My French registration story.

[dave21478]

Just a quick tale for those of you registering your cars here in France. Its not hard. Be patient and you will get there in the end.

 

I have a 1998 Citroen C15 van which I wanted to regsiter here. First step, the certificate of conformity...

My local Citroen dealership in UK didnt have a clue. "You need to get that from the DVLA mate, not us..."

Citroen UK`s website offered no help, so I emailed them. They replied with a phone number, which I called. "Oh, we can only issue them for cars, commercial vehicles need to be done through the French system. Try this numer....)

Called the number for Citroen France and got a recording telling me to send a copy of the V5, A copy of my passport and a cheque for 120euro to Paris, which I did. A certificate arrived fairly quickly.

 

Next up was the CT. The van is in good condition apart from tyres nearing the limit on the front. I got a pair of LHD headlights from the scrap yard and away I went. Failed on 1 tyre and the brake lights, which was down to a broken switch, which must have broken on the 2 days before the test typically. Anyway, changed the switch and fitted 2 almost new tyres from my dead 106. They were a different profile to the std ones on the van so I put these on the rear and moved the rears to the front to keep the speedo accuracy. They guy failed it at the re-test due to the tyre size being different. Note that in the UK this would have passed. It doesnt matter what differences there are front to rear as long as the two on the same axle are the same, but this is obviously different in France. So, 2 new tyres later and I got the pass.

 

Then off to the Hotel des Impots to get the VAT certificate. A word of warning here.....go to the branch closest to your house, where your normal impots would be dealt with. I had foolishly assumed that any branch would do as I was only seeking a form for the car, but no, I was turned away from the one in the town where we usually do shopping, and had to make the 90 minute drive to the other big town (our house is half-way between the 2 big towns). Damn. Anyway, once at the right branch He took a photocopy of the V5 and proof of residence, I filled out the simple form, he stamped it and away I went. Why couldnt I have done that at the first plae I went to? who knows.

Then off to the prefecture. Seemingly, I could have done this at the sous prefecture of either town, where the three forms above, my passport, another proof of residence, a demand for a carte-gris and 240euro got me my wee bit of grey paper.

240 euros though, I thought that was a bit steep, but then, Id imagine that like the UK, taxes are often higher for commercial vehicles than cars? Still thats cheaper than a couple of years UK road tax I suppose.

 

All in, it took a couple of months to amass all the papers and get the CT, but I was in no real hurry. I suppose if I had made more of an effort, I could have done the lot in a week to 10 days

 

[:)]