Exchange Plates Part One – The ITV station

We need to change the Rover 75 that we brought from the UK to Spanish plates.
Having researched the process, off we went bright and early, to the first  stop, the ITV station.

ITV stands for “Inspeccion Technica de Vehiculos” or MOT to UK readers. We got there with all our technical details on the car, proof of ownership and our money. We were sent home! I also needed my NIE (Spanish National Insurance Number) and my Padron (Registration for my Spanish Region).  Arriving home  at the time we thought we would but without the ITV document we decided to go later on in the day with all of my Spanish documents and all the cars documents, oh, and our money.
Arriving after the siesta we found a queue of 10 cars in front of us, which did not matter as we had to go into the office with all our documents. After much photo copying, transfer of numbers and 200 euros we had completed the office part. We now had the ITV to do.
It was a bit like a production line but with one inspector doing the car. The car was first checked for all the lights working, emissions, wipers, horn and a cross check on all the documents to the vehicles VIN plates in the engine compartment to ensure that everything matched.
Moving on to the next station the brakes front, rear and hand were checked and at the third and last station the steering, suspension and tracking.
All was well, it passed. At no time were the tyres checked!
We went into the office and were given a pass certificate and a sticker for the windscreen indicating a pass! The whole thing took just over an hour but we had to return the next day for the main documentation and the all important equivalent of a Spanish Log Book for the car.
After this it is on  to the Traffico Department to have the car registered in my name and licence plates allocated and finally to the SUMA (Tax) Department to pay the import tax and the road tax.