Car registration

Car registration in France

Every registration formality in France goes through the same three routes: the ANTS website, the Simplimmat.gouv app, or an authorised motor trade professional. Préfecture counters have not handled this since 2017. What you actually have to do depends on whether the car is new, already on French plates, or coming in from abroad.

Buying a new car

The dealer normally registers the car for you and bills the taxes with the invoice — the two malus, the regional tax, the €11 fixed tax and the €2.76 delivery charge. You receive the certificat d'immatriculation, still widely called the carte grise, and the plates.

Buying a used car in France

You have one month from the purchase to apply for a new certificat d'immatriculation in your name.

In the meantime you can drive. The seller hands you the old certificate with its detachable coupon signed and dated, and that coupon covers you for one month in France only — it is not valid abroad.

What the seller must give you:

  • the complete certificat d'immatriculation, signed, with the coupon filled in
  • a certificat de situation administrative less than 15 days old, showing the car is free of any finance lien or bar on transfer — available from the HistoVec service
  • a contrôle technique less than 6 months old, if the car is over 4 years old
  • the certificat de cession, cerfa 15776, signed by both of you
  • the cession code the seller receives when they declare the sale, valid 15 days, which you need to complete your own application

Check the certificate is in the seller's name and shows their current address. Only the owner can sell, every co-holder must sign, and a car on a lease agreement cannot be sold by the person driving it — the finance company owns it.

Selling a car

You must declare the sale to the administration within 15 days of signing the certificat de cession. Until you do, the car is still yours as far as the authorities are concerned, and so are the penalties it collects.

You will need the certificate in your own name and at your current address — if you have moved, change the address before selling, not after. You also owe the buyer the contrôle technique and the certificat de situation administrative described above.

A car over 4 years old sold to a private buyer needs that contrôle technique. Sold to a motor trade professional, it does not.

Bringing a car in from abroad

You have one month from the purchase to apply, and the paperwork is heavier:

  • the quitus fiscal from the tax office, proving VAT has been settled in France — not required for a trailer or semi-trailer
  • the vehicle's original foreign registration document
  • the certificat de cession or the seller's invoice
  • a contrôle technique, carried out either in France or in the EU country where the car was registered
  • a certificate of conformity, or a réception à titre isolé through the DREAL if the car has no European type approval

The malus CO₂ and malus masse fall due at this point, worked out on the scale for the year the car was first registered abroad and reduced by its age. That is the calculation to do before you buy, not after.

What you will need

  • Proof of identity and of address
  • FranceConnect credentials, or an authorised professional acting for you
  • The vehicle's documents, which vary with where it comes from
  • Proof that the taxes are settled
  • Valid insurance

Roadworthiness testing (contrôle technique)

The first test falls due in the six months before the car's fourth birthday, counted from its first registration. No one reminds you; it is your responsibility.

A favourable result is valid two years, so a car is tested every two years from then on. An unfavourable result for a major defect leaves the test valid two months, within which a contre-visite must be passed; a critical defect voids it the same day and the car may not be driven.

Changing the car's registration does not affect an existing contrôle technique — buying a used car does not reset the clock.

References