why not

[shimble]

i just wondered why peopleare willing to go through all this complicated administration to maybe be able to registerer a right hand drive car in france.

seems stupid all that stress and administration yes cars in france are more expensive than the uk but still you can find cheap cars youll even be able to see to overtake the mot will be done and valid for two years. it really isnt that difficult. if you buy from a garage local to you it will gain you a mechanic and help you intergrate with the french. yes you might save some money it also encourages the administation to think of more forms and regulations that need to be adhered to. we already have far too much of that here. remember you are in france not england after all

[Cassis]

Why do people keep their old cars?  Because it is not usually that complicated to register your UK car (one visit to the prefecture and one to the centre d'impôts - don't be deceived by the fact that you only hear from people who have problems here) and changing cars does cost money.  If money is tight then hanging on to your old car makes sense.  If you were used to changing your car every couple of years anyway then it doesn't.   Your local mechanic is not that bothered if your car is LHD or RHD, he'll welcome your business.

[Iain]

... because I prefer a reliable car (Japanese in my case) as opposed to a... well...    unreliable make. And Japanese cars are few and far between, where we are anyway.

And selling my UK car would have been a pain, as I drove over in it, and would have to take it back to the UK to sell somewhere, then a taxi back to the airport to come back home... etc etc...

Apparently, a lot of people buy their cars in Germany as the price is cheaper, and even with the import tax and hassle it still works out better than buying in France. Don't know if this is true or not, but it's what I've heard.

Iain

[Chrisb]

We bought a 3 year old LHD Jeep Cherokee in Germany, imported through a company in the UK (who took my OH's RHD Mitsubishi Shogun in P/Ex), re-registered it very easily in France, and have since been told that now it is French plated, it is probably worth around 1,500€ more than we paid for it!

Chris

[Wozza]

Dear Norris

I just got my Carte Gris for our RHD toyota today - took about 15 minutes at the prefecture. Is this a record?

Warren

[Miki]

[quote] I just got my Carte Gris for our RHD toyota today - took about 15 minutes at the prefecture. Is this a record? [/quote]

No, it's  a car........................boom, boom  [:D]

[Cassis]

Is that the sound of your exhaust backfiring, Miki?

[img]http://www.flicks.com/~martin/basil_brush/basil.jpg[/img]

Click on Basil with your speakers on ....

[Miki]

[quote user="Cassis"]Is that the sound of your exhaust backfiring, Miki?

[img]http://www.flicks.com/~martin/basil_brush/basil.jpg[/img]

Click on Basil with your speakers on ....

[/quote]

No, it's Mr Dereks ![:D]

[Cassis]

I'm trying desperately to recall - Derek Fowlds?  Went on to "Yes Minister"?

[Bob T]

[quote user="shimble"]

i just wondered why peopleare willing to go through all this complicated administration to maybe be able to registerer a right hand drive car in france.

seems stupid all that stress and administration yes cars in france are more expensive than the uk but still you can find cheap cars youll even be able to see to overtake the mot will be done and valid for two years. it really isnt that difficult. if you buy from a garage local to you it will gain you a mechanic and help you intergrate with the french. yes you might save some money it also encourages the administation to think of more forms and regulations that need to be adhered to. we already have far too much of that here. remember you are in france not england after all

[/quote]

I would agree with you. To drive a RHD car here would be more hassle then it is worth. To think that a RHD French plated car would be worth more than it was in the UK most surely be wrong. A cars value is directly dependent on the amount of people looking to buy that car, and I would not have thought that there are many people in France who would want a RHD car.

[Dick Smith]

Derek Fowlds it was, indeed.

[Cassis]

[quote user="Bob T"]

To think that a RHD French plated car would be worth more than it was in the UK most surely be wrong.

[/quote]

Where on earth did you read that? [blink]

[hoverfrog]

I tried to sell my car before we moved over here, but couldn't. I bought it for 15K£ in 2000, but the highest offer in the UK in 2004 was 4.5K£

Over here, if it was LHD it would be worth over 8k€ and I have yet to see what they would give me...

Registering it in France wasn't an option - it had to be done before the tax and insurance ran out.

As an earlier poster said, we drove over here in our cars (packed to the gunnels!) so the cars are here.

Even RHD, OH's renault laguna is worth twice here 2nd hand than it would be in the UK!

[Sunday Driver]

[quote user="hoverfrog"]

Even RHD, OH's renault laguna is worth twice here 2nd hand than it would be in the UK!

[/quote]

You can't really value a UK car against its equivalent on the French market, given that a RHD car is likely to be of no interest whatsoever to a French buyer.

 

 

[andyh4]

You are right of course SD but there are two ways to look at worth and value.

 

There is the commercial value (what the rest of the world would give you for it) and there is the value to you (what it would cost to get the closest equivalent - in this case changing from RHD to LHD).  In France those 2 values are very wide appart and I guess that is why people do go through the re-registering thing.

Personally I found driving RHD in built up areas with lots of parked traffic a total pain and very quickly changed to the long term solution of LHD, but the I was subsidised by my company for the financial loss.

 

[Cassis]

[quote user="andyh4"]

There is the commercial value (what the rest of

the world would give you for it) and there is the value to you (what it

would cost to get the closest equivalent - in this case changing from

RHD to LHD).  In France those 2 values are very wide apart and I guess

that is why people do go through the re-registering thing.

[/quote]

That's exactly why we kept Jude's RHD when we moved here and the point I tried to make at the beginning - maybe not clearly enough.  If we had flogged it in the UK then bought the equivalent here we would have been a couple of thousand quid out of pocket.  Plus although it is not exactly in the first flush of youth it was immaculate, regularly serviced and low mileage.

Town driving in it I don't find significantly different to driving a LHD - it is only a handicap on single carriageways when overtaking HGVs and large vans.

[sclarke2208]

Hi,

Interesting post and I agree with Cassis insomuch as my car (a Rover 216 1999 model) is in extremely good condition and has less than 40k on the clock. Having driven in France twice already this year and hoping to move out permanently in 2007, I fully intend bringing my car over to use. Valued in UK at approx £1600, where would I buy a decent car in France for that? Checked out France E-bay under cars and there was hardly anything under 12 years old[:(].

Roseysan

[Chancer]

I have been here 18 months in a 2001 RHD Skoda Octavia TDI estate which only cost me £3500 the day before I moved here, granted it had nearly 200K miles on the clock but has been a reliable and very economical mode of transport.

I agree wholeheartedly with the argument "how much would it cost me to change to an equal LHD model?" in my case it would have been over 10000 euros.

I can honestly say that until very recently I never had a problem but perhaps now feeling a little more confident in my surroundings (and maybe in a little bit more of a rush) I sometimes get a little frustrated when I want to overtake and can't see enough.

I should add that I have always been a bit of a boy racer and did in fact compete for several seasons before moving here, but the combination of  less stress/less traffic on the road and the initial general uncertainty of driving/finding my way around here has slowed me down enough to make wanting to overtake happen less.

If this can happen to me then I think that most people whose cars have a few years left in them but are faced with the significant cost to change to a LHD model would have no problems bringing (and registering) their cars here.

It was interesting that the French insurance company did not feel that a RHD care presented any more risk and hence did not load the premium.

I will probably re-import the car to the UK and sell it on E-bay when my chauffeur friend is ready to sell me his next bargain (a RHD volkswagen touran) when it reaches a similarly stratospheric mileage.

[cooperlola]

Only major problem I ever have driving Mr Cooperlola's RHD is that I keep trying to change gear with the window-winder, having an LHD myself.  We too, kept it because of the prohibitive cost of selling it and buying an equivelent here.  I have also just invested in an RHD Landrover to tow my ponies about.  At £800 it was a bargain I would not have picked up here and as it's unlikely to do a huge mileage, I can put up with the problems of sitting on the wrong side and the above gear-change problem.  The paperwork's a bit of a headache (prizing conformity cerificates out of Landrover for example) but it's worth the saving and really isn't too much hassle if you have the time (and the lingo).

[sasfields]

Having (ahem) written off my little Citroen a few months back here in the UK, I had to get a replacement pretty quick rather than waiting until I move to France.  It's a PUG 106 and I fully intend to bring it over just because it's easier than bringing it back to the UK to sell.  Should be easy enough to re-register (famous last words?). 

We also had a Citroen XM estate which we considered bringing but unfortunately it died at the weekend.  Requiem mass to be held next week (no flowers please). [:(]