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Buying a LHD car


Kodge
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My wife and I will soon be moving to the Auvergne, and we were wondering if anyone has any thoughts on whether we should buy a LHD car in the UK or wait until we get to France; to be honest comparable RHD cars seem much cheaper, is this the case?
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This subject has come up again and again.  If you do a search you'll find lots of opinions.

IMO,:

You'll pay less in the UK for a comparable RHD model but you'll have to sit on the wrong side of the car (not great for overtaking) which some people - like my o/h - don't seem to mind too much.

You will pay more here but on the upside you'll get more when you sell. 

You can buy LHD in the UK from some specialist dealers and may get a better deal than on the other side of the "Sleeve". 

The importing process is a bit bureaucratic but do-able if you have patience and a basic working knowledge of the French language.  The more powerful your car - the more it will cost you.  Check how much the change to LHD headlights will cost for the model you want.  If new, you'll have to pay the difference between the UK and French TVA (VAT).

Buying in other EU countries (Belgium and Holland seem to be popular) can be a better option but again, you need to be prepared to do a bit of admin'.

I have friends (she's English, he's Francophone Tunisian) and they go to the UK for all their cars (most recently an 18-month old Beemer) because they'd rather pay less for a better car and put up with the fact that the steering wheel is on the wrong side.

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One thing that you may want to give consideration to is how often, if at all, you intend to take the car back to the UK.

With the traffic situation these days it is much easier and comparatively safer to drive a RHD car in France than it is to drive a LHD in the UK

 

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I'm not sure that I would totally agree with the second paragraph above, but probably the best deal is to buy RHD in France, where they are virtually worthless (though some people seem to be catching on). If you definitely want LHD, and I wouldn't blame you if you did, then search the 'for sale' ads on certain Anglophone forums, many users there seem out of touch with French life and apply English prices to used vehicles.

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[quote user="Moulin85"]

With the traffic situation these days it is much easier and comparatively safer to drive a RHD car in France than it is to drive a LHD in the UK

[/quote]

I disagree - I have just returned to the UK for the first time with a lhd, and within 5 minutes had forgotten I was in a lhd and driving as I would with a rhd.  Only two (minor) problems - needing to feed the Dartfrd tunnel from the wrong side of the car, and entering motorways etc, when I had to check via the rear side window for surety - but I have to do that in France too.

This was on all sorts of roads, country, motorway, those I knew and those I did not. 

In fact, when arriving at the Dartford tunnel at what seemed to be a busy time (I had thought lunchtime would not be!) I found having a foreign registered car useful, as I was "let in" when other cars would not have been, and the nice man at Dartford, took the money out of my outstretched hand, and threw it in for me.  (On the way back I used an  extension - a colander with a handle which I'd bought (not specially) which gave me all the length I needed!)

In my experience, once you have got used to a car, you should be able to drive it on either side of the road.  I even found overtaking on country roads in the UK ok, just needed to go out a bit further out to see, but sit well enough back and you can see pretty well. with enough time to retreat if necessary.  Oh, and I didn't just go to London, but all the way to Yorkshire - 3500km in all, so I tested the car quite well in the UK, I can assure you.

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Just because everyone on forums says that a RHD car is worthless in France doesnt necessarily make it so, cheaper than a LHD yes but then they are cheaper to buy,

I reckon that when selling after a few years if you factor in the depreciation and also the money tied up in the initial purchase then RHD makes more sense economically speaking if you dont mind the driving position.

The internet means that you are not stuck trying to sell a vehicle to te local rural populace and that many French people realise how much cheaper and more attactive a UK regiustered RHD version of the car they want is to them.

I have been stopped on more than one occasion by people asking me how to go about registering a RHD car in France, they know the prices in England and to them it is worth the inconvenience, if RHD cars really were worthless then they would be saying "when you need to get rid of that worthless car I will take it off your hands" or "do you know any other English wanting to get rid of their worthless cars"

Take a look at some of the comments on French motoring forums, usually started by someone linking to a car for sale on Autotrader etc and you will see just how high the interest and desire is, I have a friend who is a petrol head, he has a search registered on Ebay.fr for RHD vehicles, those that tempt him he bids on, most go for more than what he wants to pay but he has won a couple.

I argue that he has paid more than I could have found him te same car for in the UK but he says that it avoids the significant costs of going over to buy the car and/or being dissapointed if it isn't ups to his expectations and that as he only tools around in them for a few months until he gets bored he usually  makes a profit when reselling them, hence his conservative bidding.

We first met when he bought my friends (RHD) Westfield after seeing us at the Licques hillclimb, he paid too much, my (UK) friend was delighted but Jean_Marc later sold it for nearly double through a French car magazine, bought a coron in my village, tarted it up and sold that for E60,000

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I (and my wife) drove LHD cars for years in UK with no problems whatsoever, there were, in fact, certain situations where it was an advantage . Similarly we drove a RHD car around Europe, again no problems. The only real problem experienced with a RHD Zafira in France was a result of the very thick 'A' pillars and restricted visibility because of being on the wrong side of the car. That of course was a car design issue not a RHD car issue per se.

It did colour our perceptions somewhat and resulted in our buying a LHD car in France, for considerably more money than the RHD equivalent ex UK.[:(]

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Don’t want to start an argument here; my comment was based on personal experience.

I am happy driving our UK car in France but our LHD French run around is easier in traffic or around town, especially solo.

On the occasions I have driven LHD in the UK I have found the problems are far worse; generally due to increased traffic density and the propensity for delivery wagons to stop dead in front of you with no warning. (Yes I know they do this everywhere but it seams to happen more frequently in the UK.)

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I was a frequent driver of RHD cars in France and Belgium in the 1990s - my biggest problem was getting out of hotel car parks!  At my regular place in Antwerp I ended up reversing out of the car park so I could exit before the barrier came down again.  Péage booths presented a similar problem since my car was too wide to reach across to grab a ticket or make payment.  My wife was found to be a good solution to this issue.......though expensive in other departments!
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I have one of those rubbish picker upper pincer thingies, it is a folding model that I can slide under my seat, I bought it in French medical supply shop.

With practice it will even work on auto tolls, I dont use cash at peages only my card.

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Hi Kodge, for what its worth , when I came to live in France I went along to Citroen London West (just off the Chiswick Flyover) and spoke to the Sales Manager Mark Zeola, not only did he take my rhd vehicle in part exchange but he also ordered me a brand new lhd citroen picassa to French standard complete with certification, also he let me take advantage of the current discount deals that where available at the time so I paid no more than a normal deal in the UK, The whole process took ten weeks from signing the order to me fdriving the new car home, all I had to do when I arrived in France was to register the new car at the local prefecture which got me a set of french plates, no hassle at all.
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