To register a vehicle in France, you must register it with the prefecture or sub-prefecture of the department where you reside within 15 days of importing or obtaining a used vehicle. You need to present documents like the sales certificate, technical inspection certificate, and registration request form to obtain the registration document known as the "grey card." If you move to a new department, you must re-register your vehicle with the new prefecture within 3 months. Registration fees vary based on engine size and region.

1. Vehicle laws
Registration documents and numbers
When you import a car into France or obtain a replacement or second-hand car, it should be
registered at the préfecture or sous-préfecture within the department wherever you’re resident
inside fifteen days.
In Paris, the registration is finished by the préfecture First State police or the government
building (mairie) of your arrondissement. If you import a car, you want to get customs
clearance and have it inspected by the DRIRE before it is registered.
Registration Document
A vehicle registration document is understood as a ‘grey card’ (cartegrise). Sans permis
vehicles have a mini-carte grise, however the registration procedure is otherwise an
equivalent like normal cars. It should be applied for personally at your native préfecture. (The
government intends to create it potential to get a registration document by post or on-line,
therefore depriving several folks of the thrill of queuing for hours to urge one.) Since June
2004, cartesgrises have incorporated a tear-off portion, that should be completed by the seller.
You must gift this and also the sales certificate (certificat First State vente), certificat First
State non-gage and certificat First State non-opposition that you simply received from the
seller, technical scrutiny certificate, if applicable, and a photocopy of your menu First State
séjour or passport and complete a registration request kind (First Statemande de
certificatd’immatriculation), offered in some cases from your mairie orhôtel First State ville.
If you progress to a replacement address within the same department, you want to presently
inform your préfecture of your modification of address. However, if you progress to a special
department, you want to re-register your car with the new préfecture inside 3 months. You’re
suggested to try and do this as presently as potential, as cars registered in another department
area unit prime targets for thieves and vandals. you want to gift the tear-off portion of your
registration document, your menu First State séjour (if applicable) and proof of residence;
you will even be asked for a certificat First State résidenceobtainable from your native
government building. The fee for a revised registration document is €33.

2. EU legislation dictates that this method was as a result of finish in June 2006, once a national
or ‘personalised’ enumeration system was to get rid of this necessity and a car would retain
an equivalent identification number always, however in August 2006 the French were
generally still discussing the implementation of this law (i.e. procrastinating). after you
receive a registration document with a replacement identification number, e.g. once
importation a car or moving to a replacement department, you want to match new registration
plates inside forty eight hours.
If a lady marries and changes her name, it’s unneeded for her to alter her registration
document. If you lose your registration document or have it taken, you want to report it to the
police, WHO can issue you with a certificate permitting you to get a replacement from the
préfecture.
The fee for a registration document varies in step with the dimensions of a vehicle’s engine,
in step with a scale of ‘fiscal horsepower’ (chevauxfiscaux), that isn’t an equivalent because
the actual power unit (chevaux DIN) created by the engine, and fee scales vary with the
region; as an example, they’re up to fifty per cent higher in Paris than within the provinces.
Current fees for a car but 10 years previous area unit between €150 and €250 for a 5hp car
(approximately like a one,200cc gas engine or a one,400cc diesel engine), €180 to €280 for
6hp (1,400/1,600cc) and €210 to €325 for 7hp (1,700/2,000cc), though the govt. plans to
extend fees by the maximum amount as one hundred per cent for 4x4s and different gas-guzzling
vehicles and in January two hundred6 introduced a surcharge of €2 per gram of
greenhouse emission higher than 200 per kilometer cosmopolitan and €4 per gram higher
than 250g. For a car over 10 years previous, fees area unit roughly 0.5 the higher than.
Registration range
Currently, the last 2 digits of a car’s identification number (numérod’immatriculation)
correspond to the quantity of the department wherever it’s registered, e.g. sixty two for Pas-de-
Calais. (Personalised numbers don’t exist, though it’s potential to get a form of
individualized range by requesting variety that starts with a selected digit or sequence of
digits and waiting till it becomes offered.)
The other numbers and letters haven’t any significance however offer a sign of the age of a
vehicle (unless it’s been re-registered), as letters and numbers area unit issued in sequence
(e.g. 1234 XH sixty two is associate older range than 1234 XK 62). However, range plates
area unit set to alter in 2006, once the initial department range is to disappear in favour of a 2
letters/three figures/two letters format. Letters and numbers are larger, and plates can have an
area on the proper for a division or different distinctive brand. As usual, however, the French
area unit conducting endless discussions on the most effective system.
Plates area unit created on the spot by supermarkets and ironmongers (quincaillerie) on
production of your registration document (the value is around €25 per pair). The white plate
goes at the front and also the yellow one at the rear.
Linda Eaton lives in Olargues , Languedoc-Roussillon. She can often be found tanning,
listening to classical music or reading about the Impressionists. Though she enjoys the
outdoors, her true passion is travel. She offers information and tips about logbook prefecture
(carte grise prefecture), prefecture gray card (préfecture carte grise), gray card procedures

3. (démarches carte grise), formalities gray card (formalités carte grise) such as those from
www.chrono-immat.com
Read Original Story
Vote this story on google+
Google+ | Linkedin | Friendfeed