chessfou Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 There must be many of you with experience of keeping your old UK carand re-registering in France (or wishing that you had done so). I'mhoping to "cash in" on all that expertise.We are moving to France in May. We had decided to give away (to one ofour children) one of our two cars, sell the other one and then buy inFrance.However, a combination of thoughts that we will probably still need twocars for some years (initial location in France fairly rural) and thatit would be very convenient to drive to our new home (thus able to keepwith us all our main computers - I use 4 on a daily basis - and someother valuables that we would rather not consign to the removals van)have modified our current thinking (now: give one to son, re-registerone in France and buy main French one).Having got that UK car to France, it seems it would be a real pain toget it back to the UK to dispose of. Therefore, it seems to make senseto re-register in France and use it as our second car.Many of you must have faced a very similar problem. Do you have anyparticular pointers? If you did what we are contemplating doing, did itwork out for you? If you followed a different route, do you think thatworked out better? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
naps Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 We moved with a RHD car because it was more practical to take it with us, plus the fact that it was only a year old - it didn't make sense to sell it. That was when we moved to Holland. Since then we've relocated to France and the car came with us, now 5 years old, along with a 5 year old LHD The import system here in France was quick and painless.Since arriving we've realised that neither car is ideal for this area as it's too hot in the summer and we don't have air conditioning in either. We also know that we'll have to keep the RHD until it's ready for the scrap yard or we move back to the UK as it wouldn't be possible to sell it here in France.I'd say, from our experience the things to consider are...How old is your car and how much would you lose selling it before you came?What is the cost of an equivalent LHD vehicle in France?If you brought your car, would you be happy to keep it forever?Does your car have aircon (will you need it in the area you're moving to)?What sort of driving are you expecting to do? Overtaking on country roads, toll booths and ticket machines can be a pain in a RHD car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chessfou Posted January 10, 2006 Author Share Posted January 10, 2006 Naps, many thanks for those thoughts. Yes, questions invariably lead to more questions.[;)][quote]How old is your car and how much would you lose selling it before you came?What is the cost of an equivalent LHD vehicle in France?If you brought your car, would you be happy to keep it forever?Does your car have aircon (will you need it in the area you're moving to)?Whatsort of driving are you expecting to do? Overtaking on country roads,toll booths and ticket machines can be a pain in a RHD car.[/quote]Relevant car is 8 years old, so worth next to nothing (£1k or a little over).It won't last forever but happy to keep it until it's ready for the knacker's yard (probably no more than 2-3 years or so).It does have the necessary aircon.This will be our 2nd car, so basically run around to local town,shopping etc. when main car already bagged. Really not anticipatingmuch use at all.Incidentally, I used (mid-late 90s) to drive quite often between EastAnglia and Madrid (usually via Calais) in a RHD and I rarely found thetoll booths and ticket machines a pain, albeit that was maybe because Iwas only too glad to stretch the legs, however briefly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonzjob Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 When we moved to France we had to come over by car to the Aude (11) because we were bringing our dog. We had a 4 year old Citroen Xantia estate with air con. I was quite willing to drive a RHD car on holiday but as stated above not to live with... So I tried to buy a new LHD car in England, the dealers were not allowed to sell them. I couldn't buy in France without a French address. I turned my nose up at the second hand prices in the U.K., 9 year old Espace = £6000! and I was not willing to accept approx 1/3 of the value offered by a bloke in the Lot (46) for my Xantia. So I bought our new Citroen C8 from a firm in Holland and I had a very enjoyable day out in Holland collecting it.It went like this. the car was collected, tax free, on Dutch plates. I then regestered it in the U.K., insurance and VAT conciderations, we bought it over here and re-regestered it here in Carcassonne without any problems and in the end I had bought a new car for £3500 cheaper than I could have got it either here in France or RHD in England. By the time it was 6 months old it had been on 3 different sets of plates.When you import a new car into France you have to prove that VAT/TVA has been payed and being that it's 17.5 in england and 19.6 here it's obviously better to pay it there and the U.K. regisetering fee was about £80.If you would like details of the transactions then either e-mail or PM me...Good luck,John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renaud Posted January 10, 2006 Share Posted January 10, 2006 The English lady, at whose B&B we usually stay, tells of a toll booth/payage incident. When she got out of her RHD car to pay the toll, a loitering policeman noticed that she had not switched-off her engine - he fined her on the spot for abandoning her car with its engine running. So switch-off when you enjoy stretching your legs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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