To buy in the UK or France

[James2]

As a property owner in france, mason secondair, I need to buy a secondhand car.
Can anyone advise as to the best way to, either:-

Purchase a car in England and then export it.
or Purchase a car in France


Is it my imagination, or do most secondhand cars in france have a higher mileage( kilometer ) reading for their year than a British car?

Also where can you buy lefthand drive cars in England?

RAY

[Pushkin]

Why don't you do a search on the subject? There is loads of advice to be found if you do. We bought a LHD 4x4 via Autocontinental who have a website and were very satisfied with the service.

Sue

[Kennymike]

Not sure which is the ceaper - UK or France. New cars are supposed to be less expensive in Europe, so, I suppose, it should follow that second hand ones should be too.
You may find it helpful to have a look in Exchange & Mart's Car Search at:-
http://www.exchangeandmart.co.uk/motoring/
(use the advanced settings at the bottom to search for LHD cars only).
I would be interested in your conclusions as I may soon be facing the same question, although for the following reasons I shall probably choose to buy in France. I am sure that in the event of a problem after purchase it should be much easier to get things sorted out if the seller is not miles away in another country! Buying from a local garage just MAY also put you in better standing for getting other work done and to get any other help you may need with the car in the future. Also, I would prefer to 'go local' and have a car, with French plates from the outset, with all the paperwork already in place. In the end, I suppose it will come down to how big a difference there is in price and what you may be looking for. Good Luck!

[Diana]

I have been pondering this too. A couple of years ago my husband bought a new expensive German car. In the end he got a RHD from a legitimate UK dealer. However we did a lot of research as then prices in Europe and especially Holland were a lot cheaper than the UK. And even cheaper still if you bought a LHD, the down side to having bought a LHD for the UK was when you wanted to sell it nobody wants them so the resale price is correspondingly lower. OK that makes sense but it must mean that LHD cars are cheaper in the UK because of this. If you look in the likes of Auto Trader there are lots of cars that sort of apologise for being LHD, only dont tell the chap selling it that you live in France.

Diana

[Mpprh]

Hi

Comparing new and used car pricing across Europe is subject to many factors :

Company car tax rates
National fuel price (may favour petrol/diesel and small / large engines)
Insurance rates
Local car tax (higher tax % = lower spec and lower basic price)
Local engine size tax breaks (some countries penalize, say, engines over 2 litres)
Specification (AC in the South, Leather + sunroof in the North of Europe)
Service costs (My local Peugeot dealer charges about GBP17 per hour - perceived high service costs hit used car values)
Market positioning (Citroen is priced below Ford in UK, but is seen as a more premium car in France)
Market penetration (French makes have low sales in Scandinavia, so prices are lower to gain volume)
Manufacturer market ambitions (In some markets manufacturer is trying to re position the brand, so prices change)
Brand image (new Saab / Volvo are seen as volume cars in Scandinavia and have rather low prices - often cheaper than Ford / Opel)
Available discounts
Exchange rates (Manufacturers are very slow to change prices because they are locked into comparative competitor pricing and
exchange rates can rapidly change)

The only way to compare prices is to specify the car you want and trawl through new and used car prices in each country.

Bonne chance

Peter

http://tlp.netfirms.com

[Steveandmarie]

Hi Ray,

I'm in a simmilar position currently.

You used to be able to pick up lhd cars in the uk for peanuts, but -now that we Brits are moving to Europe in our droves- some dealers are selling lhd cars exclusively: at a premium.

The cheapest route would be to check ebay: search for both 'left hand drive' and 'lhd'. There are bargains to be found if you have some mechanical knowledge or can take somebody to view the vehicle who knows what to look out for, also ebayers tend to value their seller ratings highly and thus describe their vehicles accurately.


Try Auto trader on the net, you wil need to register (it's free) to open up search options i.e. 'lhd'-- don't forget to search 'national' sales. Sometimes you find dealers (who don't deal exclusively with lhd vehicles) advertising the odd lhd part ex' and so they tend to be cheaper.

New cars in France are cheaper than new cars in the UK, but for some reason their older used cars are quite expensive even with whopping mileages , however cars around two years old in France are supposedly good value.

A french manufactured diesel is meant to be the smart choice as you'll always find a mechanic and the fuel is cheap.

If you leave your vehicle requirements in my inbox I'll keep my eye out for you -- as I'm searching for a lhd myself twice a day on the net!

Cheers,
Steve.