Problems with Honda France

[KeithB]

I am trying to register a motorcycle (Honda Pan European ST1100) at present. I have been waiting for the Certificate of Conformity from Honda France since May. I contacted them in August and they said it would be ready by the end of September but I still have nothing. My insurance company has cancelled the insurance on the bike as they would only provide cover for six months on English plates. Has or is anybody else having this problem? Any ideas on how to proceed would be welcome.

[Bugsy]

Not much help but I have copied this from BCF for you to read. (You need ten posts on this forum to access it. Worth signing up as there is a lot of info on there)

Honda says YES.................eventually (long post)

Author: elamessa » Fri Nov 19, 2010 6:52 pm

I thought I would put my ‘experience’ in words here so that it may help (or not) others in the process of registering especially a Honda. (rather a long post sorry)

Before I moved to France permanently I had checked with the various expat forums to see how easy/hard it was to register vehicles in la belle France. It seemed that if the vehicles in question were newer than 2003 then all I needed was a European Certificate of Conformity from the manufactures..

I got CoC’s from BMW (car) and Honda (bike) with just a phone call to each and lo and behold they were both free.

Armed with CoC’s, logbooks, Quittus Fiscals, passport, proof of French address and cheque book off to the prefecture (Limoges) we went.

When we were eventually called to the desk after a fairly long wait we passed over the paperwork to the clerk and 10 minutes later the BMW was registered, this is easy we thought. The Honda was a different kettle of fish, as after entering different sequences of numbers from the CoC and the V5C the system would not accept the bike and we were told to contact Honda France.

This was November 2009 and we wrote to Honda France, we got a reply in December stating that as the bike was not built for the French market then don’t bring it to France as it would not be accepted in the system. What…….the bike is already here in France and I’ve seen 1300 pans all over the place…..idiots.

After calming down and getting Christmas and New Year out of the way I went to the Prefecture in Poitiers to try again as I thought that the Prefecture in Limoges was useless. How wrong was I because the Poitiers Prefecture told me the same as Limoges had done.

I again wrote to Honda France explaining that as the bike was already in France what did I need to do to get the bike into the ‘system’.

I got the same reply as before……don’t bring the bike to France etc etc… I nearly lost the plot and luckily enough my good wife calmed me down.

I then went to the Honda dealer in Poitiers and explained to him what I wanted to do and he phoned Honda on my behalf and they said that they would send out the paperwork detailing what needed to be done to the bike.

In the mean time I wrote off to Solvit, the French Interior Minister and Honda France asking them to explain to me why I couldn’t bring my UK registered bike to France and get it registered as this was supposed to be the European community and the freedom of goods etc. I got a reply from solvit, see forum/viewtopic.php?t=4396&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15

I got nothing from the Interior Minister and from Honda France I got a letter saying that they got dispensation in 1984 from the EU so that they could restrict bikes to the 100(6)hp limit as that was and still is the law in France.

In March 2010 I got a four page document from Honda basically telling me that I needed to reduce the power to 75KWh (106hp), get the headlight changed to aim the other way and get the clocks changed to KPH.

Armed with this paperwork I went to see Phillipe at Honda Poitiers and he concluded that as the headlight was a flat beam and ‘E’ marked and the clock was a duel MPH/KPH readout then all that was needed was a reduction in power. I say all but that meant a PGM-FI unit changed, the throttle body insulators changing and new keys programmed to the new PGM-FI unit. In the long run a cheaper way than selling my bike back in the UK and buying same bike in France.

I sent back the paperwork to Honda France in May duly signed by the Dealer in Poitiers stating that the lights, spark plugs, spark plug caps, exhausts, tyres, reflector and mirrors were all ‘E’ marked and that the bike had been reduced in power.

Then I waited and waited and heard nothing in 2 months, 3 months (not long compared to some on here) but I had had enough so I wrote to Honda Europe and Honda Japan complaining about the time it took Honda France to get their paperwork turned around…….I got a reply from Honda France within a fortnight stating that they were sorry for the delay but they did not just deal with moto’s but all other Honda vehicles/products and they were getting around 100 applications a week so I would have to be patient…….at least they responded!!!!

4 Months and 10 days after sending the paperwork back I get a Certificate of partial Conformity and I must go to the DREAL/DRIRE to get the lights, clocks and emissions (!!) checked.

I got an appointment with the DREAL/DRIRE and 10 mins later I got the OK.

See forum/viewtopic.php?t=2478&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

14 days later I have now got the bike registered and legal in France.

Sorry for such a long post but it is do-able just keep at it.

Steve

[Sunday Driver]

I remember some time ago Elamessa describing his problems in getting a CoC for his Pan but never heard the outcome.

With my own Pan (1992 ST1100) I had to wait ages for Honda France to process my request - apparently the clerk dealing with it ended up by mislaying my dossier and had since left the company.  I eventually received a partial certificate showing the power rating at 72Kw (no restriction required) but with RHD headlamp as an exception.  I decided to wing it at the prefecture and they never batted an eyelid.  Walked out with my new carte grise.

 

[sid]

I wonder if it is just a case of too many applications for them to deal with? My own experience for the VFR in 2005 was relatively painless and I got my certificate in about 6 weeks.

[KeithB]

Thanks for the info. I have already registered a VFR800 a few years back and had the CofC back from Honda France in a couple of weeks. The Pan that I am waiting for the CofC for is 100hp so within the limit. I have spoken to some other owners two of which waited 8 months for the CofC and after numerous telephone calls and letters to Honda France. The latter eventually contacted the Conciliateur de Justice and got his CofC within a week so I think this is the route I will try. I will keep you posted...

[sid]

Good luck!

[KeithB]

Update on my last post. I contacted Honda France again, through my insurance company and told them that if I had not received the CofC by the end of October I would be contacting the Conciliateur de Justice. They told me that the CofC was posted to me on the 17th October. Yesterday (25 Oct) the Cof C arrived. The post mark was dated the 24 Oct. Looks like the threat worked. Now looking forward to getting the bike back on the road...missed the good weather though..

[sid]

Well done! [:D] There's plenty of good weather through the winter, dry roads etc, just colder! Oh, and no salt to rot the alloy bits! [8-|]