Importing a car from Spain to France: the complete guide

1. Where to look, and in which segments

Coches.net and Milanuncios dominate the Spanish market, the first leaning towards professional sellers, the second towards private ones. AutoScout24.es completes the picture, with the advantage of an interface you already know. Wallapop is capturing a growing share of private sales.

The price gap widens in two families. Spanish brands first, Seat and Cupra, sold at domestic prices. Then French brands, Renault, Peugeot and Citroën, which depreciate faster on the Spanish used market than they do in France.

• Coches.net, the widest professional inventory
• Milanuncios, private sellers, low prices and heightened vigilance
• AutoScout24.es, an interface familiar to French buyers

2. The climate works for you, the air conditioning against you

Spanish dryness is a genuine advantage against corrosion. A ten year old car from Andalusia or the Levante shows sills and wheel arches in far better condition than a northern European equivalent. This is the strongest argument in favour of the market.

Heat, however, wears out what salt spares. Dashboard plastics, seals, hoses and above all the air conditioning circuit age faster. On a car from the south, the air conditioning is something you test, not something you assume.

3. The ficha técnica and the permiso de circulación

Spain issues two documents where France issues one. The permiso de circulación (the Spanish registration certificate) is the equivalent of the carte grise (the French vehicle registration document) and names the registered keeper. The ficha técnica, also called the tarjeta ITV, carries the approved technical specifications and the stamps from successive inspections.

Both are needed in France. The ficha técnica helps establish conformity when the manufacturer is slow to supply the COC (certificate of conformity), and its inspection history tells you far more about the true mileage than a seller's word.

• Permiso de circulación, the registered keeper of the vehicle
• Ficha técnica (tarjeta ITV), the specifications and the inspection history
• Contrato de compraventa, the signed sale contract
• Purchase invoice, essential for the French quitus fiscal (the tax clearance certificate)
• Proof that the car is free of finance, the informe from the DGT (the Spanish traffic authority), to request before you pay

4. Transport is where profitability is decided

This is the structural difference with Germany or Italy. From Catalonia or the Spanish Basque Country, shipping stays comparable to a German import. From Madrid it climbs. From Andalusia or the Levante it becomes the item that decides everything.

Driving the car back yourself, realistic over 800 kilometres, stops being realistic beyond that: two days of driving, tolls, fuel and a hotel end up costing what a transporter costs, without a transporter's guarantee.

That is exactly the calculation the simulator builds in, with transport rates by country and by distance. A car €1,500 cheaper than in France but sitting in Malaga is not necessarily a bargain.

5. The French paperwork, in order

Once the vehicle has arrived, the route is the one every European import follows. The order matters: the quitus gates everything after it.

• Quitus fiscal from the SIE (the French corporate tax office), as soon as the vehicle arrives
• Certificate of conformity (COC) from the manufacturer, or an RTI identification certificate via the DREAL (the French regional environment and transport authority) if there is none
• A French contrôle technique (the French roadworthiness test) if the vehicle is more than 4 years old, as the Spanish ITV is not recognised
• Registration application on the ANTS (the French online vehicle registration agency)