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Disposing of UK vehicle


jeffster
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Hi, just joined but have been reading these pages for a while.

We've moved to France, we came over with a UK Renault Clio, the MOT is about to run out and taxed to the end of April.

I would prefer to dispose of the car here, is this possible, if so how?  The alternative is a 600 mile round trip to dispose of the car in the UK which I'd like to avoid or pass the car onto someone with a UK address.

Any advice would be welcome, it seems to be a situation I've not seen covered.

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Take it to a breaker and send the log-book back to the DVLA with the breaker's name and address filled in in the appropriate section.You should then get a letter from acknoledging this.
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If you could give some more details of the car such as age, condition and price etc. maybe somone might be interested in buying it to take back to UK but you need to be quick, certainly before the tax runs out. MOT is not such a problem.

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Scrap yards, criminals and large oil covered Rotties what are you trying to say tut tut. Next you will be saying

park it up near to a Gypsy campsite and watch it disappear from under your very eyes.  Now hush my lips.  No

offence to any Minority or Ethnic group meant or intended. !!!!    

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Hey that's got me thinking!

Trouble is when the gypsies come to stay here each summer, (and there are hundreds of them, thousands if you count the encampments at the nearby large towns) they always leave the terrain spotless as if they had never been there.

The locals do seem to be on guard but so far nothing has gone walkies and I certainly have not felt intimidated when meeting groups of them as in the UK.

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Hi there,

There is NO problem having a british reg vehicle disposed of . The scrap yard are not interested in the country of origin of a piece of scrap metal!

Our local "Ferrailleur" comes and collects from us, takes the vehicle for disposal and then provides us with a copy of an official form (the original of which he has sent to the Prefecture with all the relevant details on it.

We then send it along with the tax book to the DVLA.

No hassle, no cost!

Aly

 

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"We then send it along with the tax book to the DVLA."

This is all OK if the vehicle is legally in France and not SORN'd in the UK like a lot of them are[Www]

 To be quite honest take it to any local garage or scrap yard and dispose of it there, the French are really not interested if it is UK registered or not, if there are good parts on it they will take it.

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[quote user="ErnieY"]

If you could give some more details of the car such as age, condition and price etc. maybe somone might be interested in buying it to take back to UK but you need to be quick, certainly before the tax runs out. MOT is not such a problem.

[/quote]Hi and thanks for all your replies, the question was prompted when I spoke to someone who runs a car business here and he said it was illegal to dispose of a car, which I thought surprising. Later when I wrote the original post I found a local scrapyard and they confirmed they could take the car.

Anyway the car is a 1997 Renault Clio, 1.9 diesel, 94000 miles on the clock, metallic grey, was serviced in November and the MOT is due this month and the tax at the end of April.  Having seen the price of similar cars here in Normandy it would be nice to get some money back, the car is in good condition. So I'm open to offers.

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Hi, quite interested in this subject, I have 3 Ford Escorts ,1 Citroen Visa and a Renault 5 which need getting rid of(long story), in the UK the system is that if you present them on a trailer they are accepted with all fluids,weighed and then  they are lifted off the trailer by a mechanical crane and then you get some dosh, at the moment the going rate is very good because of the international scrap price of steel and is £60 to £80 depending upon the size of the vehicle, does anyone know if money is given in France? I live about 7 miles from Civray (Vienne) does anyone know of a local 'Ferrailleur'? A running R Clio in France with RHD will attract very little interest (believe me, I've tried this one) because of the difficulty of a Control Technique, as its necessary to change the headlights at the very least, without a new CT you cannot legally sell it to a French citizen (in our department, it may be different in yours), best bet is to sell it to a Uk resident returning sans vehicle! Another related subject is (this seems to apply to a lot of us) that if your current UK mot runs out you are technically driving uninsured, no excuses, the only solution is to obtain a CT before returning home(see headlamp problem above)this can be done on the UK plates and involves not a lot, if the tax runs out whilst you are away from the UK then its less of a problem, and although you may be 'camera'd' in the UK on your return, a quick trip to the mot station will resolve the lack of tax and although technically you are driving without tax, if you tax the car pdq there is no loss of revenue to the exchequer (THE STALIN) and therefore you are unlikely to be chased for there being no difference, even in the worst case scenario that you are, its a sixty pound civil fine, which,(and I've done this more than once) if you explain your circumstances and stand firm, is absolutely avoided (depends upon how much you value £60!), Clio LHD headlights are two a penny and can be purchased from any French breaker at a reasonable price. Regards, Sam

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The car should pass the CT with UK headlamps.  The Tester will just note that they are not LHD type.  I know, I've done it.  You will be expected to have them replaced before the next CT, but you get 2 years to do it.

If you were in Limousin, I'd take the car off your hands for 200 €.  The diesel engine alone is worth more than that.

Have you seen the price of 2nd hand cars in France?  Occasion is the term used and boy, do they have inflated ideas of what they are worth.  I'm trying to locate a good 15yr old 4x4 (Nissan Patrol or Toyota Landcruiser), the UK  is awash with them, and many bargains to be had.  In France, no, nothing worth looking at under 5000 € !!

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If your Clio is a UK registered car, then no-one will buy it here because being foreign registered, it's not legal for driving in France, CT or not.  You'd need to formally import it and register it here and even if you were prepared to stand the costs of doing so, you'd be looking for some Brit to buy it, because a French person just wouldn't be interested in a car with the steering wheel on the wrong side.

 

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I saw a Uk reg Range Rover in Montignac the other day. Just happened to look at the tax disc - it was dated 2005! Talk about bucking the system. If I see it again I'll take a couple of photos and send them to the DVLA, not that they will do anything.

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[quote user="Bob T"]I saw a Uk reg Range Rover in Montignac the other day. Just happened to look at the tax disc - it was dated 2005! Talk about bucking the system. If I see it again I'll take a couple of photos and send them to the DVLA, not that they will do anything.

[/quote]

and check out the small airport car parks that serve the UK.  They are full of  UK cars, RFLs expired and no CT / French  insurance papers on the screen. Left there I guess by numb skulls who have a holiday home in  France.  Its disgusting and I'd fully support the French authorities in disposing of these cars.   Gives the Brits a bad name I think. 

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I have a LHD car that is registered in France, and totally legal. If it was RHD it would be worth 8K (euros) but the best offer so far is for 1-200 euros :(

That's not funny! Looks like i'm stuck with it until I run it into the ground and get the same in scrap value :(

Might take me a while as it was new in 2000 ...
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[quote user="morristhousand"] the only solution is to obtain a CT before returning home(see headlamp problem above)this can be done on the UK plates and involves not a lot,

Regards, Sam
[/quote]

After I checked with our insurance broker here in France, she is English so no misunderstandings. I was told that if your car is on  U.K. plates then a CT is not valid. It MUST have the test of the country that it is registered in, i.e. an MOT. Sure the CT bloke will take your money, just like the French insurance company. But if your car is not legally drivable in the U.K. and is on U.K. plates??????? I like to sleep at nights.

Bob T if you are going to take photos of illegal U.K. plated cars make sure that you have a LOT of memory in your camera! I just hope that if I have an accident because of one of these illegal cars that their insurance do not do a runner. I would be slightly upset if that occured!

The suggestion to sell it to a French student sounds good. A pair of left hooker headlights from a scrappies, re-registered to French plates, CT and then sell it. Or sell it for 200€ to the person who's interested in the engine???

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Now I am getting very confused.

When people say LHD do they mean wheel on the left or car designed to drive on the left hand side of the road?

The earlier posting about a LHD car being worth less in France got me confused.

My UK car that I re-registered here I call LHD whereas I think French friends describe it as "roule a droite" just to add more confusion[:)]

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It's a subject which is fair done to death but my personal understanding is that, apart from a grace period of 1 month from the point of becoming resident in France, a car must be totally French, CT, Insurance and plates, period. There can be no long term "mix and match".

Referring to another thread discussing the BBC2 programme which claimed 2/3 of Brits go back to UK within 3 years,

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/907438/ShowPost.aspx

I imagine that a fair few of these returnees would quite likely still be on UK plates so I wonder what mechanism they employ to get their cars back across the pond, creep in on the midnight boat then skulk off into the night praying an ANPR camera doesn't get them ?

I doubt that PC Plod who pulls them will be too impressed by a vehicle which "disappeared" x years ago suddenly "reappearing" sporting a very out of date RFL, no MOT and a topped off (perhaps) with a worthless French insurance document.

To J.R. I can't understand how LHD can possibly confuse....[blink]

LHD = you are sitting on the Left Hand side of the car whilst Driving. If it really does confuse you try thinking Left Hand Door or Right Hand Door instead referring to the door you get into to drive [;-)]

 

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