Emigrating - bringing my car with me

mkahnisbent

Hi everyone

I hope someone can advise me on this!!

I am considering emigrating to France. I have a car worth about 2k. I would like to bring it with me, partly because I can use it to transport all my stuff, and I would imagine buying a new second hand car in a foreign country/foreign language is a pain in the hole!

Would my Irish insurance be valid in France? (Aviva)

Would I have to do something funny like register my car in France and change the number plates, or pay some sort of import tax?

Have any of you done anything like this before??

Cheers!

x in the city

tbh id say your better off selling it.

id say setting up shop your car in a foreign country is more hassle than its worth.

pcardin

First of all your car is RHD and I think you can't register RHD in any European country bar Uk and Ireland. French police will not allow you to drive unregistered car (foreign plated) for mor then 6 months (somebody from France correct me if I'm wrong) so you'll be better selling your car here and buy new one there.

Anan1

pcardin wrote: »

First of all your car is RHD and I think you can't register RHD in any European country bar Uk and Ireland.

Sure you can, there are lots of RHD cars on the continent. I do remember reading about somewhere that wouldn't allow the registration of cars with the wheel on the wrong side, but it's not in the EU. Australia?

Do-more

Your best bet is to find a forum for English speaking ex-pats living in France and do a search of it as I'm sure the question has been asked many times before.

Here in Sweden it's a pretty simple procedure to re-register a rhd car, you just have change the headlights over to the lhd type and get the car inspected similar to the NCT test.

I don't know if it's similar in France but hopefully for you it is.

Ali Babba

There's a good few LHD cars for sale on Donedeal, maybe you could trade in your own one against one and then you'd have a LHD car in the country your moving to and can move all your stuff too, that's what I'd do anyway.

pcardin

Anan1 wrote: »

Sure you can, there are lots of RHD cars on the continent. I do remember reading about somewhere that wouldn't allow the registration of cars with the wheel on the wrong side, but it's not in the EU. Australia?

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic as few to mention where you can't register RHD. Yes, you can see them in continent a lot but all under GB or Ireland plates.

pcardin

Ali Babba wrote: »

There's a good few LHD cars for sale on Donedeal, maybe you could trade in your own one against one and then you'd have a LHD car in the country your moving to and can move all your stuff too, that's what I'd do anyway.

Not a bad idea but most of lhd on local market here are a lot dearer than rhd equivalent. If you do buy lhd here then go for Irish reg one. Buying foreign plated here is a bit risky as you don't know anything about that car. Friend of mine bought here a nice Spanish plated BMW before he went home for god. When he tried to register the car in his country it turned out to be on the wanted list and Spanish bank came after his car as previous owner wasnt paying back the loan.

jock101

If the car is only worth 2k, I'd use it to transport your stuff and use it until the tax and insurance expire. Then scrape it if its too much hassle to register it in La France!

Anan1

pcardin wrote: »

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic as few to mention where you can't register RHD. Yes, you can see them in continent a lot but all under GB or Ireland plates.

Unless it's changed recently? I've driven RHD cars on German plates in Germany.

Edit: Here's one, registered in Germany in 2004

http://cgi.ebay.de/Raritat-Audi-A3-Rechtslenker-erster-Hand-/230509701733?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Automobile&hash=item35ab72ea65

Random

your insurance won't cover you either more than likely as you'll have to update the address on your policy and you'll probably find you have to be a roi / uk resident.

Max_Damage

pcardin wrote: »

Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Czech Republic as few to mention where you can't register RHD. Yes, you can see them in continent a lot but all under GB or Ireland plates.

Wrong... http://cgi.ebay.de/2005-Mini-Cooper-BMW-Klima-Leder-Alu-RHD-BRIEF-41-000KM-/330459069723?cmd=ViewItem&pt=Automobile&hash=item4cf0e53d1b

Max_Damage

Australia doesn't allow LHD cars to be registered there. Vietnam doesn't allow RHD cars in the country at all, foreign or not!

Do-more

A quick google shows that it is perfectly possible to re-register a rhd car in France you just need to change over the headlights.

Cars are quite dear in France, was weighing up working there for a year 3 years back, €2000 would get you sfa over there from what I remember.

dr.fuzzenstein

pcardin wrote: »

First of all your car is RHD and I think you can't register RHD in any European country bar Uk and Ireland. French police will not allow you to drive unregistered car (foreign plated) for mor then 6 months (somebody from France correct me if I'm wrong) so you'll be better selling your car here and buy new one there.

Horsesh*t!
Of course you can bring a RHD car and register it in France and Germany to name but two.
In Germany you need to replace the lights so they're suited to driving on the right side.
Ditto France:
http://www.totalfrance.com/france/fiches.php?fiche_id=47