To register a car, does it actually have to PASS the ct?

[dave21478]

I always assumed that a car must pass the CT before being re-registered, but have recently been told it just has to sit the test, and can still be registered even if there is a contre-visit?

The chap gave the example of buying a wrecked classic car to restore - it could be trailered to the CT centre, where the chap would go through the motions, fail it on everything, and issue the form. The owner could then register it in their name and restore it at leisure. He reckoned the CT part of the registration process is more of a vehicle identity check rather than anything to do with roadworthyness.

Is this true? My latest acquisition has just failed the CT and being able to register it anyway would help me out a lot at the moment.

[Sunday Driver]

If your car has been tested and a certificate issued, then it has 'passed' the CT.  However, if the test has revealed important faults which require urgent attention, then the certificate is only valid for two months to allow you to carry out the necessary repairs and resubmit the car for a re-test .  The two months 'pass' certificate is sufficient for you to obtain your new carte grise.

Edit:  the process described by your friend with the classic 'wreck' was to obtain what was called a CT 'non-roulant'.  This option has now been discontinued.

 

[Chancer]

Well you live and learn, thanks to forums and people like Dave and SD.

[dave21478]

Brilliant. The new one failed the CT today due to the wrong size tyres fitted. (4x nearly new good quality tyres too [:@] ) so if I can register it anyway, I can use it for my trip back to UK and get some tyres while I am there. Annoyingly, the other car I recently picked up also has the wrong sized, but otherwise good, tyres so thats 8 4x4 tyres I need to buy. Ouch.

After the last farce with ordering them here in France, I will not be doing that again.

[Polly]

No longer being able to get a CT non-roulant is a nuisance, it means you can't re-register a non-running classic in your name until you have restored it. The CT man used to make a home visit, check the car was an X with the paperwork correct and off you went to the Préfecture.

Then when you'd got the wreck restored, you booked a CT at a quiet time, drove to the CT centre (ssh!) and got your CT and all was tickety-boo.

Article R322-6 du code de la route modifié par Décret n°2009-136 du 9 février 2009 - art.6  covers the current law on non-running vehicles.

[Chancer]

So can you simply just pay for a CT test every two months instead of forking out for the repairs on your vehicle?

Judging by what most French people I know fork over to garages every year just on routine servicing it coud be a real saving [:@]

[just john]

[quote user="Polly"] Article R322-6 du code de la route modifié par Décret n°2009-136 du 9 février 2009 - art.6  covers the current law on non-running vehicles. [/quote]

Could someone please explain what the law on non running vehicles is. I have a car I've not used for a couple of years where the CT expired a few months ago, I know this because I received some sort of reminder. I failed to persuade my insurance agent that the vehicle has not run and will not be running for a little while so did not need insuring, he insisted that I am obliged to reinsure it. In the UK as a third fun car it would be simply Sorned until I feel like getting round to it; so what am I required to do in France?[8-)]

[pachapapa]

Insure it and read the words on the CT reminder outlining the dire consequences that will befall you if you neglect to CT it.

The bit with severe sanctions, fine € 135, reduced to € 90 if you cough up quickly, if you dont then majoration € 760 and of course the carte grise is retained.

[just john]

Seems a bit harsh, are there no provisions for cars that will not pass CT and are not capable of being used?

[pachapapa]

[quote user="just john "]Seems a bit harsh, are there no provisions for cars that will not pass CT and are not capable of being used?[/quote]

Dont know, maybe a pair of scissors and cut the corner off the carte grise.[:)] I gave up with my Mk I Golf last year after doing the 2 months before the final trip to the casse.

[Polly]

From my reading of the law I quoted earlier it seems to me that if you want to keep a non-runner, or indeed any vehicle out of circulation, you make a déclaration to the Préfecture and return the Carte Grise to them. Then when you want to drive it again you ask for it to be re-registered. What the forms/format are for doing this I haven't a clue, and I don't know anybody who has done it. Maybe SD knows, or can correct me if I'm wrong?

[Jay]

[quote user="just john "]

[quote user="Polly"] Article R322-6 du code de la route modifié par Décret n°2009-136 du 9 février 2009 - art.6  covers the current law on non-running vehicles. [/quote]

Could someone please explain what the law on non running vehicles is. I have a car I've not used for a couple of years where the CT expired a few months ago, I know this because I received some sort of reminder. I failed to persuade my insurance agent that the vehicle has not run and will not be running for a little while so did not need insuring, he insisted that I am obliged to reinsure it. In the UK as a third fun car it would be simply Sorned until I feel like getting round to it; so what am I required to do in France?[8-)]

[/quote]

I had a similar problem when I took one of my cars off the road for 6 month. The insurance guy said because I still owned the car it had to be insured even if I kept it off the road. His argument was it could still be stolen/burnt or whatever but after we discussed for a while he agreed (exceptionally) to cancel the insurance until I wanted it again, so it can be done!

I suggest you tell them you have sold the car then go to another insurance company when you want to put it back on the road.

[Chancer]

The more savvy insurance agents will make an "exceptional commercial decision, just this once" if you stick to your guns and tell them firmly you wont pay and will if necessary move all your isurances elsewhere. 

Cuts no ice around here though, they know as long as everyone keeps playing the traditional Picard game of abusing every customer there will always be a new pigeon dis-satisfied with their old insurer coming through the door to replace the one walking out slamming the door behind them.

[dave21478]

I wouldnt worry about the whole de-registering thing. If a car is off the road for any length of time, just leave it. Yes, it should still be insured and no, most insurers will not want to cancel the policy, but have a browse round your local farmyard and ask the farmer if he has all the wrecked cars and trucks lying about the place covered in brambles insured still!

The current count chez Dave is 2 4x4's, 2 small vans and one big van all currently off the road. Only one of the vans is still insured, the others have all lapsed without being renewed. When (if) they go back on the road, I will insure them and drive to the CT station.Yes, driving to the station without the test might land me in bother if stopped, but the chances are pretty slim really.

If one really wanted to cancel an insurance policy for an unused car and one encountered a reluctant insurance agent, one could pretend to have sold the car. If one were asked to provide proof, one could fill out a certificate de cession in a random name and address, and lightly "bar" the carte gris with a pencil, take a photocopy and send this to the insurers.

If one were so inclined.

[PaulT]

So I take it that if you have a car in France that has been off the road so long that the CT has run out then you cannot drive it to the test station for a pre-arranged test (as per the UK) but would have to have it trailered?

Paul

[Polly]

Not without breaking the law.

[Chancer]

Back to the CT non roulant question.

I was talking to my pal about dragging my Lotus Elan out of storage, giving it a spiv up and selling it on, I had been keeping it with the intention of one day restoring it.

He tells me pretty much what has been posted, in his words the CT non roulant still exists but they no longer come out to you (how good must that have been!) you now trailer or drive it to the CT centre and will come out with a great long list of failures or could not test items because vehicle not running. So it could well now be a standard CT.

Anyway as has been discussed within two months one can register the vehicle with this certificate either as a classic or normal registration and as far as I can make out you can sell it within the next 6 months, not that that would prevent a sale but in my case I want her on French plates to sell so I am dead chuffed.

Having helped out each year at a rassemblement de voitures de collection I reckon after a couple of days of spivving my bagnole that has not been on the road since the early 80' and has not turned a wheel since 1998 will look every bit as good as most of the restored classics that I have seen, strange that we in the UK use the French word concours (d'elegance) to describe a restoration of the highest standard yet certainly in the Nord Pas de Calais/Picardie a restoration can mean no more than spreading some pug over newspaper and throwing a bucket of paint over the vehicle.

[powerdesal]

Chancer,

I realise that your posts of mixed English / French are either a method of educating us non-fluent peasants or a demonstration of your linguistic skills but either way the mixture can be quite confusing.

Could you possibly stick to one or other of the languages please.

[AnOther]

Actually I've been thinking the same for a while but was too polite to mention it [:D][:D][:D]

Honest !

[Chancer]

Sorry about that Steve, you are not the first to comment but I commend you on doing it politely.

Its neither for education nor showing off but about being able to type as I think without having to do a mental translation to English.

French is my first language now, I rarely speak English, I have spoken to my two sisters, my neighbour and an old friend in the UK only once this year, I often chat with a French speaking British Friend in the south, we are talking about the similar work we are undertaking, dealings with beaurocracy etc, we are each others sounding board, he is the only person now that I can speak to freely and easily without mental effort as we speak a much stronger form of Franglaise than I write on this forum.

I find writing on this forum much easier than speaking or writing to friends back in England, because I know up to a certain limit I can use French phrases or nouns, clearly I have gone beyond that, the problem is thinking and typing, with a business or personal letter in either English or French I do several drafts. In the first two paragraphs alone of this posting it manifested itself, I wanted to write your politesse but had to over-ride myself (if we were speaking in English here in France I know that is what I would have said) I wrote neither followed by nor which is not even the correct French way of expressing "not ......or" but a corruption.

Whilst I have lost the ability to communicate easily in my mother tongue on the other hand I have learned by osmosis many French phrases that I just do not know how to say in English, often there isnt a useable translation, after rarely using my English/French dictionary I now find that I use it more and more to find English equivalents to French phrases that I know and understand well where I would like to express the same concept in my mother tongue, last night I wrote "histoire de .........", I just dont know how to express that in English and a dictionary is better for words than phrases.

I will make an effort as I know your posting was done with good faith, the other persons method had the opposite effect.

For education, just this once! (I cannot see my posting)

Rassemblement de voitures de collection = classic car meet/gathering.

Contrôle technique non roulant = an MOT test for a non running or non roadworthy vehicle.

Bagnole = an old banger.

Spivving up, not French to my knowledge although I would love to now a French phrase for it, but car dealer talk.

Editted, our postings overlapped ANO, I appreciate your politeness and honesty. [:)]

[powerdesal]

Chancer, I must confess that I fully understood your English / French mix on this thread but I have, on other threads, had to resort to a dictionary on some occasions.