Selling to Buyer from France

[Profile]

Have the chance to sell my car to a guy willing to travel from the South of France to collect it. All contact has been by email and have copies of his flight booking and travel plans so all looks genuine. Last email has asked me to provide some detail Mitsubishi France require for the import, The form is called a "Fiche D'intification D'un Vehicule Import En France" and looks as if its after chassis no.s etc from the VIN plate.

Can anyone advise if providing this detail upfront is usual or should I be suspicious?

Edited by Profile on Thursday 27th October 07:54

[Dunclane]

A friend of mine sold his TT to someone from France a few years ago. He flew over, saw the car, went to the bank with my friend did the transfer and went on his way. No problems whatsoever.

[lowdrag]

No problems at all. I've helped a few French buy cars from the UK and inone case we never even met the seller, but dealt with everything by email. As long as you get the money nothing else matters. Cars here are so damned expensive, which is why the French are looking at the UK. In one instance a Lotus Elise was valued at 25,000 euros here and we paid #11,000 in the UK.

[Profile]

lowdrag said:

No problems at all. I've helped a few French buy cars from the UK and inone case we never even met the seller, but dealt with everything by email. As long as you get the money nothing else matters. Cars here are so damned expensive, which is why the French are looking at the UK. In one instance a Lotus Elise was valued at 25,000 euros here and we paid #11,000 in the UK.

Thanks, sounds like I might be concerned for nothing, just get v suspicious of anyone asking for this sort of detail. Have sold a previous car to a guy from Holland who just arrived, paid the cash and went with the car, no export/import docs were mentioned. Got mail from him couple of days later to say he got the car home no problems

[S3_Graham]

Profile said:

lowdrag said:

No problems at all. I've helped a few French buy cars from the UK and inone case we never even met the seller, but dealt with everything by email. As long as you get the money nothing else matters. Cars here are so damned expensive, which is why the French are looking at the UK. In one instance a Lotus Elise was valued at 25,000 euros here and we paid #11,000 in the UK.

Thanks, sounds like I might be concerned for nothing, just get v suspicious of anyone asking for this sort of detail. Have sold a previous car to a guy from Holland who just arrived, paid the cash and went with the car, no export/import docs were mentioned. Got mail from him couple of days later to say he got the car home no problems

if it puts your mind at rest at all, i was going to sell my car to a friend of mine in south of france, he needed the type certificate and everything for the car for import. (MGTF)

[sunbeam alpine]

France and Belgium still make it more difficult to register imported cars - each car still needs to have its own individual certificate of conformity.

If the guy is driving the car back, it could be that he needs the details for his insurance cover. I'm based in Belgium and have bought cars in the Netherlands and the UK. I can transfer car insurance from one of my other cars (for up to a month) to do this, and I get a green card showing the VIN of the car.

I also have to carry the numberplates of the car I've swapped from with me, but don't actually have to fix them over/replace the original number plates.

Of course if he starts asking when his "recommended shipper" can come, or suggests using the obviously excellent "Pistonheads escrow service", run a mile!

[steveo3002]

possibly insuring it on the chassis number ..i had to when i got a german car to register here , insured and mot'd it on the chasssis number until the uk plate arrived