Importing Japanese/grey vehicles into France

[tasng4]

Firstly thanks for reading this. I have read the 'sticky' entitled "FAQ - Importing and registering your UK car to France" by Sunday Driver and I am well versed in importing UK cars into France (currently 4) and Historic Cars (currently 7) but I now have the chance to get my hands on a rather nice Toyota Hilux Surf currently registered in the UK.

Importing Japanese/grey cars was outside the scope of Sunday Driver's post but it was mentioned that it was more involved and costly.

Has anyone out there ever successfully imported one of these cars or does anyone know the process?

I expect I will have to book an appt. with the DRIRE and get them to inspect the car but when I've done this previously I had the Partial CoC from Suzuki. If there is no Coc how does the DRIRE know what norms to check for.

Any help, VERY, gratefully received

[dave21478]

I have a UK reg Mazda 4x4 pickup sitting here.....good enough car but it was seems to have been originally sold in Thailand and imported to UK.

It has "E" marked glass and lights, so I was considering re-registering it in France, which would approximately triple my money on it.

Fallen at the first hurdle though.....I found out the Type Mines (google and faffing on Oscaro turned it up eventually) and went to the CT station, where my tame CT tester printed out the vehicle details they have stored for that Type. This lists all the model-specific things to check during the CT. First off, mine has the wrong size wheels and tyres and it has no catalytic converter, where the EU version should have. Also, I am not sure if it affects anything here, but the speedo is printed in MPH only, however the odometer counts in KM,

When I went through the DRIRE rigmarole with my Landrover, they guy picked it up on a minor problem with the odometer, so this would probably be something else to change on the Mazda.

Next step would be to get a partial CofC from Mazda, but this will probably cost € 180 straight off and I will then have to contact the DRIRE to see what needs changed...... I am rapidly going off the idea as I can easily get my money back selling it for spares and I can't be harrised to get involved with the DRIRE here again.....it dragged on for months and months the last time.

Other people obviously manage it...recently around my area I have seen a massive upsurge in the number of American SUV 4x4 things....all from the 90's and 00's.....I imagine they have to do this to get registered, but whether someone has found out a fast track way of doing things and is re-selling them or whatever, I have no idea. I would be surprised if suddenly lots of individuals have decided to try the registration process....most French shy away from anything out of the ordinary.

[AnOther]

Many things are possible, a friend of ours managed to get a Nissan Figaro registered - eventually. She wouldn't give up and I think in the end they just gave in to get rid of her !

[Chancer]

I am sure that your suspicion is correct Dave, someone who is connected with someone at the DRIRE and hence is allowed to get away with the minimum of paperwork with the missing info being filled in for them by the helpfull (to him) DRIRE staff.

When I first moved here an english guy got a reception de titre isolée on a Mitsubishi Pajero, he spoke no French and the guys at DRIRE speak no English, maybe they just got fed up with him, I recall that he was supposed to change the seat belts for E marked ones but didnt actually do it.

Back then they hadnt created the additional hurdle of making you pay the manufacturer for a partial COC also they would access their database and sell you an attestation if the vehicle was on it or someone had already jumped through the hoops of a une titre isolée, they would look at what was non conforming and check your vehicle in those areas, far too sensible and involved people actually leaving their desks so of course they put a stop to it [:(]

I have never found any plausible explanation or reason as to why they decided to stop making €67 a pop for a photocopy and pushing you to pay many €100's to the manufacturers, it can only be protectionism or just not wanting to actually do any work in their jobs, if it were the latter then surely they would have just accepted the EU conformity numbers now carried on most V5's?