Import to France

[Henry Harris]

What is the procedure for importing and registering a special in France?

[Reckless Rat]

Forget it, Henry. After Brexit it's nigh on impossible. The vehicle would first have to be authenticated by the FFVE (Fédération Française de Vehicules de l'Epoque) as genuine, which of course as a "special" it's not, and the UK V5 may carry details of the donor vehicle, prior to modification. On top of that the customs restrictions now are particularly onerous. It's a can of worms.

A word of warning to anyone thinking of buying a UK registered vehicle in France (of any make, year or type) is "CAVEAT EMPTOR" - get the seller to register it in France first.

For info on how to do it, go to www.ffve.fr (which is in French, of course) for the requirements relating to authentication and take particular note of the section referring to importation and customs clearance.

[goodwoodweirdo]

HAAAA HAAA reckless Rat is clearly living in France 

I hear from friends even a simple trips back to the UK is proving a head ache when coming back to France (customs, declarations etc etc)

[Reckless Rat]

Not just living in France (since 2002), I AM French and have been officially for over 12 years.. So are all my cars. I have a good friend who has just moved out here and we looked at the situation regarding re-registering his Brit registered vehicles here and have decided that the easiest solution is to take them back to the UK and sell them there.

[Nick Salmon]

Ah, dear old Brexit. The gift that just keeps on giving.

[bob46320]

you could try contacting Austin 7 club France. This is a cover for A7 in France which are all specials and excludes true A7s, but.!

contact Ian at autographracing@live.com Based in the Charente
or their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/autographracing/

Bob

[Duncan Grimmond]

What will it take for the Great British Public to recognise the enormous stupidity of Brexit and do something about it?
(Sorry about the politics but he stared it Miss!)

[TonyHodson]

Whatever one's opinions about Brexit, it hasn't really changed the fact that registering a special here in France has, as I understand it, always been difficult. I have brought over two cars which have been successfully registered here, both standard models without any problem. A "sympa" Controle Technique tester and a dose of patience with the authorities are of course obligatory. The view of local enthusiasts here is that "you can get away with anything in the UK, but not here!"

[Dirk73]

i agree with the previous post, you can register an imported classic car in France, but you have to jump through quite a lot of hoops. I did this for one of my A7s but it took nearly a year in total.
Assuming it has a UK V5c with all the correct details (engine size standard, not fitted with a Reliant engine, etc.)
First declare the car at customs when you enter the country and pay the import duty, and keep the receipt.
Then apply to the FFVE with all the relevant pics/docs they require.
If/when you get the attestation back from the FFVE (mine took 8 months) then you can get an agent to help fill in all the online forms at ANTS (french equivalent of DVLA) or DIY but it's a bit of a minefield.

There are lots of A7 specials in france with non-standard bodywork, as long as the chassis and engine numbers tally with the UK V5 and it's all A7 engine/box/chassis/axles then it should be feasible.

Apart from having to declare and pay import duty, the rest of the bureaucratic system for registering an imported classic hasn't changed since before brexit. It was very long and arduous then and it's still long and arduous now.

[Duncan Grimmond]

The UK is fortunate in that we have kept a section of the registration/licence process for special builds. At the time of negotiating our entry to the EU we had a long-established and thriving kit-car industry, the last vestiges of which are still alive. This represented a sizeable contribution to employment and economy (at that time) which was recognised by the UK government after some pressure was applied.
As car manufacture is one of the most the dominant industries throughout Europe the power it wields over governments is enormous and while it may be politically expedient to blame the EU for the ills of registration bureaucracy it is ease of uniformity that the industry wants and, in most cases, gets. We evaded the net.