Hi Fred,

From the ITV centre - usually visited twice a month minimum, they told us that the law had been changed as (shock horror) people were forging the Ficha Technical and you were able to buy the stickers!

Davexf

Thanks for that Dave. I am going to my local ITV centre next week - I will see if they confirm it.

They are not the most efficient people when it comes to paperwork. I had an 11 year old car tested and they gave it a 2 year sticker and a 2 year renewal date on the card!

I checked it out today at the ITV centre and, yes, you do have to carry the ITV report.

In fact if you read the last section of notes on the back of the report it clearly states that you must produce it if asked for.

It does not seem to be a recent change - I looked at my oldest ITV report from 2003 and it also says that.

The law it refers to is dated 1998 so it's not exactly new. What is surprising that no one seems to have spotted this before!

I keep all the original paperwork in the car and a copy at home>

I think I would rather keep the copies in the car and the originals at home. What if the car gets stolen - muchas problemas

Having found out that it would cost me 1,000 euro's to hire a Zafira for 15 days in Portugal I have decided to buy one in UK and drive it out there.Have 183 days when they expect me to take it out the country.We visit for about 12 weeks a year.

I can get fully comp insurance to cover Portugal and Spain..the only real stipulation to keep cover legit for the insurance company is either an Mot or the Portuguese equivalent.

If I can find an Ayamonte brit who has a UK car out there in a similar situation then if we swop cars every 6 months then all is fully legit in both countries.(i hope)

Its a pity Portugal see fit to ignore the EU regulations and charge a very expensive import tax and then make the whole procedure complicated and very long winded.Anybody interested send me a message
Paul M,UK