Left a bit, right a bit

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The man scanned the paperwork. It must have been the name that was the giveaway "Do you speak Spanish?," he asked. We do, well, well enough for this situation at least. Anyway I'm sure that it could all have been done in mime if needs be.

Yesterday Maggie's Mitsubishi passed its ITV, the equivalent of the British MOT, for the second time in its six year life. Once a car is four years old here it becomes due its first test. After that it's once every two years till the car is ten and then it becomes annual.

I've described the system before from the experience with my MG down at Redován in Alicante whilst the Mitsu took its first test in Ciudad Rodrigo in Salamanca. First time for any of us in Murcia though.

So far as I can tell private companies gain the licence to run a test centre in a particular geographical location and it seems that the charge also varies from place to place - market forces and all that. The system is different from the UK one in that the driver is a participant in the test because the series of checks are done on a conveyor belt type system. The driver takes the car through with the tester walking from station to station doing the actual tests "Rev it up will you, left indicator, right indicator, rock the steering and pump the brakes etc." First stop to check the lights, seatbelts etc, on to emissions, the rollers for the brakes, over the pit for the steering and general underbody safety and then, if all goes well,  the sticker to pop on the windscreen to show you're legal.

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