selling a car in france

[heidi h]

I want to sell my one year old french car and was wondering if anyone could help with some questions -

Where is the best place to advertise, I am near Carcassonne. Does France have an automart type magazine?

Is it worth taking it to a second hand dealer?

If someone agrees to buy, is it like in the uk where you can really only accept a bankers draft type cheque?

What paperwork will I need to fill out and give to new owner/mairie?

Anyone with any info or experience please let me know. Thanks

[Clair]

Recent threads on selling a car in France:

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/959999/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/981295/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/946374/ShowPost.aspx

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/946092/ShowPost.aspx

[Bones]

Hi Heidi.

If you take the car to a second hand dealer he'll offer you the trade price; which isn't going to be a massive amount.

What kind of car is it? (I'm near Carcassonne too - can keep my eye out).

[Ron Avery]

If you take the car to a second hand dealer he'll offer you the trade price;

That may be so in the UK , but I think in France you can sell the car at the price you want through the dealer and he takes a commission, maybe different in big towns though.

[terry1956]

Hi, try e-bay.fr. they have an sellers offer on at the moment. You may have some luck. I sold my UK regt truimph trophy for a good price. michael

[Will]

You need to make sure the funds are cleared before releasing the car, just as in Britain.

You need to get hold of a certificat de situation administrative, also known as a certificat de non-gage. You can get that from the internet or from your prefecture. This shows there are no outstanding problems (theft, finance or unpaid fines etc) associated with the vehicle. You also fill out a certificate de cession, in triplicate, one for you, one for the prefecture. You write on the carte grise that the vehicle has been sold, date it and sign it - and that's about it as far as paperwork is concerned. If you need to cancel the insurance then your insurer will probably want a letter from you with a copy of the certificat de cession and the insurance certificate.

Clair's links above will tell you more about the certificates.

There are French regional websites in English which allow individuals to advertise things for sale to the local English-speaking community; these can work quite well too.

[Bones]

[quote user="Ron Avery"]

If you take the car to a second hand dealer he'll offer you the trade price;

That may be so in the UK , but I think in France you can sell the car at the price you want through the dealer and he takes a commission, maybe different in big towns though.

[/quote]

Now you mention it Ron, there is a depot vente for vehicles around Carcassonne. Not sure of the name.

I'm also not that sure how well placed the depot vente is for selling a 1 year old car - french tend to hang on to theirs, and cars still under warranty are pretty rare finds.

Depends on the vehicle I suppose.

[heidi h]

Thanks for all the replies. I have been back in UK for the weekend so have not been online. The car is a diesel fiat punto. Also someone sent me a PM but I could not reply from the link as it kept saying the thread had been deleted! Anyway will have a look at some of the options suggested. Many thanks.

[Will]

Don't dismiss dealers. Small 'village garage' type dealers do quite a good trade in second hand vehicles; they may sell on commission, like Ron says, or they may buy-in stock. Because of the way the French used car market works - mostly private cars, fleet or company cars are rarer (and are often sourced from Belgium or similar) - there is a good market for newer second hand cars, particularly diesels with low kilometres. Private owners tend to hang on to cars for longer than in Britain so newish used cars are comparatively rare. Local dealers normally buy from auctions with some trade-ins. So if your expectation is based on trade price, which the dealer would pay at auction and is probaly rather higher than British trade price (eBay France prices give a good indication, but still don't anticipate forecourt or classified ad prices) selling to a dealer can be a hassle-free way of doing it. If you are doing a part exchange you will probably get a better price - our local garage tends to offer the Argus price on a part exchange deal.

[heidi h]

Heidi here again

I still can't seem to reply to the person sending me PM requesting more info about the car. Every time I try a message comes up saying the thread has been deleted which it quite plainly hasn't. I know we are not allowed to advertise but I thought a private chat about a car via e-mail was okay. Am I wrong? Anyway am going to drive around a few dealers tomorrow and check out the prices.

[Will]

Reagrding replies to messages - are you by any chance trying to reply to the notification e-mail? That doesn't work.

You need to click on 'private messages' (at the top of the main forum index page when you are logged in). You will then get a list of messages you have received, click on the topic you want to read or reply to, then it should come up on your screen and you should be able to reply in the same way that you reply to forum messages. Apologies if you are doing this already, if you are and it is not working then I think you will have to contact admin.

[Audois]

I've sold two cars in the Carcassonne area, it's always worked by putting up an advert in the back of my car & various friends.

Should find someone.  A friend of mine did the same & sold to some Parisians who were on holiday down here