Vehicles – Can You See the ITV?

An often confusing aspect for drivers in Spain is the appearance of a coloured rectangle on the windscreen of cars. That sticker corresponds to the Inspección Técnica de Vehículos, or ITV for short, which displays that fact that the vehicle has passed a periodic and mandatory test of roadworthiness.

There are 3 colours for the ITV sticker, and each colour means when the ITV expires, if you have a sticker coloured;

Yellow (Your ITV expires in 2014), Red (Your ITV expires in 2015), Green (Your ITV expires in 2016), which then rotate once again through the three colours, so Yellow in 2017, Red in 2018, Green in 2019, etc.

You can check that in your sticker, there is a small hole, which informs you the month when your ITV expires.

Do I have to display the sticker in my vehicle?

Yes, of course. The sticker is placed on the windscreen of cars and is regulated by Royal Decree, which states that “vehicles that have favourably passed the periodic test shall display in a conspicuous place a distinctive, which date indicate they must pass the next inspection”.

Anybody who has been for one of these inspections will known that it is much like the equivalent of the M.O.T. in the U.K., albeit with different qualifying criteria, but on passing the test the vehicle´s documents are updated, and the sticker given to be displayed on the windscreen.

Where do I have to display the sticker?

As for where the sticker is displayed, that too is dictated by law, and it Is mandatory to place it in the upper right corner of the windscreen as you are looking out, affixed to the inside, so that the sticker can be clearly observed from the outside of the vehicle, where it will subsequently be displayed in the upper left hand side.

Can I have several ITV stickers on my windscreen?

A common question relating to this sticker is whether old ones have to remain as time goes by. The simple answer being that as the sticker is used to indicate the date of the next required test, then the answer has to be “NO”, only the current and valid sticker should be present.

There is a fine for not displaying the sticker correctly, but simply ensuring the sticker is in the right place, and valid, can avoid a lot of undue hassle during routine vehicle checks.

“The ITV sticker informs the police that your ITV is ok, so if you do not display the sticker you could be stopped to check if your vehicle has a valid certificate”.