babinfamily Posted October 28, 2005 Share Posted October 28, 2005 has anyone taken a vehicle from the u.s. to france? how much is the customs duty? how much will it cost to have our odometer converted? is it mandatory to have this conversion done? we are moving to france at the beginning of january and need to have specific information so that we can decide whether or n ot to take our car. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 You may have horrendous problems with a foreign car. I would suggest for a clear-cut answer to this,you contact the prefecture in the dept where you will be living for the EXACT requirements as just importing vehicles from the UK to France can be bad enough with all the paperwork involved. Personally I would ditch it and buy a french vehicle especially if you ever need repairs doing and the parts are not available in europe, probably cost more than the vehicle is worth to have the work done. You will also pay through the nose to get insurance too on anything not recognised here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayB Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 [quote]has anyone taken a vehicle from the u.s. to france? how much is the customs duty? how much will it cost to have our odometer converted? is it mandatory to have this conversion done? we are moving to f...[/quote]Val 2's advice is good. A lot depends on the make and year of the car. I would suggest you contact the closest French Consul and American Embassy for into as well. If your car has a big V-8, gas will cost you a fortune (currently about $6.00/Gal.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Val_2 Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Good point Ray which I forgot about, the current cost of running vehicles here compared to the low cost of petrol inthe USA. Also a large engine may incurr extra costs like a vignette to cover the pollution levels if it does not conform to european norms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayB Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 [quote]Good point Ray which I forgot about, the current cost of running vehicles here compared to the low cost of petrol inthe USA. Also a large engine may incurr extra costs like a vignette to cover the pol...[/quote]Don't really know. If it comes from California, they have the lowest emission laws in the world AFAIK. If the make and model is one that is sold here in France there should be no problem. For instance, we have a Japanese car and when we moved here from the UK all it took was a 15 minute visit at DRIRE and we were out of there with 'the stamp'! Had bill of sale for car and that settled tax. We had to change the headlights for the CT and that was it. Tres simple! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 Brought a 2000 Toyota Corolla from San Diego, California. Nightmare !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No, getting it here was absolutely nothing. Paid 990 U.S. dollars for it to be shipped to France. Went to the port to get it, had the shipping documents with me. You are allowed one custom free shipment of goods (including a car) without duty charged. I already knew this, had my document (quite detailed) of every single item of furniture we would be receiving seperately (required by customs in order to state that the car was only PART of our shipment). Customs stamped my furniture document and charged no duty on the receiving of the car. I think there was some sort of fee to pick it up, but it was minimal.Once the car is here, that is when you troubles begin. The process was so long and awful, it is too detailed to put here in the forum. I could not obtain insurance for the car as it had not been registered with the DRIRE. Registering with the DRIRE required all kinds of inspections and documentation from Toyota FRANCe - what a nightmare. Toyota France was like dealing with a block of cement. Every document costing something - 90 Euros here, 100 there, inspections by Toyota garages. In the end, it took us 2 years !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had to buy a car here in order to drive legally. Once the tags on on your vehicle, you will not have any trouble getting insurance, however, as stated, you may have trouble getting service or parts, depending upon your model of car - and whether it is sold here in France.I would not recommend it. It simply isn't worth it. We bought a new Renault Kangoo for 14,900 Euros with all the nice equipment on it. Insurance is quite reasonable and we are very happy. Loan was for 3 years and no problem to obtain.Up to you, but there is no way in #(*$#* I would do it again.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jc Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 California the severest emissions-well they were at one time but that was a long time ago.I was responsible for certifying cars in all countries outside Canada & North America.There were cars that would pass Californian and fail European levels and vice-versa just because the two levels of testing bore little relation to each other.The American testing concentrated on NOX and the Europe/UN based testing on CO & HC.There has been talk on commonization but when that will happen,who knows? European St. IV(V-still to come)is as severe as anywhere in the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RayB Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 [quote]California the severest emissions-well they were at one time but that was a long time ago.I was responsible for certifying cars in all countries outside Canada & North America.There were cars th...[/quote]Very interesting! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpprh Posted October 29, 2005 Share Posted October 29, 2005 HiIt is worth searching the forum history about this. I've previously posted several replies.Try searching on "Washy" and "US car" "COC" "certificate of conformity" "carte grise" etcUS/Japanese/EU/Australian spec are very different. Contact the manufacturers importer in France to see if they will issue a certificate of conformity. If they say no, I'd give up !I've got some notes about the procedure here : http://www.the-languedoc-page.com/expat/expat-foyer-legislation.htmPeter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babinfamily Posted October 29, 2005 Author Share Posted October 29, 2005 we have a 2005 hyundai elantra. does anyone have specific information about this car? is there a manufacturer in france? or do i have to contact the manufacturer in korea? we would just sell the car, but because we just bought it and still owe quite a bit we are deciding between the worse of two evils. i think it's going to cost us a lot of money either way, but we are just trying to decide which way will play the most in our favor. thanks for the information that has been posted thus far. it has been helpful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpprh Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 The importer is : Automobiles Hyundai France1, Avenue du FiefZA Les BéthunesSaint Ouen l'AumôneBP 47995005 CERGY PONTOISE CEDEX Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babinfamily Posted October 30, 2005 Author Share Posted October 30, 2005 [quote]The importer is : Automobiles Hyundai France 1, Avenue du Fief ZA Les Béthunes You wouldn't happen to have a phone number for them, would you? I need to call them tomorrow. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mpprh Posted October 30, 2005 Share Posted October 30, 2005 HiI guess this could be your starting point of contact :Service Relations Clientèles Hyundai au 01 34 30 60 60 Bonne chance Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumGirl Posted November 1, 2005 Share Posted November 1, 2005 [quote]has anyone taken a vehicle from the u.s. to france? how much is the customs duty? how much will it cost to have our odometer converted? is it mandatory to have this conversion done? we are moving to f...[/quote]We brought our 2003 Toyota Echo over from Los Angeles earlier this year. It fit into the container with our household goods, so the total cost for bringing it was $600, the cost of a 40 foot versus a 20 foot container.We paid no customs duty on it or our belongings, however as we are both dual nationals, we were considered to be repatriating, therefore our situation is probably a bit different than yours.The only problem we had, was that when the car was unloaded from the container, the license plates were gone. We assumed, after searching everywhere in the car for them, that they had been removed by U.S. customs. After a badly mistaken attempt to drive it with no plates (don't try this at home), we did wind up getting temporary plates from the Prefecture de Police. These have a WW on them and made the car legal to drive while going through the Drire process.We were able to get insured through Groupama, even before the car got here, with no problem whatsoever, based on the valuation of the car from our purchase records.Drire has been slow, but not their fault. We needed changes that have amounted to about 230€ in cost. The only thing we're still waiting for is a document from Toyota regarding the seatbelts. Unfortunately, only one of them has a label on it stating that it's EC compliant. Stupid really.The changes it needed were all minor and our local mechanic was able to carry them out in less than a day.Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
babinfamily Posted November 1, 2005 Author Share Posted November 1, 2005 [quote]We brought our 2003 Toyota Echo over from Los Angeles earlier this year. It fit into the container with our household goods, so the total cost for bringing it was $600, the cost of a 40 foot versus a...[/quote]what shipping company did you use for you car and household goods? my husband has been quoted $2500 to ship our things!my husband is french so would he also qualify for the duty exemption? what does he need to do for this?your experience gives me hope, but we are trying to get as informed as possible before we leave so that we can plan financially and avoid unpleasant surprises.we still may decide not to take our vehicle depending on what information we gather, but if you could help me out with the the two above questions, that would really help. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PossumGirl Posted November 2, 2005 Share Posted November 2, 2005 [quote]what shipping company did you use for you car and household goods? my husband has been quoted $2500 to ship our things! my husband is french so would he also qualify for the duty exemption? what does...[/quote]If your husband is French, this should apply to him as well. We were registered at the local consulate in L.A. Before leaving, we went in to be officially taken off the books and they gave us a letter saying that we were no longer living in L.A. and were, in fact, repatriating. That letter has proved astonishingly useful for all sorts of administrative things. Everything we've done administration-wise since moving has gone smoothly and without the least incident.As to the shipping company, we used Rinkins International. We paid a lot more than $2500, however, they packed EVERYTHING in the most amazing way. Rinkins was the only company we found that would give us a definite price, based on container size instead of giving us an "approximation" then charging on the basis of weight. We had 300 boxes of books to ship, so weight would have killed us. Seriously!Don't hesitate to write to me privately if there are any specific questions I can answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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