Jump to content
Complete France Forum

Controle Technique and registration number


nectarine

Recommended Posts

Perhaps a daft question ... but I have had the controle technique done on my UK registered car, prior to getting the carte grise, The CT document shows my UK registration number on it and now I have to go through the process of registering it in France and getting a French plate ... however, as the CT is valid for two years, how does the registration number get changed on that? Surely it would continue to show the UK plate details for two years, or do I need to get another CT with the new French plate, or do the authorities append some kind of document to the CT ... just in case I ever get stopped by the gendarmes and they decide to check the documents.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Purely to satisfy my own curiosity, nectarine, how did you manage to get your car CT'ed with the UK registration in place?

Did you have the headlamps done, then CT and now you're going for your carte grise?

I ask because, since I had my own car French registered, quite a few people have asked me what the procedure is.

I have SD's recommended procedure written down and I just tell them to do everything in the steps indicated.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

[quote user="sweet 17"]Purely to satisfy my own curiosity, nectarine, how did you manage to get your car CT'ed with the UK registration in place?[/quote]

Same as a French reg car.

It would be catch 22 otherwise, as you cannot get a carte grise without a CT if your car 4 years old or over.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweet 17, as usual there seems to be variations...!

 One CT centre categorically stated that they could not provide a CT for a foreign registered vehicle... the branch of the same company 10k away happily CT'd our Camping Car the next day! Although it was actually a German plate(and the lights were therefore already right-dip) station number one insisted that it could not CT any foreign vehicle, which, if true, would make it impossible to re-register any vehicle over four years old!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweet17, I went to my local Suzuki dealer and got them to quote for replacing the headlights, then booked the work to be followed by a controle technique. I, too, thought that the registration number would be a problem but they were able to enter it fine - it seems that the vehicle details are really the chassis number, so I took in my UK registration document as well. The CT document shows both my UK registration number and my chassis number and, as Sunday Driver says, a new carte grise will have a new French registration number but also show the previous UK registration, so the controle technique document will be fully valid.

Interestingly, I hear that there is a controle technique station somewhere around here which has passed UK cars with UK lights as long as the have the headlght alteration sticker (the sort of thing you buy from Halfords to divert the beam when driving on the continent) as the station owner thinks that as long as the headlamp beam is pointing the right way then it is legal. With replacement headlamps for the next car costing in the region of 700euros for the pair, I might be tempted to go to this CT station instead!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You folks have given me a good laugh on a very cold, grey Boxing Day (not that there is such a thing as Boxing Day in France, of course!)

Talk about variety being the spice of life!  If that were the case, then French life is even more spicy (in every sense of the word) than I'd imagined!  Not that you'd know it living in my village which is what you might call a "forgotten corner " of France, to put it at its mildest.

I have a feeling that it's the cost of the headlamps as much as anything else that puts Brits off registering their cars over here.  I mean, apart from the cost, the rest is er..............straightforward, n'est pas?[;-)] 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...