The seller will not deregister the car. Is that normal in France?

Yes, because there is nothing there to deregister. A French car is transferred rather than taken off the road: the seller signs the certificat de cession, hands over the carte grise struck through and dated, and files the sale in the register. That filing produces a code with which the buyer makes his application through ANTS or an approved intermediary — without the code you go nowhere. The seller has his own reason to do it promptly: until he does, fines and toll charges come to him.

What should I look for on a car from the coast or from the south?

For two different kinds of damage. On the Atlantic coast, in Brittany and Normandy, salt sits in the air all year and attacks the same places road salt does: wheel arches, sills, the seams at the tailgate and the bottom edges of the doors. In the Midi rust is rare, but the sun has worked on seals, dashboard and headlight lenses, and the air conditioning has run far more hours than it would in the north. The north-east and the Massif Central add winter salting on top. So a southern car tends to be tired rather than rotten and a coastal one the other way round — work out which pattern the car in front of you fits, and put it into the price.

Used cars from France

France is the market of small engines, and tax law is the reason: a malus applies at first registration and hangs on two quantities, CO₂ output and mass. People buying new bought accordingly, and the used stock is what came of it — a great deal of compact metal, a lot of diesel at the higher mileages, little that is large without a corporate past. In exchange a French buyer gets something several neighbouring markets lack: a free, state-run history report on the individual car, which only the registered keeper can trigger. Being refused it is already an answer.

See matching cars

What matters

Histovec: through the state service the registered keeper generates a report on his own car — changes of keeper, the mileages logged at every contrôle technique, serious-damage procedures, theft reports. He shares it as a link; only he can produce it, never the prospective buyer.
Certificat de situation administrative: proof that the car carries neither a registered lien (gage) nor an administrative block (opposition). Without a clean one the carte grise cannot be transferred — and it has to be current; one issued months ago says nothing about today.
Contrôle technique: the report grades faults, and the heavier grades bring a contre-visite with them. A car advertised with a retest outstanding is a car advertised with a bill attached. For the transfer the test also has to fall inside the period the rules allow — an older report reads well and does nothing at the counter.
Across the border: a French seller does not deregister the car, he declares the sale in the register — and until he does, the car still runs in his name. Within the EU no customs declaration follows; into Switzerland one does. The other direction, with the quitus fiscal and the ANTS application, is in the import guide below.

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How people search in France

A used car is called:: voiture d'occasion
The technical inspection is called:: contrôle technique
The registration document is called:: carte grise

These words appear in the papers and in every listing from France — worth knowing before you assess a car from there. Ask where the contrôle technique stands before you travel.

Makes that shape the stock in France

By body and drivetrain in France

By price band

Places in France

Read on

Importing a car into France

Common questions

The seller will not deregister the car. Is that normal in France?: Yes, because there is nothing there to deregister. A French car is transferred rather than taken off the road: the seller signs the certificat de cession, hands over the carte grise struck through and dated, and files the sale in the register. That filing produces a code with which the buyer makes his application through ANTS or an approved intermediary — without the code you go nowhere. The seller has his own reason to do it promptly: until he does, fines and toll charges come to him.
What should I look for on a car from the coast or from the south?: For two different kinds of damage. On the Atlantic coast, in Brittany and Normandy, salt sits in the air all year and attacks the same places road salt does: wheel arches, sills, the seams at the tailgate and the bottom edges of the doors. In the Midi rust is rare, but the sun has worked on seals, dashboard and headlight lenses, and the air conditioning has run far more hours than it would in the north. The north-east and the Massif Central add winter salting on top. So a southern car tends to be tired rather than rotten and a coastal one the other way round — work out which pattern the car in front of you fits, and put it into the price.