buying a car without an address (again.....)

[Katieb]

I realise this subject has been covered before, but we are unable to decide which route to take.........we will be moving to dept 53 (mayenne) in the next couple of months pending our house sale here in the UK. We realise it would be easier to sell out UK car whilst we are still living in this country but have now hit a stumbling block. As we have yet to find a rental accomodation we do not have a french residential address, would we still be able to buy a car from a french dealer/garage whilst on a 2 week inspection visit?(ie, bring it back to the UK for a month or so before returning to France). Would the car need re-registering each time we moved house even though it would be in the same department? Would anybody suggest hiring a car for a few weeks once we have moved over permanantly then look for one to purchase? Lastly, does anybody have an opinion on buying a french LHD car in the UK, there are several dealers offering this but obviously they may be more costly?

Sorry for so many questions, but we have a dilema and need some friendly advise.

Thankyou

Kate

[Will]

You could have a problem as you need evidence of an address, but there must be some way you can be SDF and have a car, just I don't know of it

If you stay in the same departement you don't need to re-register every time you move, but the carte grise has to be changed which can be a pain.

It may be worth looking at a UK-sourced LHD vehicle, though you will of course still need to register it in France after a few months. You should not have to pay any more than you would in France for a similar vehicle - it always used to be the case that you paid a lot less in Britain because LHDs were difficult or impossible to shift (like RHD in France) though with so many people moving overseas this has created a demand and there are several specialist dealers. You may do better looking locally to you for a part exchange bargain at an ordinary dealer, or a private sale. There are several websites (including Ebay, Exchange and Mart, Friday Ad etc) where you can do a search for LHD. When we moved over first we found a LHD diesel at a Peugeot 205 specialist dealer near our English home which wasn't cheap but was far less expensive than a dealer in France. If you get something that is popular in France you will have no trouble part exchanging it there, whereas a RHD or obscure vehicle will be near-impossible to shift in France.

[Jonzjob]

We were in the same situation (couldn't smell conumdrum?). We sold our Citroen Xantia RHD in th U.K. before we left, but we bought our new Citroen C8 from a place in Holland. We had to bring our dog down with us so we had to have a car and the price we were offered in France by an English dealer here was desiresary. We saved about £3500 in the deal too. If yo would like the full details, e-mail me.... And good luck. Our C8 is fantastic!!!

John.