This wasn't my car, but I wish it were!
If you drive in Spain the ITV (Inspecció Técnica de vehiculos) needs no introduction. Those of you who might be newcomers,this is Spain’s equivalent to the M.O.T. that you know (and love) so well back in the U.K. Whatever its called in the country in which you live, these are sort of semi-government bodies that perform the task of ensuring that vehicles that use our roads are actually roadworthy. Some say that what they really do is give your car the shock of its life. It may even seem as though they are trying to break it. Mine always limps away after being put through its paces. (My last visit one of the hubcaps dropped off as I drove out the gate. I kid you not.)
I have decided that this shall not be a whingeing, complaining piece about the ITV, but rather just a narration of my experiences.
I drove a Chrysler made-in-Canada mini-van, which is really quite a comfortable car for long journeys. Hence the name “Voyager”. The car was imported into Spain about nine years ago and was ten years old when it was stolen. (That's another story.) That means it went through an inspection that certified it was legal to be driven on these roads, i.e it complied with all technical aspects. Since then it has been inspected by the same station twice. For its 2005 inspection it failed on the first attempt. Not because of the brakes, or suspension, or emissions, or something along the lines of maintenance. No, it failed because of the following things:
(a) The license plate in the front was situated on the left of front instead of in the centre.
(b) The hazard and turn lights to the rear used clear bulbs and clear covering instead of amber.
Well, the first was easy to fix and the second was a real nightmare. The light fixture is a sealed unit allowing only for a change of the bulbs. It is simply not possible to acquire a unit with the correct colour code, and neither is it possible to acquire amber coloured bulbs of the size needed. But they had said, words to the effect don’t come back until you have sorted this out. What was I to do? Scrap the car did cross my mind, but it was in excellent condition. My program of preventative maintenance had kept the car in proper running order, but there I was, faced with an impossible situation.
What on earth had suddenly changed to bring about such demands? Well, probably nothing had changed. I still think that this was one of those things where a case of different personnel made all the difference. The position of the license plate made me unique among traffic. Why was I not in conformity? And hazard lights in white, and white turn signals, how did anyone ever know what I was doing during the day? So sure, I could see their point, but how did this pass for so long. Don’t ask me, we have to ask the brilliant designers, whom I would like to meet someday.
To make this otherwise long story short I found the solution one very early morning when a still small voice said to me in my dreams, “ paint the bulb stupid!” “Eh!”, said I. And so, that is exactly what I did. Finding orange colour transparent paint for glass was amazingly easy. You look for it in the section under artist’s supplies. It goes on easy and dries very fast and Bob’s your uncle!
The process for submitting to the scheduled ITV examination is to go to the one nearest your residence, although probably you could go to any one you choose, and you determine which line you should be in and you place your car in that line, thus assuring your place in the queue. Then go to the office with your ITV booklet. There they will extract some money from you depending on certain criteria, such as whether your car has a catalytic converter or not. My cost was 42.27euros.
The examination is very thorough, starting with suspension, brakes, tires, lights, level of dipped and long-beam headlights, seatbelts, license plate position, horn, emissions, noise level, and a bunch of things they do by going under the car. Very disquieting that! During the course of the examination there are machines that severely test suspension and brakes beyond anything I normally encounter on the road. Should the car fail you are given a fail slip noting the things that must be corrected, and you have two months to complete the repairs. Meanwhile, ITV hold the car´s permit to circulate on the road, so you really are not permitted to carry on driving it to work for two months. You may only drive the car to a garage and back to the ITV after the repairs.
The personnel are usually a good bunch of guys just doing their jobs. I agreed with their findings, so I’m not complaining. Its just that as the car was beginning to show its age I was expected to make all these things right just before junking it. Life's funny that way!
Death on the roads! It doesn’t have to end like that!
Please don´t overtake on two-way road systems. Save your life for those who love you.
Copyright (c) 2007 Eugene Carmichael
