SeanStone
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| posted on 14/2/11 at 10:58 PM |
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Locost in France
In the near future I could be moving to france. Are there any complications taking a uk registered locost to france? Anyone aware of any insurance or
legality problems?
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James
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 01:54 AM |
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You're joking right? 
I don't envy you the task!
http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=150394
Cheers,
James
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MikeCapon
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 08:17 AM |
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Hi. It's not complicated at all. It is quite simply impossible. Well, very nearly.....
For a vehicle to be registered over here there are four possibilties.
1 It is a mass production vehicle and has been homologated for the french market.
2 You have a foreign vehicle and the identical model (must be the same constructors reference on the existing logbook) has previously been
homologated. You can then register your car. I believe for example that certain models of Caterham have been homologated. Stiil a good few paperwork
hoops to jump through.
3 You put the vehicle through the french equivalent of IVA. You thought IVA was bad. The french 'reception a titre isolee' is near to
impossible and very dear.
4 You manage to persuade the FFVE (an independent sort of club for ancient cars/bikes) that your car is a collectors car. I believe it needs to be at
least 30 years old.
Get your Google translate button ready! Here are a couple of links for you.
FFVE
French LSIS forum
It's not for nothing that any kind of seven with a french logbook is worth a lot of money here.
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sergebelg
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 08:43 AM |
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it's better to keep your car registered and insured in UK !
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T66
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 08:49 AM |
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My mate has lived in Brittany for 5 years...
His Jeep remains UK registered, it gets an mot & tax when he comes this side every year.
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MikeCapon
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 08:58 AM |
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Serge is right to a certain extent.
If the car is registered in your name though you will still fall foul of the obligation to register the car in France after 6 months and on top of
that not all insurance policies will allow the car to stay out of the UK indefinately.
If your car is subject to MOT you'd need to take it back every year for the test too..
If the car is registered in the name of a UK resident with a UK address you could possibly keep it over here. I don't know how the french
authorities, or the insurer for that matter, would establish that the car has been here for over 6 months.... "It got here yesterday Mr
Gendarme".. In the case of a serious problem you would probably find yourself needing to supply some kind of proof. A ferry ticket? Do they have
the reg number on????
The MOT problem would still exist though and you'd need to tax it. There is no road tax over here. Which is nice.
Yet another can of Euro-worms.
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designer
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 09:21 AM |
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When I had my 'bump' I had to show the Gendarmes when I had entered France.
I had my ferry ticket in the car which they took as proof.
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 15/2/11 at 09:27 AM |
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Personally, I think the situation in France is tragic - in the early part of the 20th century that country was in the forefront of vehicle and light
aircraft design. Now, they're so bound up with regulations that such innovation is impossible.
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James
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| posted on 16/2/11 at 02:43 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
2 You have a foreign vehicle and the identical model (must be the same constructors reference on the existing logbook) has previously been
homologated. You can then register your car. I believe for example that certain models of Caterham have been homologated. Stiil a good few paperwork
hoops to jump through.
What if you told them that your Locost (or whatever) was a Caterham? Would anyone in the French authorities know the difference between a Caterham and
and other smart looking LSIS?
Or do they check your v5?
If they do check the v5 then I suppose that if you knew you were exporting the car when you built it here you could register it as a kit built
Caterham? I'm pretty damn sure I could've got away with that when i registered mine.
Alternatively, in a country such as France, where they'll happily set fire to full sheep transporters, riot/strike at the drop of a hat, tie
ropes from cars to speed cameras to trash them... can you not just bung the relevent person a brown envelope and the problem goes away? 
Cheers,
James
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The fight is won or lost far away from witnesses, behind the lines, in the gym and out there on the road, long before I dance under those lights."
- Muhammad Ali
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MikeCapon
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| posted on 16/2/11 at 07:53 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by James
quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
2 You have a foreign vehicle and the identical model (must be the same constructors reference on the existing logbook) has previously been
homologated. You can then register your car. I believe for example that certain models of Caterham have been homologated. Stiil a good few paperwork
hoops to jump through.
What if you told them that your Locost (or whatever) was a Caterham? Would anyone in the French authorities know the difference between a Caterham and
and other smart looking LSIS?
Or do they check your v5?
If they do check the v5 then I suppose that if you knew you were exporting the car when you built it here you could register it as a kit built
Caterham? I'm pretty damn sure I could've got away with that when i registered mine.
Alternatively, in a country such as France, where they'll happily set fire to full sheep transporters, riot/strike at the drop of a hat, tie
ropes from cars to speed cameras to trash them... can you not just bung the relevent person a brown envelope and the problem goes away?
Cheers,
James
They will be looking for a Caterham VIN plate with a chassis number and prefix that correspond to the ranges of numbers supplied to them by Caterham.
On top of that only certain engine types have been homolgated here. The K series Caterham has been homologated for example. This is as far as I know
from the french LSIS forum. Although I can't profess to have read every relevant post on there because reading legal jargon in french does my
head in...
So it's down to the bung. As in every other country in the world this works fine when there's just one official in front of you. Offer a
gift of encouragement to one while his colleagues are watching and you will hear screams of self righteous indignation. Followed by the click of the
handcuffs.
IMO the best option is to try the 30 year old car imported trick. Clearly this is a little difficult with a turbo'd Hayabusa for example but
could be playable with a crossflow engined Locost?
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