In Paris, the registration is done by the préfecture de police or the town hall ( mairie) of your arrondissement. If you import a car, you must obtain customs clearance and have it inspected by the DRIRE before it can be registered.
Registration Document
A vehicle registration document is known as a ‘grey card’ ( carte grise). Sans permis vehicles have a mini-carte grise, but the registration procedure is otherwise the same as with ordinary cars. It must be applied for in person at your local préfecture. (The government intends to make it possible to obtain a registration document by post or online, thus depriving millions of people of the joy of queuing for hours to get one.) Since June 2004, cartes grises have incorporated a tear-off portion, which must be completed by the vendor.
You must present this and the sales certificate ( certificat de vente), certificat de non-gage and certificat de non-opposition that you received from the vendor, technical inspection certificate, if applicable, and a photocopy of your carte de séjour or passport and complete a registration request form ( demande de certificat d’immatriculation), available in some cases from your mairie or hôtel de ville.
If you move to a new address in the same department, you must currently inform your préfecture of your change of address. However, if you move to a different department, you must re-register your car with the new préfecture within three months. You’re recommended to do this as soon as possible, as cars registered in another department are prime targets for thieves and vandals. You must present the tear-off portion of your registration document, your carte de séjour (if applicable) and proof of residence; you may also be asked for a certificat de résidence obtainable from your local town hall. The fee for a revised registration document is €33.
EU legislation dictates that this system was due to end in June 2006, when a national or ‘personalised’ numbering system was to remove this necessity and a car would retain the same registration number for life, but in August 2006 the French were typically still discussing the implementation of this law (i.e. procrastinating). When you receive a registration document with a new registration number, e.g. after importing a car or moving to a new department, you must fit new registration plates within 48 hours.
If a woman marries and changes her name, it’s unnecessary for her to change her registration document. If you lose your registration document or have it stolen, you must report it to the police, who will issue you with a certificate allowing you to obtain a replacement from the préfecture.
The fee for a registration document varies according to the size of a vehicle’s engine, according to a scale of ‘fiscal horsepower’ ( chevaux fiscaux), which isn’t the same as the actual horsepower ( chevaux DIN) produced by the engine, and fee scales vary with the region; for example, they’re up to 50 per cent higher in Paris than in the provinces.
Current fees for a car less than ten years old are between €150 and €250 for a 5hp car (approximately equivalent to a 1,200cc petrol engine or a 1,400cc diesel engine), €180 to €280 for 6hp (1,400/1,600cc) and €210 to €325 for 7hp (1,700/2,000cc), although the government plans to increase fees by as much as 100 per cent for 4x4s and other gas-guzzling vehicles and in January 2006 introduced a surcharge of €2 per gram of carbon dioxide above 200 per kilometre travelled and €4 per gram above 250g. For a car more than ten years old, fees are roughly half the above.
Registration Number
Currently, the last two digits of a car’s registration number ( numéro d’immatriculation) correspond to the number of the department where it’s registered, e.g. 62 for Pas-de-Calais. (Personalised numbers don’t exist, although it’s possible to obtain a sort of personalised number by requesting a number that starts with a particular digit or sequence of digits and waiting until it becomes available.)
The other numbers and letters have no significance but give an indication of the age of a vehicle (unless it has been re-registered), as letters and numbers are issued in sequence (e.g. 1234 XH 62 is an older number than 1234 XK 62). However, number plates are set to change in 2006, when the initial department number is to disappear in favour of a two letters/three figures/two letters format. Letters and numbers will be bigger, and plates will have a space on the right for a departmental or other identifying logo. As usual, however, the French are conducting endless discussions as to the best system.
Plates are made on the spot by supermarkets and ironmongers ( quincaillerie) on production of your registration document (the cost is around €25 per pair). The white plate goes at the front and the yellow one at the rear.
This article is an extract from Living and working in France. Click here to get a copy now.