Importing a Caterham 7 to France. possible or impossible????

[Powdernick1]

Hi there, I've seen quite a lot of post about bringing cars in to France, but i'll ask again, but with reference to my car. i have got a 1995, Q plated Caterham classic, 1.6. Does any one think it's possible or am i destined to be ferrying it back and fourth, to and from the uk every year.

[rdjohn]

There are holomogated Caterham and Lotus 7s in France, but unless you can get a certificate of conformity, then you are likely to encounter problems like other kit cars do.

It is possible, but I do not believe that there is a guaranteed way of overcoming French fillibustering. Life is generally too short.

[Powdernick1]

rdjohn said:

There are holomogated Caterham and Lotus 7s in France, but unless you can get a certificate of conformity, then you are likely to encounter problems like other kit cars do.

It is possible, but I do not believe that there is a guaranteed way of overcoming French fillibustering. Life is generally too short.

Hmm thats pretty much as i understand it. On paper it IS possible, but because of the paperwork, it's impossible.

[sunbeam alpine]

Belgium also works with COC's. Here you can get a state-issued COC - I used it to register my Sunbeam Alpine here as obviously Sunbeam doesn't exist any more.

You have to make an appointment at a state-run MOT (keuring) centre. They then check the car over (it's not an actual MOT - you have to do that later). What they do is note the engine size, weight of the car, wheels, tyres (also checking that they are suitable size/rating etc.), type of suspension etc.

It took about 6 weeks from my presenting the car at the centre until I received the COC. Then I had to return to the Keuring centre for a real MOT test. Then I got a paper to register the car.

I know that Belgium accepts French COC's (I've bought 2 classic cars in France). Maybe this route could also be possible? (i.e. That France would also accept a Belgian COC.

I don't remember exactly any more, but I think it cost me about €380 for the keuring, plus I had to trailer the car back and forth as it wasn't allowed to be driven on the road.

[trunnie]

Its apparently possible, but it appears that you'll need to spend more time with French officialdom than most of us feel is healthy for our blood pressure. There's more than one tale of success on Sevener with this being the latest -
http://sevener.fr/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=24204&a...
But, this guy took 2 years to register the car.
(Google translate should give you an idea) and you can search under DREAL is the official body that deals with homologation issues.
I susopect that, if the process was simple, the price of second hand Caterhams here in France would be lower (see lacentrale.fr.

Trunnie

[Powdernick1]

@trunnie thanks for that, the fact that he is French and it still took him two years is worrying. The french quite like the french and are happy to help each other out, the English, not so much.

[rdjohn]

I once spoke at length with a French guy who had built a Tiger.

When he first took it for inspection he had a jobsworth who wrote a list of trivial things but told to return in about 2 months time. When he returned there was another guy there with a completely different perspective. He just praised the guy for the amount of effort he had put into all the detail and signed it of. There are no defined regulations, they are required to express an opinion.

The problem is if you have a cushy government job, would you risk anything by signing off something so lightweight that is not really crashworthy, so you risk losing you job-for-life if the owner gets killed in a crash and somone wants to find a scapegoat.

[trunnie]

In my experience, French bureaucrats are equally inefficient and obstructive whether faced with foreigners or French people. As John mentions, there are some humans out there, but the jobsworth tendency is like the worst parts of UK bureaucracy in the 70s.

[Expatloon]

To prove the point...............

No other information I'm afraid other then knowing it belonged to an English Vicar and was for sale at the time the photo was taken in 2010.

[elster]

I know it is possible, as there are several Caterhams that come to the local track for club days.

[Abbott]

Possible but not probable. I studied the possibility for a long time before deciding to buy one that had already been imported. Cost a fortune and I know that the guy I bought it off had a very good relationship with someone at the bureau.