greetings from france

[bouzirouge]

hi, i'm a scottish ex-pat living in the south west of france, i hope i've made a good descision today in buying a used marlin over here. i have plenty of questions i'd like to ask about this car and generally about marlins as it's been 30 years since i last owned one. this new car i've been able to find in the club's gallery but i've not been able to get any more info on it. it's the blue ykc car reg C438TMO shown and decribed as a romero. anyone recognise it? any history or nuggets of information will add to the almost zero i know. it drives well and looks to have ben well built after a cursory inspection. it has a v5 and a non Q plated uk reg no. the current owner says he looked into re-registering in france it but quickly gave up.
hopefully i've not made too big a mistake in the descision to buy.

[stevejgreen]

Re: greetings from france

If it is anything like Spain it will be a challenge to register in France, but possible if you can find someone who knows the twists and turns, but you are likely to fall at the last hurdle after spending money jumping all the others, especially when it comes to Type Approval. Expect charges to reach €1000, even for a standard production car.
If it is on British plates, it will need to have a British MOT and British Tax and suitable insurance. Technically it can then only be driven on Spanish roads for a period of six months before either being registered in Spain or returned to its country of origin. My understanding is that this is EU law applicable throughout the EU. Inevitably it is possible to keep the car 'legal' if you have a very friendly MOT tester in the UK and a UK address for the registration and tax disc to be sent to. Nobody will know whether the car has actually been back to the UK or not, unless they check travel documents carefully.
There is an odd clause here in Spain that there is a fast track re-registration if the car has been owned/imported for less than one month. That is probably more to do with the local Mayor and his contacts than the legal system.
Good luck, I would be keen to find out how you get on.

[b_caswell]

Re: greetings from france

To get a Carte Gris(French log book) the French authorities still want a Certificate of Conformity but alas most kit cars don't come with one even if the manufacturer is still in business. Although if the car has had a SVA or IVA it may be argued the MAC is in fact a certificate of conformity. However the European Union has made a request(Nov 2013) to France to respect the fact that kit cars that are registered and in use from other countries should be accepted, the Commission requests France to remove barriers to trade forkit cars (case 2012/4176)


The European Commission has requested that France changesits rules for registration of imported kit cars previously registered inanother Member State, as they do not comply with the principle of free movementof goods within the EU and the principles established in the EU Directive onthe registration documents for vehicles. Kit cars consist of a set of partssold by a manufacturer and used by the buyer to assemble a car. Usually, themechanical systems such as the engine and transmission are sourced from donorvehicles or purchased new from other vendors. Currently the French authoritiesrefuse to register some imported kit cars as they claim certain data in thecar's registration documents are incorrect (such as the initial registrationdate of the vehicle), despite the fact that the registration documents wereproduced by the relevant authorities in another EU country.

The Commission considers that the documents provided by theMember State of origin should be trusted and France's concerns should focus onthe safety aspects of the vehicle. To allow the efficient registration of suchcars, the relevant national authorities should cooperate and establish anefficient dialogue to clarify any missing or incorrect data, rather thanplacing additional administrative burdens on the private individual purchasingthe vehicle. If is it not possible to reach an agreement between nationaladministrations, other steps should be taken to allow the vehicle'sregistration, for example the French authorities should be allowed to select amore recent registration date for the vehicle.

The Commission has therefore issued a reasonedopinion asking France to allow the registration of such vehicles alreadyregistered in another Member State. If France does not inform the Commissionwithin two months of measures taken to ensure full compliance with theirobligations under the Directive, the Commission may decided..... So you may have ground to appeal to the European Union Commission if they turn you down. Sadly the French seem to get away with their own interpretation of the rules.

[bouzirouge]

Re: greetings from france

hi guys, i'm pretty au fait with the process here in france. thing got much harder when the french did away with their sva process. time will tell.
i'm really interested in finding out as much as i can about the history of the car. it is in the club gallery so presumably someone knows something about it. here's the link.

http://www.marlinownersclub.com/wppg_photogallery/wppg_photo_details/?gallery_id=6&image_id=2584

and here's the car reg C438 TMO.
Romero-C438-TMO.jpg
hopefully it's a good one but any info is more than i have just now. i'm only waiting for the insurance to arrive so i can go and get it. then the real fun will begin.

[Steve Himsworth]

Re: greetings from france

hi guys, i'm pretty au fait with the process here in france. thing got much harder when the french did away with their sva process. time will tell.
i'm really interested in finding out as much as i can about the history of the car. it is in the club gallery so presumably someone knows something about it. here's the link.

http://www.marlinownersclub.com/wppg_photogallery/wppg_photo_details/?gallery_id=6&image_id=2584

and here's the car reg C438 TMO.
[ATTACH]5454[/ATTACH]
hopefully it's a good one but any info is more than i have just now. i'm only waiting for the insurance to arrive so i can go and get it. then the real fun will begin.

Hi Bouzirouge, just thought I`d make contact with you. I have a place in Brittany 50kms from St Malo and it is our intention to move there permanently within the next year if all goes well. Just had a thought that at some point in the future between us we could organise a trip over for the owners club with destination at each end of the country. Just a thought. By the way where are you based in France and also I did live in Edinburgh 8yrs working at a Ford dealership?
Good luck with your new car looks very nice cant say I remember it though, but then we did sell a lot of kits and build a lot of cars.
Regards Steve Himsworth (ex YKC)

[Tony Stott]

Re: greetings from france

I also live in finistere twixt Brest and Quimper - I also have a berli finished off at elvington, you could count me in as well!

[Steve Himsworth]

Re: greetings from france

Hi Tony, perhaps we could meet up next year at some point?, we are in Jugon les Lacs 22270, so not to far away from you. Which is your b/etta do have a photo?Anyway take care Steve Himsworth