C of C Required

[catflem]

Hi All

Advice urgently sought to legalise an ancient Vauxhall Calibra in France.

I've been quoted 120e from Opel France for a C of C, what a rip off for a sheet of paper !, there must be a cheaper way.

Before shelling out this ridiculous amount I though I'd put the old girl (1990) through a C.T. to see how she got on, she did rather well having only failed on one tyre and a bit of brake adjustment.  The problem is the tyre is an Avon (205/55/15 V rated) for which I'm being quoted silly prices - I believe that in France the tyres on vehicles of this age must match on the same axle hence they've got me over a barrel.  However, I've seen Non E.U. manufactured tyres advertised on the net for less than half the price that I'm being quoted for the Avon, therefore my train of thought is that I might as well buy 2 new Non E.U. Tyres (Nankang - Korean).  My dilemma is that I seem to remember reading somewhere on the 100's of pages of advice that a Brit new to France wades through that you need a c of c for any tyres manufactured outside of the E.U.

Can anyone shed some light on this

Cheers

Lee  

P.S. Our even older Reliant Scimitar (1970) sailed through the C.T., the ironic thing is she's fitted with 4 Dunlops.  I don't believe vehicles of this age have to have any matching tyres at all !.

[Mpprh]

[quote]Hi All Advice urgently sought to legalise an ancient Vauxhall Calibra in France. I've been quoted 120e from Opel France for a C of C, what a rip off for a sheet of paper !, there must be a cheaper w...[/quote]

Hi

Euro 120 is about the going rate. In fact, for a vehicle that old, I'd grab it while you can !

Peter

 

[Nick Trollope]

You could go to your local DRIRE for an Certificate - 68-ish€. Tend to take a long time, but it only a matter of filling in a form, and sending it back with your V5 (in theory, ha ha).

 

[Ron Avery]

I'm with Peter, pay up and grab the letter, once DRIRE get their hands on your car you might be looking at a lot more than 120€ for work that THEY think needs to be done to conform to French standards and every DRIRE and every tester has its own standards

I know used cars are dear here compared to the UK but if you are going to drive a lot, leave your car in the UK and get a LHD, they are much much safer, although others will say that they have no problems with a RHD, that is only if you never overtake or have a co-driver that you really trust

As for the tyres, well you do have to have matching tyres on the same axle, this is for safety reasons not because it appeals to French chic  You could have look around breakers or your local garage, there are normally lots of scrappers about due to French driving standards and Les Anglais avec l'ancien RHD bangers

[P]

In the UK you could well have problems with differing tyes on the same axle as they will have different characteristics. In the case of an accident, the police may well cite it as a contributory factor and insurance companies may reduce any payout.

In addition, do you wish to place a tyre of unknown quality on a car and suffer the consequences of anything going wrong or place a recognised and respected make of tyre on the car, ensuring equal performance from both sides.

Personally, I would replace both as one worn and one new tyre will have different characterstics, iei water clearing.

[catflem]

Many thanks for the advice received thus far.

I should have made things clearer in my original posting, alas I was summoned away for my supper and rather rushed my plea for info.

I've no objections against having matching tyres on the same axle, hence why our Scimitar has 4 matching tyres and the Calibra has 2 sets of 2 matching tyres.  My problem stems solely from the fact that Avon tyres are difficult to locate and are twice the price they were in the UK (I live in the Morvan - Dept 58, so it's a little bit remote).  I now live on a budget so shelling out 125euro for one tyre of a middling make is going to be painful, especially as the good tyre on that axle will most likely have to be replaced within the next year or so - hence why I am considering changing both tyres to a cheaper easily obtained alternative.

Nankang tyres are fairly well known and respected, I have read tyre ratings on various websites and they stand comparison with the big name manufacturers - buying a named brand is not always a guarantee of quality, Bridgestone/Firestone and Michelin have had spectacular tyre failures of late.  The problem is that Nankang tyres are made in Korea, I vaguely remember reading somewhere that in France tyres manufactured outside the E.U. need a certificate of Conformity, can anybody confirm that this is indeed so.  Unfortunately the web supplier does not supply a c of c with their tyres - hence my dilemma as to whether or not I should buy them. I do not want to throw good money after bad by buying "good" tyres that are not legal purely for the fact that the web supplier does not supply a C of C.

Whilst I also appreciate that paying 120euros to Opel for a cof c is the going rate doesn't anybody else consider it a blatant rip off that you have to pay this amount of money for a sheet of paper from a European manufacturer, for a car manufactured in Europe just to prove that the car they built was manufactured to European standards.

Where's me Valium

Regards to all 

Lee

 

 

 

 

 

     

[Ron Avery]

Lee

 Yes it is a rip off, but you have no choice if you want to get legal and the French know it, I paid Renault France 104€ for a C deC for a Twingo built in France and sent to Germany for registration, how much more French than a Twingo can you get. The good thing is that modern cars now have an EU wide certificate in the handbook, so now getting a cde c is only necessary for older cards,  pre 1998 I think, now.

Have look round the tyre dealers and in the free papers, you often get a discount on two tyres bought at the same time.

[Mpprh]

Hi

and I paid FF650, say Euro 100, for a Peugeot 406 in 1999, despite having a CoC (OK, it was in Swedish !).

Peter

 

[P]

Ah but just because a car is built in a certain country, export models will not always comply with the rules of the country of build. A US version is likely to have many changes to comply with US regulations - a reason why some manufacturers avoid that continent.

[Iceni]

Recommend following procedure

1. Go to yr Prefecture, with UK logbook, tell them you wish to re-reg and they will give you a list of docs that they need

2. IF one of the docs is a DRIRE cert then visit DRIRE for a list of docs that they need.

3. Info on this forum shows different interpretation of the rules in different depts so the experience of others may not be relevant

FWIW our 97 Mist Wagen needed a DRIRE cert which cost about €67 - whereas manufacturer had quoted £55 for a C of C which I did not need but would have bought if I had not first visited Prefecture etc.

John

not