Buying Used car in UK and importing it.

[rosbif77]

I need another car. My Renault Laguna has a cylinder head gasket problem. It's a December 2007 Laguna 3 modele with a 2.0 16v Nissan petrol engine. I bought it in 2013 with only 58000km on it ( premiere main) and now it's got 198800km. I've had it serviced every year at the Renault main dealer in my local town and parts regularly replaced. It passed its last control technique in June last year with zero fault and had a huge service in October with every filter changed+4 new tyres+discs/pads. Excellent condition, never a single problem and 90% used on long daily commute on motorways/nationale.
I bought this version of the Laguna because its supposed to be extremely reliable and the petrol engined models have a chain driven Nissan engine.

It started to misfire on cold start up at the beginning of March so i took it to the same dealer who told me to come back the following Wednesday afternoon to get the spark plugs changed. The day before (Tuesday) it wouldn't start at work in the evening then finally it started up with white smoke coming out the exhaust. No warning signs lit up on dashboard. It drove fine coming home. No more smoke.
The following day the garage told me that the head gasket had blown and it had lost most of its coolant. I checked before leaving work on the Tuesday evening and the coolant level was fine. I checked it the morning before i dropped it off at the garage and again coolant level ok.
The garage added some head seal and told me not to worry? I drove it again for a week then it again started smoking and coughing on cold start up. Once again i took it back to the garage. The icon came up ( controle anti pollution+engine oil problem).
The Renault garage quoted me 500euros démontage moteur+1500 euros jointe/controle culasse then another 2500 euros to replace the culasse.
Took it to another garage for a second opinion: this time i was quoted 4790 euros to replace head gasket and cylinder head.
The coolant level is going down but no engine overheating or other icons light up on the dashboard.
It misfires on cold start up,then drives but there's a drop in power when accelerating.

Therefore i guess im going to have to replace it and buy another.
So has anyone on here previously bought a UK registered car and imported it into France? Whats the procedure?

I've never had any problems with my Renaults before but quite frankly the engine problem with my Laguna has certainly put me off buying another Renault.
I'm thinking of getting either a Ford Focus 2 ( 2.0 petrol) or early Focus 3 petrol (1.0 icoboost) or an Opel Astra 4 with the 1.4/1.6 turbo petrol engine. I like the Ford Mondeo and the Opel Insignia but they are too expensive over here.
I

[paulwirral]

I did it for a mate a few years ago , and clicked a free trip in the process, buy car in England and register in your name and to a relatives address and insure it then just drive it over there and do the paperwork in France, you may need a mot equivalent depending on age . If my non French speaking mate can do it anyone can . You'll need a certificate of conformity from the manufacturer but that's a telephone call or email away .

[rosbif77]

I don’t have any relatives in the UK.

[magooagain]

Registering a uk car is now slightly harder as it has to be done online and I think the new system is a bit overloaded at the moment.I understand that some garagists will do it for a fee.

[Marcellus]

It's been a few years since we did any but iiirc we needed;
- cert de conf
- reciept showing all taxes paid in uk
- controle technique


I think there was some complication in that you needed to have owned the car for at least 6minths before you could re-register in France from UK.

[Mike-tf3n0]

Have imported three cars from the UK over the years, the last two were done immediately on arrival from the UK after getting a CT done plus headlights. Cert de Conformite, Controle Technique, UK V5 (keep a copy), UK MoT (keep a copy), copy of the purchase invoice - I think that was it. Remember to keep and send off to the DVLA the export slip on the V5.

[Marcellus]

Mike-tf3n0 said:

Remember to keep and send off to the DVLA the export slip on the V5.

We did this when exported one of our and then about 3 years later wanted to put it back on UK plates and found it had never been exported so were told by the local DVLA office just to put the old plates back on!

[rosbif77]

Ok thanks for that.
I’ll start looking.

[Vintage Racer]

Nowadays, you can only register the car online (or pay a garage who will do it for you for a fee).

I have just registered my Mercedes R129 over here and it is fairly straightforward, but you will need to jump through a few hoops to achieve it.

Although I have lived here for 14 years, I am embarrased to say that my French language skills are not brilliant (although I get by quite well), so I simply 'googled' the whole thing and then used 'google translate' to translate the website ( https://ants.gouv.fr/ ) to English.

The process is simple, but you will need to register to use the system. - Local tax office will help you with this.

Bon Chance!