the ferry in 3 weeks....

bon jourmey!

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I can't comment on some aspects of your query, but I would advise you to get both in either the UK or in France, not one in each.

My parents have a French car (in France) and a UK car (that they ocasionally drive down to France in, usually full of Tescos Finest and B&Q paint!). The insurance for their French car would only allow them to tow something of up to a certain weight (a small trailer tent possibly) with the same license plate as the car. Beyond that weight, the towed vehicle was required to have it's own separate registration (and plates). The loophole they fell into was that they wanted to tow their UK camper / trailer which was over the weight limit, with their French car. In order to register the trailer, it first had to be 'validated' by an approved centre in France. The dossier to be submitted had to include various documents, including a 'certificat de confirmité' that the original manufacturer of the trailer had never heard of! In the end, despite many attempts, and my husbands near fluent French and years of experience dealing with French bureacracy, they gave up - it was just too difficult! So they towed it all the way back to the UK. and bought a smaller camper that could just have the same plates as their French car.

All this could have been avoided if they had been able to just use their UK car to drive a UK trailer. As a pp has said, caravans and trailers in the UK are not required to have a separate registration, and the UK insurance rules reflect this. So tourists can happily tow big caravans all the way from England, as long as they are driving a car that is registered in the UK.

Alternatively they could have bought a trailer / caravan here in France to tow, which would presumably have already been registered here in France. But the cost of that was prohibitive compared to purchasing one in the UK.

As an aside, I can see what you want to do and why: I'm concerned that your Aussie 'lets just do it!' spirit is going to be battered into submission by French bureacracy and conservatism!
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Thanks chocolatefish, that makes perfect sense. As we plan to travel a  tad in UK first I think we may just buy both there.

And yes your last point is taken on board. We live in an area of NSW that is so overregulated and governed BS that it drives  us mad. I am aware that France may be worse and I am wondering how to manage that. May need to start booze...

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