Newest addition registered.............

[Miki]

Well we have put another car (LHD) on to French plates and this time I noted a few things down.

It's a Ford (for daughter and Mum) so I rang Ford at their usual number and asked for the Cert de Conformité and was told 121 euros, really that much for a bit of paper, resting on the hard disk of the Ford computer but why do you charge for this simple service I ask "but Monsieur, you cannot expect it for free", well yes I can but it ain't gonna happen, so I tell him meekly to send me the gubbins.

I then decide that old DRIRE will get a call, result, "Oui monsieur, do you want to bring down the paperwork and do it here" "yes, toute de suite" I reply. Cost 67.38€ for the Cert de Conf. Strange how a car maker can be dearer than a Govt dept ?

Take everything back to the sous prefecture in Saint Malo et voila another 156€ handed over and the new carte grise (I say new, as to me the new Carte Grise is now in a new style) is given to me. Today, off to Roady (ex Stationmarché) for the usual good service, new plastic plates with "Euro icon" 33€80 inc. fitting. So in all 257€18 not cheap but as in all car deals, the "bargain" has to be in the purchase price.

 

[opas]

Well done Miki! just one question , What and who are DRIRE....? we have just registered our RHD Ford and paid the huge wedge that you found a way round, just incase we get another car this info would be usefull. Mrs O

[opas]

Well done Miki! just one question , What and who are DRIRE....? we have just registered our RHD Ford and paid the huge wedge that you found a way round, just incase we get another car this info would be usefull. Mrs O

[Miki]

Mrs O,

I rarely ever pay for an attestation de conformité from one of the car manufacturers. I have had a couple free (Opal and Pug) but in at least 15 other ocasions, I have simply gone along to the "local" DRIRE also known as Les Mines ( in our case, it is at Noyal sur Vilaine, Rennes at 35 km) and paid a reduced fee against the costs of a few of the car makers, plus I always think it hurries things along a bit quicker.

Not needed of course if the car is fairly young and comes with a certificate of conformity acceptable by the sous prefecture (or prefecture). I really believe it is a lot easier these days, if the car has the conformity and is under 4 years old (No CT required), a simple grasp of French and they can do all of it there, except for the the tax clearance form issued by the Hotel des Impots.

DRIRE = Directions Régionales de l'Industrie, de la Recherche et de l'environnement

They are the goverment body for many things to do with things such as, Heavy duty lorries, cars both foreign and otherwise plus absolutely all kinds of transport , energy matters and other things, plus even more. Difficult to fully explain, go to the website and take a look I bet Mr O will be very interested.

http://www.drire.gouv.fr/

[Val_2]

Miki am a bit confused. We did the same with daughter's 106 back in June as it was on 78 plates and needed to be changed to 29. No certificate of conformité needed or visit to DRIRE and the car was four and a half years old so the CT had been done prior to us collecting it a few days before. All we did was hand over the old Carte Grise at the Sous prefecture in Morlaix,they gave us an addressed envelope to which we added a stamp and they took it away - nothing else to do except take an attestation that the CG was being changed. One week later the new one arrived with the new number and off we went and got the plates made and fitted. Wonder if this is a case of each dept having different regs and rules again? All we paid for was the 104€ for the new CG.

[Alexis]

 

Next time he says there is no money in his leather money bag, we will know what to say won't we?

[Will]

[quote]Miki am a bit confused. We did the same with daughter's 106 back in June as it was on 78 plates and needed to be changed to 29. No certificate of conformité needed or visit to DRIRE and the car was fo...[/quote]

Val - I think the key is where Miki says 'put on French plates', which indicates to me that he has imported the vehicle. We've imported a couple of LHD vehicles into France; one was a Belgian car that at the time was less than a couple of years old, we got it from a dealer who took care of the paperwork but it was done very quickly. The other was on UK plates, but had previously been exported from France. You would have thought that would have been a piece of cake, we knew its previous French reg no so it should have been the same as re-registering a French car. But the prefecture (and insurers when they advised about putting it back on French plates) wanted a Cert of Conformity or DRIRE attestation. Fortunately Peugeot sent a Cert of Conf free of charge, but it still gave the prefecture some difficulties because, naturally enough, the dates on the UK paperwork (export cert and what was left of the reg document) didn't match a valid French 'mise en circulation' date for the particular VIN number. We got it sorted in the end.

We've also bought French-reg cars, which, as Val says, is merely a matter of getting a new carte grise and number plates - no cert of conf required as, being already in France, it can be taken as read that they comply with French requirements.

I have heard of DRIREs in some départments charging a small fortune for issuing an attestation, claiming that they need to do a full inspection that takes a long time, so that can work out even dearer than a manufacturer's CofC - so do take care if you are trying to save money, I don't know how true this is but can quite believe it.

I do agree with Miki that the fees charged by some makers for a straightforward certificate are ridiculoulsly inflated.

[Miki]

Val,

The difference was that the car was an import from the UK and on GB plates. So as with any foreign registered car, it needs a certificat de Conformité, whereas a French registered car does not require one, as it is already known to conform to NF. This form can be gained, either from the manufacturers HQ in France or by going to the DRIRE.

I am surprised in your case that you had to wait and were given an envelope to put a stamp on but it seems more the norm that the new carte grise will be sent by post.

Your lower fee was because of the lower puissance (4 or 5 cv?) of the Pug 106. You should also have received the confirmation of no outstanding hp and the all clear, commonly known as the certificat de non gage and can be printed off the net for all of you who are going to sell your French reg. car just put in your car reg, and it will print out if all is OK.

I see they also handed you correctly, as well, a relatively new CT (18 months min. remaining but I have bought a few with just months outstanding, which just goes to prove that as usual, all is not B & W in France). The old carte grise should have been snipped on one corner and Vendu and dated, written prominently over the surface. Now that's the legal route but odds on others may have done it differently !

Alexis, as I once said to a fairly poor man, I would still like to be a couple of 0's behind him.

Leather satchel. Grrrr only the bookies coiuld afford them luxuries

Edited and added to, as Will had posted moments earlier.

I have heard of DRIREs in some départments charging a small fortune for issuing an attestation, claiming that they need to do a full inspection that takes a long time, so that can work out even dearer than a manufacturer's CofC - so do take care if you are trying to save money, I don't know how true this is but can quite believe it.

Yes Will, a full attestation for some imports can be long winded but to be honest they are pretty reasonable, the high costs can arise through the work required by DRIRE to get the car up to conformity. This always seems to occur when the cert de conf itself, is not totally accepted by DRIRE.

For instance we have had a couple of trying episodes with Mitsibushi Pajeros, I have mentionned this before, the tyres and the Vin plate plus another plate whose name escapes me for the moment, can be a real nuisance on this model. So it is not just simply a higher expense using the DRIRE than going to the manufactuer but, a neccessity on top of the certificat.

As in all my dealings with UK cars Will, I left the "log book" V5 or whatever it is called these days with the sous prefecture who informed me as they have done before, that they will deal with it for me. Now that is something that can be done in other ways. Vive la France etc...............