Buying A Used Car In France ... Or Take One With From The Uk

[Linotype]

Hiya : Have any of your erudite members had personal (real life) experience of buying a used car in France? I'm going to be spending quite a bit of time over there quite soon and feel that this has distinct merits, ie: am led to believe road tax as we know it falls away in France; MOT's last for 2 years instead of just 12 months, etc. Am quite happy to drive a right-hand drive car whilst there, I really don't find it a hassle but do realise that LHD is the all-round better option. If anyone is able to expand on the subject I'd be truly grateful Regards

[dannyk13]

Would it not be cheaper to take your own vehicle across.

[calmck]

If you take your own car you might be limited as to how long it can stay in the country and possibly would need to have MOT done in UK

[Rockrose]

To take your own vehicle you may need to count it as export if out of the UK for 6 months or more - you will need to let DVLA know this - you will then need to register the vehicle with the French DVLA.
If you then decide to bring your vehicle back to the UK on a permanent basis you will then need to reimport said vehicle

[KARL]

I would not contemplate driving a UK car long term anywhere other than in Ireland, Australia, etc. and even then I doubt that it is a practical option. Having a foreign registered car in any country is fraught with unpleasant side-effects and possibilities if/when things go wrong. I cannot see any advantage to that at all except for short visits. I know of several examples of people having chosen to use their UK cars abroad long term and ended up in effect losing them completely - they have ended up stuck with them and being unable to move them because they are illegal, uninsured/uninsurable, etc. By far the best course, in my opinion, is to buy whatever appeals in the country where you are staying. If you want to keep the UK car for use in the UK well and good but when it comes to cost the better option is very likely to be hiring a car for short visit requirements.

[shoota]

I drive a French registered car as I have a house over there and visit for extended periods 3 or 4 times a year.
Second hand cars are much, much more expensive in France than the UK although you are correct in what you say regarding the MoT being 2 yearly. The road tax is levied off the insurance premium, which also includes breakdown recovery and personal accident cover (at least, mine does.) The cost is comparable per year to the UK but you get a much better level of cover as it is the car that is covered not the driver so any 'experienced' driver can drive it Europe wide. That may change post-Brexit but my insurance broker is not expecting it to...
There is no real problem with driving RHD cars on the right as long as you take extra care at junctions, (sometimes the rear pillars or passengers block vision) and take especial care with overtaking.
If you take a UK car over there and register it in France be prepared to pay a swingeing tax if it has a large engine or is powerful, this is their attempt at going 'green'. You will need a French address in order to register a car over there.
Many Brits just continue to drive their English cars regardless, this is quite possible if you can arrange to revisit the UK every 6 months and when the MoT is due although I suspect many ex-pats don't bother. I have been stopped twice for a document check in 13 years, once in a UK reg car and once in my French car.
Should you decide to buy a car in France do make sure that it is currently registered to the vendor as you cannot register a vehicle that has no current keeper.

[satprof]

Hi Linotype, I lived 27 years in France (on a permanent basis) & bought several cars, both new & secondhand. I didn't really find that used cars were excessively priced. It's probably true, however, that cars depreciate less quickly than in the UK, as the 'company car' market isn't so big.

Most of the normal advice applicable to buying used cars in the UK applies, but you need to be aware that French bureaucracy can be pretty complex. In order to transfer a registration to your name, you need a 'certificat de situation administrative' which you can get online if you have a copy of the 'Carte Grise'(Vehicle Registration Document). (See https://immatriculation.ants.gouv.fr/Services-associes/Le-certificat-de-situation-administrative-non-gage-et-opposition) A decent car dealer knows how to cope with all that so it would probably make sense not to try to do it yourself unless a.) you speak reasonable French; & b.) are good at researching bureaucratic procedures on the Internet. You mention Road Tax - ages ago it was considered that French petrol prices were higher than those in the UK as they had no road tax. Then, for a number of years, local départments were supplementing their income by charging an annual fee, which varied according to départment & giving you an annual hexagon-shaped coloured sticker. This came to an end about 15 years ago, IIRC, & there is currently no road tax as such. Yes, there is a tax on insurance, but it's not that much & probably applies to other types of insurance as well. All the same, 'road tax' in some form could always come back, but is unlikely to ever be at UK levels. (The citizenry is too inclined to take to the streets for that.)

I don't know what your French is like, but a good site to consult is largus.fr. The Argus is a kind of equivalent to Glass' Guide in the UK & their site might be useful to you. Even if your French is mediocre, if you browse with Google Chrome it translates most of it for you. (The translations aren't perfect but help the beginner enormously.)

Good luck with it all. It can be fun as well as madly frustrating. In the end, I retired to Spain as we'd had enough & it's much cheaper over here.

[johnk]

I have friends in France and 1 has a French car and 1 an English car. Both have advantages, the French MOT is 2 years and you don't have to retest if it fails just get the fault sorted in a certain time. The English car owner parks wherever he wants and just throws the tickets away, he's never been chased up for fines in over 20 years. He also plays the tourists card if he upsets the police. It's just down to personal preference