Buying a car in France: papers, carte grise, insurance

We at “Vibe South of France” don’t sell cars and don’t recommend insurers. What you’ll find here is the routine every new owner goes through: what to collect from the seller, how to get the carte grise, what it costs in the South, and how insurance, the contrôle technique and the Crit’Air sticker work. All of it comes from service-public cards, each with its own check date. There are no car prices or lists of dealers, because there is no official data on them. To hear how it went for people who have already bought, ask in the “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - cars, moving and life in the South.

In short: what to do after you buy

Three things, and the first two have a deadline.

While the paperwork is in progress, keep your licence and the carte grise or the CPI in the car. Fail to show them at a roadside check and you risk up to €38; fail to produce them within 5 days and it is up to €750 (F2794). Since 1 April 2024 you don’t have to show insurance papers at a check.

Buying from a private seller: what you should get

A used car from a private seller is the most common case and the heaviest on paper. The seller hands you a bundle of documents, and it pays to check it before you hand over the money.

A few details that save a lot of grief.

A pledge (gage) on the CSA doesn’t block the sale, but an opposition does: until it is lifted, the deal can’t go through. For a car on foreign plates there is no CSA at all. The seller may also send you a link to a HistoVec report on the car’s history, with past contrôles techniques and its administrative status; the service is free.

The contrôle technique is counted not from the day of the sale but from the day you apply for the carte grise: on that date it must be less than 6 months old. If a re-test (contre-visite) was ordered, there are 2 months to do it. With critical defects the seller must have the repairs and the re-test done before selling to a private buyer. If the 6 months run out, a new contrôle technique is needed, and under F1707 the seller pays for it. So apply without delay, or you’ll be renegotiating.

The seller has to tell you about the car’s condition and whether it has been in accidents, and how serious they were. Only the person named on the carte grise may sell the car; a car on LOA (lease with an option to buy) can’t be sold. A car that doesn’t run can’t be sold to a private buyer at all, only to a professional with a Siret number.

No code de cession? You can still apply, using the form number (numéro de formule) and the date of the old carte grise.

What you upload: cerfa 13750, proof of address no older than 6 months, the old carte grise, the contrôle technique, the certificat de cession or the invoice. And you declare on your honour that the car is insured and that you hold a licence of the right category. You don’t attach a copy of the licence, but it may be requested when the file is checked (F1050).

Buying from a professional: guarantees

At a dealer’s or a garage there is less paper and you have more rights. A professional selling a used car must describe it in writing: make and model, year and month of first registration, total mileage, or, if they don’t know it, the odometer reading marked “non garanti” (F39552).

The presumption works like this: for the first 12 months after buying a used car, you don’t have to prove the defect was there at the sale. After that the guarantee still runs, but the proof is on you. The seller must repair or replace within 30 days of your request (F11094).

Vices cachés are hidden defects: 2 years from the day you discover them, but no later than 20 years after the purchase, and the buyer has to prove them (F11007).

About the 14-day cooling-off period. F11094 gives it only for purchases made at home or at a distance. For a car bought on a dealer’s forecourt the official cards don’t mention any such right, so don’t count on it.

A new car is usually registered by the seller. If not, you apply on ANTS yourself, with the same deadline of a month after the purchase. For a new car there is even a figure for the late fine: usually €135, up to €750 (F10293). For a used car, the official cards we read give no amount.

Carte grise online: logging in, waiting, paying

There are three ways: the ANTS website, the Simplimmat.gouv app (only for new-format AA-123-AA plates and the main vehicle types), or a professionnel de l’automobile habilité. Prefectures and sub-prefectures no longer take applications.

How to log in to ANTS

This is where a lot of people trip up, because the login depends on the procedure.

FranceConnect means logging in with an account you already have, for example on impots.gouv.fr or ameli. If you have neither FranceConnect nor the France Identité app and the car is used on French plates, that leaves a professional. The point numérique at the prefecture and France Services can also help you with the online application (F1050).

Online you can only pay by bank card. A professional takes card, cheque or cash, but adds their own service fee to the taxes, and they set it themselves (F19211).

What you get and how long it takes

Right after applying you get a file number and the CPI, which you need to print. The card itself comes by tracked La Poste letter. Service-public puts the wait at anything from a few days to a few weeks in complicated cases; there is no exact number of days. Keep the old carte grise for 5 years, then destroy it.

The address on the card will be your French one. A gas, electricity, water or phone bill no older than 6 months works, as does a rent receipt no older than 6 months, a lease, home insurance or last year’s tax notice. The document must be in your name. Staying with friends? Then you need a copy of the host’s ID, their proof of address and a sworn statement signed by both of you (F1028). A foreign passport, a foreign licence and a residence permit all count as ID, as long as they are valid (F31853).

Carte grise questions: 34 00 from France, +33 9 70 83 07 07 from abroad.

What it costs

A carte grise is four taxes and one fee (F19211):

• the regional tax: the power in fiscal horsepower (CV, line P6 on the carte grise) times the rate of the region you live in;
• a tax on goods vehicles;
• a tax on the most polluting cars;
• an €11 fixed tax;
• €2.76 for delivering the card.

The rate per CV is set by the region and can change every year. The ceiling is €60 (Île-de-France adds a €14 surcharge), and in 2026 rates went up by about 2.4% on average (A18021).

A worked example of our own. A 5 CV car, without the polluting-car tax and without any possible reductions:

Each extra CV adds €59.50 or €60. This is arithmetic, not a bill: for the exact amount for your car, use the service-public simulator. We don’t give the thresholds of the polluting-car tax or the reductions for older cars: the official pages we read don’t list them.

Moving to France with a car on foreign plates

If you have settled in France and declared your main home here, the car must be re-registered within a month of the move, whatever your nationality (F10519). The card doesn’t say from which day that month runs, so don’t drag your feet. You apply online on ANTS or through a professional; a professional gives you the CPI on the spot.

Some countries have formalities of their own, such as handing back the old plates. Ask your country’s consulate in France what applies to you.

A contrôle technique done outside the EU won’t be accepted. We couldn’t confirm the procedure for getting a quitus fiscal: the tax website was down for maintenance on 24 October 2026.

Customs. From an EU country there is nothing to pay and no formalities at the border (F492). From outside the EU, a car brought in when you move is free of duties and taxes if:

• you have lived outside the EU for at least a year;
• you are moving your main (“normal”) residence to France;
• you have owned the car for at least 6 months;
• you import it within 12 months of the move;
• you don’t sell or rent it out for a year.

You need an inventory of your belongings in two copies, dated and signed, the car’s registration certificate, proof of your previous residence and the cerfa 10070 declaration. What you come away with is the certificat 846 A, and with it you go for the carte grise. Commercial and mixed-use vehicles don’t qualify for the relief, and duty is paid on them.

If the car comes from Russia or Belarus, first read about the EU bans on entering with such cars.

Buying a car in France that is still on foreign plates? Ask to see the 846 A proving it has cleared customs (douane.gouv.fr). And for a new car bought in another EU country, VAT is paid not there but in the country where the buyer lives; a car counts as new if it is under 6 months old or has done less than 6,000 km.

If you are visiting, not moving. Visitors follow a different rule: you can drive on foreign plates for up to 6 months in any rolling 12 (F35443). A car from the EU needs nothing more than its plate, cars from green-card countries need the card, and everyone else buys frontier insurance at the border for 30-90 days, which can be extended once.

Insurance: compulsory even if the car never moves

The minimum is responsabilité civile (assurance au tiers). It pays for damage your car does to others: cars, buildings, pedestrians, passengers. It doesn’t cover the at-fault driver’s own damage. It is compulsory for any car on the road, even one that is never driven (F2628).

You can take it out directly with an insurance company, through an agent or a broker, or at a bank. If you were insured before, bring the relevé d’informations from your previous insurer (F31325). If no one will take you, turn to the Bureau central de tarification (BCT).

The insurer sets the price, and there is no official average. Young drivers (licence held for under 3 years) and people who went uninsured for more than 3 years may be charged a surcharge (F2599). Whether a foreign driving record counts, the cards don’t say: ask the insurer.

Changing your mind within 14 days isn’t an option: there is no such right for a contract signed online or by phone, or at an agent’s or broker’s office. It exists only if you signed after a salesperson came to your home or workplace (F31325).

Fines come at two levels.

The fixed fine applies if the offence was recorded in an electronic report at a roadside stop, you are an adult and it’s your first time (F34829).

Green card. Since 1 April 2024 it is neither issued nor required in France for cars with French plates. The police check insurance by plate number in the Fichier des véhicules assurés (FVA). For the first 15 days the proof is the insurer’s document handed over at signing (F1362). If a speed camera catches a car going 50 km/h or more over the limit, it is checked against the FVA as well. For trips abroad F1362 mentions the carte internationale d’assurance.

Contrôle technique and Crit’Air

Contrôle technique. It applies to every passenger car up to 3.5 t, whatever the fuel, electric included (F2878).

• The first one falls in the 6 months before the 4th anniversary of first registration. Service-public’s example: a car registered on 1 October 2022 needs its contrôle technique between 1 April and 30 September 2026. No one sends a reminder, so keep track yourself.
• After that, every 2 years; the date is on the sticker on the carte grise.
• 133 points are checked, and since 1 January 2026 recall campaigns too, such as airbags under a mass recall. A car flagged “stop drive” is sent for a re-test.
• Results: A - passed, S - major defects, 2 months for the re-test, R - critical defects, you may drive only on the day of the inspection.
• Any accredited centre in France will do. Prices are free and posted at the entrance.
• An overdue contrôle technique costs usually €135, up to €750.

Crit’Air. The sticker shows the car’s emissions class: 6 classes in all, and the higher the number, the dirtier the car. Electric and hydrogen cars get a green sticker with no number, gas and plug-in hybrids are class 1 (F33371).

Order only on certificat-air.gouv.fr; there is one sticker per car. It is compulsory in ZFE-m zones and during the “differentiated traffic” the prefect imposes at pollution peaks. Driving in a ZFE-m without a sticker, or in a car that isn’t allowed, usually costs €68, up to €450.

ZFE rules differ from one metropole to the next and keep changing, so we don’t summarise them city by city. The current zones and restrictions are shown on Itinériz and Bison Futé, which service-public points to.

Driving licence

Buying a car doesn’t require a licence, but when you apply for the carte grise you declare that you hold one of the right category. How long you can drive on a foreign licence and how to exchange it is on the page about exchanging a licence in France: deadlines, countries, exams.

Where to get the contrôle technique done, who people insured with and how long the carte grise took in your city: these are everyday questions in our chat, so ask away.

The “Vibe South of France” community chat on Telegram - moving and life in the South of France

See Also

• Moving to the South of France: paperwork step by step
• Driving licence in France: exchange, from scratch, exams, points
• Your first 30 days in France: what to do
• EU sanctions for Russian and Belarusian citizens: deposits, cards, cars
• Opening a bank account in France
• Renting in France without a guarantor
• Titre de séjour: residence permit in France
• How to move to France: every legal route