so how do you export a car from France?

[tagoraman83]

I dipped my toe into the murky waters of this subject on a tread about my Tagora whereby it became apparent I needed to buy a spares car from France.

Now I had heard it was a bastard to export a car from France due to red tape. I work with a guy whose parents live in the south of France and they bought a car from the next region and had months of fighting red tape just to get it re-registered in the region they lived in never mind exporting the thing.I would appreciate some advice from someone in the know as i need a French Tagora in my life for spares.I'm not convinced It's a piece of gateau......

[gtd2000]

Is it going to be driven back to the UK?

 

I'd just take it, by whatever means and forget about any of the other details that may or may not be required

[Ross_K]

I think you still need to jump through a shitload of hoops to do it properly.

 

I'd grab the carte grise and the CT, and explain to the seller in my best Mike Brewer pidgin-French that the voiture's going across the channel and that he won't be on the hook for any speeding fines

 

Oonce the car's been re-registered with the DVLA, the French 'll be notified eventually that it's been exported.

[dollywobbler]

It's a piece of piss. Really. I know several people who've done it and it appears little more difficult that buying a car in the UK. You don't deal with the French nightmare bureaucrats, so that instantly makes life a lot easier! A Carte Gris makes like a lot easier, but it still isn't the biggest disaster in the world.

 

If you're buying a car just for scrap (ie the roof) then I'd imagine it's even simpler.

[TagoraSX]

You could always drive over with a large van and chop it up en France.

 

If my French geography is correct this one is very near the ferry in Calais

 

http://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/335596870.htm?ca=1_s

[tagoraman83]

I'd heard that "old out yer and" Brewer came a cropper with the Alpine A310 he brought over cos he'd not done the paperwork properly in France and couldn't register it here so ended up selling it back to the guy he bought if from at a huge loss....I'm one of life's worriers. I'm worried that after going all the way out there,communicating with the vendor(although brewer made that look easy,just speak slowly and loudly and they'll understand),paying for the thing and driving it to Calais I get stopped at the port and they don't let the English pig dog on the boat with one of their precious Tagoras. And then if I get it back on home soil will HM Customs just let me drive off into the sunset? A mate of mine bought an unregistered Renault 30 TX at auction that had been seized by customs because the guy trying to drive it onto British soil couldn't pay the import duty,it was a break only due to having no paperwork.

or am I just a big girl and should get on with it....

[panhard65]

Hi I have brought a few cars back from france the carte gris is all you need to register in the uk. If it is a spares car you don't even need that. What ever you do don't drive it back as you won't be insured. The only way to get insurance is to insure it in france. Once it is here it can be insured on the chassis number so it can be mot'ed and then registered. It is a good idea to have a copy of the advert showing the car for sale. I got pulled by customs once with a 504 coupe peugeot and got asked all sorts of questions. I think they were more interested in the 5 kilo's of tobacco I brought back than the car though !! The french don't care about you taking cars out I think they are glad to get rid of most of them and the british customs are more interested in how many fags or illegal immigrants are hidden in the boot. So just go for it but beware the french description when I brought my fregate he said it was excellent. Then on the road test he informs me that you have to press the brakes 5 times to get it to stop !!. I found eurotunnel the cheapest my discovery and a 17ft trailer cost about 120 quid for a weekend out there

[nigel bickle]

Doing it all the time. Just haul it home. Simples. If you're driving -insure on the chassis number. Carte Gris (V5c) would be nice, but isnt insurmountable.

Nearly finished an early 60's Peugeot J7 Camper that I brought back on a dolly a few weeks back; and am actively hunting a peugeot D3/4.

 

For us -its easy. For them -not so.

[theorganist]

I imported my Renault 14 from France, I was going to drive it back but it would not start. I think in hindsight it would have been risky as you are not supposed to drive a foreign registered vehicle on UK roads if you are a UK citizen, the DVLA says you need to register it first. I did manage to get the vendor to register me on his insurance on the French side and obviously I had my insurance on the UK side.

 

This end the process of registration was fairly painless you need the carte gris and an receipt or invoice in useful. I imagine without the carte gris is could be a pain.

 

I would recommend it there are some great cars for sale over the channel, there seems to be loads more old tat than here. I definately intend to do it again.

[Ross_K]

A mate of mine bought an unregistered Renault 30 TX at auction that had been seized by customs because the guy trying to drive it onto British soil couldn't pay the import duty

 

Was this back in the day when the car was new or something? VAT would be payable on a new car being imported but for a used car, there's no "import duty". We're all in the EU, and customs can't prevent the free movement (I think it's called) of property within the EU.

 

It's none of customs business unless you're bring a car in from outside the EU area.

[Lankytim]

If it's going to be scrapped in the U.K surely there's no point in registering it? Just get it over here and strip/scrap it.

[tagoraman83]

The Renault 30 incident was in the late 80's so the car wasn't new, perhaps the guys at the auction didn't have the story straight. If I remember the car had what we thought were german plates on. Didn't matter though as it was a break only so my mate took the engine and gearbox out for a kit car and I had the very rare air con system off it, the rest was scrapped.

Yes I agree as I'm breaking the car it doesn't matter about registering it I was fishing for info for a long held desire to bring a renault 30 TX phase one manual back from France. They come up on leboncoin all the time......