Passing the ITV emissions test in Spain

I don't know if to laugh or cry but here goes. The story begins last year, when a very good friend of my dad's who lives in Madrid but has a place here in Alicante gave us his used car as a gift! A very generous gift which we appreciate. The car is a Citroen (to tell you the truth, I have no clue what model or year, but it is a least 10 years old). The car runs great and Matt uses it to get around when I'm using the other car...

Ok, so today we had to take it for its yearly emissions test otherwise called the ITV (inspecion tecnica de vehiculos). We start out by not knowing where the hell this place was, we weren't sure what documentation we needed, not sure of the cost, or what they would put our little old car through. After driving around for half an hour lost (half way to Madrid, hahah) we finally found the place, we stood in line in our car only to find out we had to go in the office first, present documents then stand in line in your car.. Ok, all that goes well..

The test starts, and we felt like we were taking the driving test again... put your blinker on, the lights, the break lights, windshield wipers, emergency lights, open the trunk, do the seat belts work...then you go to level two the emissions part, press the accelerator as hard as you can and see how much shit comes out of the back.. then a noise pollution test, again rev up the engine to 40 and see how loud it gets, then drive your car up over a hole where a guy is waiting beneath and speaks to you through a speaker which you can't really hear or understand what he wants you to do, he then preceeds to shake your car down like he was making some sort of junk cocktail..

At the end we failed!! yes, we failed, and I thouht we had performed so well.. it seems, our windshield wiper needs a new blade, one of our headlights flickers and our emergency break is lets just say not ready for an emergency...so, there you have it.. after paying 40 euros we must return within a month pay another 40 euros and hope that our little old thing could withstand all the probing again. Needless to say we must take the car to the shop for repairs..

Oh, the joy of adulthood..the kids don't know how good they have it..I will keep you updated on our progress.

pic flicker by Wendy