People Of France - help required

[Rusty]

Rick - Why are you throwing you glass eye at the girls again?   

If you will keep hangiiing around Notre Dame ringing those goddam f**k*ng bells man, ain't nothing gonna happen. Get a hood or something and stop scaring them off.

[Lord Pig-Pen]

What are you after I am over there now. Office closed at 4pm now all i can think about is beer!

nothing special really, just a cheap astra estate or something for a run about over there for the parents. it will just be left in the garage while where in the uk and when at the house it will be used to get about, go the tip etc!

Does it have to be LHD? Second hand cars are WAY cheaper in the UK than in France. I have two 'runabouts' which live at various airports for when I'm commuting in/out of the land of hoppy leged ones. A 1999 Citroen Xsara in perfect nick for which I paid the princely sum of £700 and a 1999 Renault Megane (with lots of electric things, working A/C and alloys), again in excellent condition and it cost me a miserly £470 !! Both these cars would be well over €2500 in France. As Paddy says though, buy French, they don't cope well with other countries cars (took my wife 4 weeks to get the starter motor fixed on our V70!) and if left parked they just blend into the background so are completely anonymous.

Posted as I posted mine... spooky!
Buy French over here and take it over... 205 or 405 oiler. Loads of spares in scrappys, cheap parts and no electric rubbish to worry about. And they will run on cooking oil mixed 50/50 with cheap french diesel.

I always had a thought in my mind while driving to LM in a variety of Nissan 300C's, even with full breakdown cover, if she breaks down, what hope is there if UK dealers cant get parts!!

[Lord Pig-Pen]

Rick - Why are you throwing you glass eye at the girls again?   

If you will keep hangiiing around Notre Dame ringing those goddam f**k*ng bells man, ain't nothing gonna happen. Get a hood or something and stop scaring them off.

And a gas mask... will lessen the garlic fumes from any potential victim that actually talks to you!

[Kev_mk3]

Whereabouts is your parents' place, btw?

They have a house in a place called “savigne sous le lude” from what I remember – I know its in between lu lude & la Fleche, I just drive there to be honest!! its about 10 mile from Lemans I think ( see link below )

http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=FR|la%20lude#t=l&map=47.61667,0.06667|14|4&loc=FR:47.61667:0.06667:14|savigne%20sous%20le%20lude|Savign%C3%A9-sous-le-Lude,%20Pays%20de%20la%20Loire,%20D%C3%A9partement%20de%20la%20Sarthe

nothing special really, just a cheap astra estate

Well there's a shock 

I know them like the back of my hand as I run a owners club so parts are easy for me lol think he is going to buy a new clio over there tho

[termietermite]

Then they are probably around an hour away from me so I'll keep an eye out round here - less hassle if it has a 72 plate (although that won't apply for long as the department numbers are being scrapped).  But it's true, if they can bear to have the steering wheel on the wrong side, then rhd's are way cheaper - the import process is a bit lugubrious (French bureaucrats get involved and whammo!) but do-able.  Any idea of budget?

[Kev_mk3]

Then they are probably around an hour away from me so I'll keep an eye out round here - less hassle if it has a 72 plate (although that won't apply for long as the department numbers are being scrapped).  But it's true, if they can bear to have the steering wheel on the wrong side, then rhd's are way cheaper - the import process is a bit lugubrious (French bureaucrats get involved and whammo!) but do-able.  Any idea of budget?

well spoke to dad and basically he has bought his company car as he got it for a steal. he can use that then when he goes to france for good he will buy something over there


bloody parents 

[Andy Zarse]

nothing special really, just a cheap astra estate

Well there's a shock  

My thoughts entirely and I admire the devotion to the cause. But why on earth would anyone want a ghastly old built-to-a-budget boneshaker like a Mk3 Astra estate when similar money puts you in an properly sophisticated turbodiesel Citroen estate with a magic carpet ride? It's lunacy on any logical basis.

[JDS]

Then they are probably around an hour away from me so I'll keep an eye out round here - less hassle if it has a 72 plate (although that won't apply for long as the department numbers are being scrapped).  But it's true, if they can bear to have the steering wheel on the wrong side, then rhd's are way cheaper - the import process is a bit lugubrious (French bureaucrats get involved and whammo!) but do-able.  Any idea of budget?

TBH, I found it pretty simple, the worst bit being the CT when he tried to explain that he had let it through even though the lights were a little low (now fixed, it was like driving with a candle on the front!). Just a few forms to fill in (one's even free!) and a few hundred euros overall and Bob's your mother's brother... Just keeps it that little bit more innocious when in a carpark full of other French cars and saves having to take it back to the UK each year to tax/MOT it.

[Paddy_NL]

the import process is a bit lugubrious (French bureaucrats get involved and whammo!) but do-able. 

That's why you're better off with French cars. My old company car is a Seat Inca, which is a rebadged VW Caddy. After we replaced it here, we shipped it over to France to become my mum's shopping trolley. The Seat Inca has never been imported to France, as they're basically saying it doesn't exist. So my mum's shopping trolly still drives around with Dutch plates.
Complica'ed

[termietermite]

Certainly, the most complicated business for us was getting the European certificate of conformity (the Skoda was very funny - Skoda France saying get it from the UK and Skoda UK vice-versa - we eventually prised it out of the British end.  With the Landy, it came from Landrover France - go figure.)  The problem with British registered cars in the France is that if they are not exported, UK insurance companies will often wriggle out of their obligations to settle a claim (not a worry if you don't actually live here, but a total no-no if you pretend you live in the UK but don't actually do so.)  With any average car, the process of importation is pretty simple, but the cost varies according to CV ratings so the less powerful it is, the cheaper it gets.

[JDS]

the import process is a bit lugubrious (French bureaucrats get involved and whammo!) but do-able.

That's why you're better off with French cars. My old company car is a Seat Inca, which is a rebadged VW Caddy. After we replaced it here, we shipped it over to France to become my mum's shopping trolley. The Seat Inca has never been imported to France, as they're basically saying it doesn't exist. So my mum's shopping trolly still drives around with Dutch plates.
Complica'ed

strangely, after reading this I have been behind two VW Caddy's and three SEAT Inca's on the way to work in the last few days !!!

[Kev_mk3]

did they sell the SEAT Inca in england?

[JDS]

did they sell the SEAT Inca in england?

Certainly did - all of these had UK reg and were RHD ...

[Kev_mk3]

did they sell the SEAT Inca in england?

Certainly did - all of these had UK reg and were RHD ...

it was that shape caddy was it, Hhmmmmmmmmm thought it was the OLD skool Caddy

like -

[JDS]

Nope, all small (high payload) panel vans - kinda like a Transit Connect these days I guess