All cars over four years old are required to have a technical inspection every two years, carried out at an authorised test centre. Tests cover over 50 points, including steering, suspension, fuel tank, bodywork, seats, mirrors, windscreen, all of which must be functional and in good condition, and emission levels.
Around 20 per cent of vehicles tested are found to be in unsatisfactory condition. Tested items are listed on a report ( certificat d’inspection/autobilan). Tests take around three-quarters of an hour but a time must usually be booked. There’s no fixed charge for a test and each centre can set its own rate, but the average is around €55.
If your car passes the test, you receive a badge ( macaron) which you must affix to your windscreen next to your insurance tab. You normally have two months’ grace at the end of each two-year period in which to submit your car for a test. After this period, you can be fined €90 for not displaying a valid badge; the fine increases to €380 if your badge is more than a month out of date. The test must be re-taken when a car over four years old is sold if it was last tested more than six months previously.
Cars over 25 years old can be classified as ‘collectors’ vehicles’ ( véhicule de collection), which means that they’re exempt from the technical inspection under certain conditions (e.g. they can only be used at weekends and on certain roads in certain parts of the country), although an initial test is required to obtain a registration document. Note that, even if your car passes the technical inspection, you can be fined up to €137 if it isn’t roadworthy (e.g. for each tyre without 1.6mm of tread over its entire surface).
All new tyres purchased in France have bumps in the grooves to enable you to check tyre wear; once the tread is worn down to the top of the bumps, it’s time to buy new tyres.
A green disc ( pastille verte) is provided by car dealers for new cars and can be obtained for older cars (petrol-driven vehicles manufactured since 1993 and diesel-engine vehicles manufactured since 1997) from a préfecture. The disc must be displayed on the windscreen, and cars displaying it are the only vehicles allowed to circulate in cities such as Paris on ‘bad air quality days’ (level 3), known as pics de pollution.
Discs should be renewed every two years. There are proposals to introduce a pastille noire for environmentally-unfriendly vehicles such as sports utility vehicles in Paris, where they will be banned from certain areas and on bad air days.
This article is an extract from Living and working in France. Click here to get a copy now.