We get registered

In theory, you can’t keep a car in a new EU country for more than 6 months before you get a local registration. In practice, there seems to be no way for anyone to enforce this. And so, we have not rushed to get into the bureaucracy of getting our cars registered.

However, we knew that at some point we would need to make the move. And when Val’s son Alfie passed his driving test recently, there was an incentive to get on with it, so we could allow him to use my old car in England with the no claims bonus I earned on the Land Rover insurance.

So, being in the EU this should be dead easy, right?

Well, judge for yourself:

• Get new headlights, and fit them – so they dip to the right rather than the left (wonderful parts company in Matlock, Derbyshire – £39 + £5 postage)
• Submit car to Contrôle Technique – French MOT – €68
• Fail Contrôle Technique and need new rotule de direction (track rod end)
• Buy part from England (much cheaper) and persuade local garage to fit it – £39 + €55
• Take car for Contrevisite and get Contrôle Technique (just €5, as it was only a visual check)
• Write to Land Rover (France) having checked on their website, with loads of details and photocopy of UK registration, to get European Certificate of Conformity (though of course it must have had one to register in UK) – €119.60
• Go to sub-prefecture with every document you can think of, plus electricity bill, which is standard French way to prove your address. Forget to take stamped addressed envelope (which is not listed on the web site as necessary) and get sent to post office to buy a stamp. Very nice woman copies and checks everything and then, after sharp intake of breath, tells us our Land Rover is classed as 11 fiscal horsepower (I don’t think this has any connection with real horsepower – but it might explain why the 2CV got its name, as CV stands for chevaux vapeur. Sorry, this is the sort of aside intended to take my mind off the big number that comes at the end.). You pay €34 per horsepower for a Carte Grise (registration document). Still at least there’s no annual road tax for future years. Hand over cheque for €374.
• Carte Grise arrives through post.
• Now try to sort French insurance. Online quotes rather more limited than in UK – but loads cheaper than going to a broker in town. Find a good quote, and then have to ring a call centre to confirm details. Arrrgh! French language skills seriously tested trying to argue about the level of no claims bonus they will allow – and learn lots of interesting things about how the system here is different from England. Eventually agree a price (and reserve right to challenge the bonus when I have written proof from UK), not much worse than UK, (or at least, wouldn’t have been if the pound had not collapsed in value). Still, it does at least include breakdown assistance, which seems standard with car insurance here. – €361

I can’t bear the thought of adding up the cost, or the time I spent on this. Still, the new plates look nice don’t they?

Did I mention that French law requires number plates to be riveted on? (Thanks Pete for the loan of your pop riveter.) Did I mention that when we move house to another department, under the current system we have to have a new registration number, and so another set of number plates? Luckily there’s no charge for a new Carte Grise when you move . . . . . .

Dealing with all this could get you down. But then, not now the weather is back to normal and I can walk through vineyards with views like this. We may soon be broke, but we’ll be fine!