The ITV: the Spanish MOT test, explained in English

What the ITV actually is

ITV stands for inspección técnica de vehículos. It is Spain's compulsory roadworthiness test, and it is the direct equivalent of the British MOT, the German TÜV or Hauptuntersuchung, the Dutch APK and the French contrôle technique. Same idea, same purpose: an independent station puts your car on a lane, checks that it is safe and that it still matches its own paperwork, and records a result.

The test is carried out at a licensed station, never at a garage. That is worth stating plainly, because it is the first thing people get wrong: we cannot issue an ITV certificate and neither can any other workshop. What a garage can do is prepare the car so that it passes, and repair whatever the station finds if it does not. In Spanish that preparation is called a pre-ITV, and it is one of the most requested jobs we do between September and November.

The result of a pass is a sticker on the windscreen showing the year and month your next test is due, plus a stamped entry on the vehicle's technical data card. The sticker is the reason the ITV feels more visible than the MOT does in Britain: an out-of-date one is readable from outside the car.

How often — and why the interval surprises British drivers

For an ordinary private car the schedule runs like this:

• First four years: no test at all. A new car does not see an ITV station until its fourth birthday.
• From four to ten years old: every two years.
• From ten years old onwards: once a year.

If you arrived from the UK, where an MOT is annual from three years old, the first two rows read as suspiciously generous — and that is exactly why people miss their date. There is no reminder letter landing on the doormat. Your due date is printed on the ficha técnica after the last inspection and shown on the windscreen sticker, and keeping an eye on it is entirely your job.

Vans, camper conversions, cars used commercially, taxis and trailers run on different schedules. If your vehicle is anything other than a normal private car, ask us and we will check the category on your paperwork rather than guess.

Where you go: the ITV station at Ondara

If you live anywhere in the Marina Alta, your ITV station is Ondara. The SITVAL station sits on the Ctra. CV-7260 nº 731, right beside the Portal de la Marina shopping centre, and it is the only one in the comarca — drivers from Denia, Xàbia, Gata de Gorgos, Benissa, Teulada, Moraira and Calpe all end up in the same queue.

From our workshop in Pedreguer it is about 6 km, under ten minutes on the road. That is the practical reason people book the two things together: drop the car with us in the morning, we go through it, and you drive straight to your appointment with nothing outstanding.

Appointments are booked by telephone on 960 88 22 00 or through the SITVAL website. Between September and November the station is at its busiest and the diary can run a week or more ahead, so do not leave it until the sticker has already expired. If you would rather not deal with it in Spanish, tell us and we will book the appointment for you alongside the pre-ITV check.

What it costs at the station

These are the station's own indicative 2026 fees for an ordinary car, and they are paid to the station rather than to us:

• Petrol with catalytic converter — 44,19 €
• Diesel — 55,54 €
• Electric or hybrid — 25,05 €
• Noise test, when the car needs one — 9,30 € on top. This is the one that catches modified and aftermarket exhausts.

Confirm the figure when you book, because published fees change. What we can tell you is the part that is not on the price list: a failed test costs you the re-test trip, the repair, and usually a second morning off work. That is the arithmetic that makes preparation worth doing.

What the tester actually checks

The lane inspection covers roughly what you would expect from an MOT, in roughly the same order:

• Identification and paperwork — that the car in front of the tester is the car described on the ficha técnica, including registration plates, chassis number and any modifications that should have been recorded.
• Lighting and signalling — every bulb, plus headlamp alignment, which fails far more cars than a blown bulb does.
• Brakes — measured on a rolling road, both efficiency and balance side to side, including the handbrake.
• Steering and suspension — play in joints and bushes, shock absorber performance, with the car up on the ramp.
• Tyres and wheels — tread depth, condition, correct sizes, and no mismatched pairs across an axle.
• Emissions — a gas analysis on petrol cars and an opacity test on diesels.
• Bodywork, glass and interior — corrosion affecting structure, sharp edges, wipers, mirrors, seat belts, the horn and the windscreen.
• Noise — where the exhaust has been changed or the tester has reason to measure it.

What fails most often

Spanish station statistics put the same three categories on the podium year after year: lighting and signalling account for 22,6 % of recorded defects, emissions for 21,5 %, and axles, wheels and suspension for 20,5 %. Two out of three failures come from things a proper check finds in minutes — a blown bulb, a headlamp pointing at the hedge, a diesel smoking more than it should, a tired shock absorber.

That is the whole argument for a pre-ITV check, and it is not a subtle one. None of those faults are expensive to fix in a workshop. All of them are expensive to discover on the inspection lane, because by then you have paid the fee and booked a second visit.

If your car fails: the two-month rule

An unfavourable result is not a disaster, but it does start a clock. You have two months to put the defects right and take the car back to the same station for the second inspection. Let that run out and you pay for a complete inspection all over again.

There is one restriction people often miss: while the car is carrying an unfavourable result, you may only drive it to a workshop for repair and back to the station. It is not a temporary licence to carry on as normal.

Bring us the inspection report. We repair exactly what is written on it — not a list of extras discovered along the way — with a fixed quote, and we get the car back to you in time for the re-test.

Our pre-ITV check, in plain terms

We put the car through the same points the station will, here in Pedreguer, before you pay anything to anybody. Lights checked and headlamps aligned. Brakes and handbrake tested. Play in joints, ball joints, bushes and shock absorbers. Tyre condition and pressures. Emissions measured the way the station measures them. Seat belts, horn, wipers, mirrors, glass. Then we tell you what would fail, show you why, and quote a fixed price to put it right.

If you want the whole thing taken off your hands, we book the Ondara appointment as well and hand the car back ready to go. Ask us for the price of the combined job when you ring — it is a fixed figure, and we will confirm it before starting.

One piece of timing advice: September to November is the busy season at Ondara, so if your sticker runs out in the autumn, get the car looked at in late summer. In the quiet months you can usually leave it with us in the morning and collect it the same day, because we are open Monday to Friday from 8:30 to 18:00 without closing at lunchtime.

Want the detail in Spanish? Our full pre-ITV page, including everything above with local specifics, is at Pre-ITV en Pedreguer. And if your exhaust is the reason you are worried about the noise test, read about how we build road-legal exhausts.