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Contrôle technique: How to save money on your compulsory French car inspection

The technical inspection of vehicles - France's equivalent of an MOT - must be done every two years, but prices vary widely from place to place.

Contrôle technique: How to save money on your compulsory French car inspection
Photo: AFP

Now the French Finance Ministry has put together an online price comparison site to enable motorists to find the cheapest côntrole technique near them.

The site asks for your vehicle type (car, van, camper van etc), type of fuel (petrol or diesel) and location before showing you a list of nearby garages and their rates. You can find the site here.

Prices for the inspection can vary by around €50 from place to place, so it's well worth shopping around.

The vehicle check must be done every two years or your car will not be road legal (although an extension was given for people whose côntrole technique ran out during lockdown) and in 2018 the standards for the inspection were tightened up.

The new tests take longer than the old ones and are consequently more expensive – usually between €65 and €110 depending on where you are. And then you face having to pay for repairs if a fault is found.

The new côntrole technique tests 134 things about the vehicle and includes 'critical faults' that “constitute a direct and immediate danger for road safety or that have a serious impact on the environment”.

The environmental aspect of the new inspection has worried many drivers of older cars, but mechanics says this will only be a problem for old cars that are badly maintained and highly polluting.

For full details on what the inspection involves, click here.

 

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