Can right-hand drive cars be sold in France legally?
French roads are designed with left-hand driving as standard
If selling a car to a member of the public, a banker's draft is often used
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Reader question: Can we sell a UK right-hand drive car in France? We are looking to upgrade.
There is no ban on selling British or other right-hand drive vehicles in France, just as it is also legal to drive them.
However, you may need to ensure the headlights have been adapted to beam in the right direction and change the speedometer to show kilometres, not miles (ones that show both are generally acceptable).
Assuming the car has French plates, the typical requirements for selling a French-registered vehicle apply, such as needing a contrôle technique (roadworthiness test) from the last six months for cars over four years old – UK MOTs do not count.
As the French roads are designed for left-hand driving however, it will typically be more difficult to find a buyer and, if you do, it will most likely sell for less than a left-hand drive equivalent.
It is likely to be best to sell privately, particularly if you live in an area with a lot of Britons and a relatively high demand for right-hand drive vehicles.
Ask around, or post on social media and resell/second-hand marketplace websites such as Facebook marketplace or Leboncoin.
To sell privately, both you and the buyer will need to complete a certificat de cession d’un véhicule d’occasion form and you will need to obtain a certificat de situation administrative (commonly called a certificat de non-gage) to prove there are no loans on the vehicle.
Be careful about how you accept the funds: the best solution is generally to ask for a chèque de banque (banker’s draft). More information is available here.
As a last resort you could take the vehicle back to the UK to sell it, but if that is not worth your while, scrapping the vehicle in France is possible, including for foreign-registered right-hand drive cars.
