Glossary
ITV (Spanish Periodic Inspection)
Spain's periodic technical inspection. Records mileage and result; relevant for any car imported from Spain, Portugal, or Latin America.
Definition
ITV — Inspección Técnica de Vehículos — is Spain's mandatory periodic roadworthiness inspection. Cars receive their first ITV at four years old, then every two years until age ten, then annually thereafter. Light commercial vehicles test annually from the second year. Each test logs the odometer reading and a pass/fail to the central register operated under the Ministry of Industry, and the result is shown on a windscreen sticker. Spanish-plated cars that are exported, re-registered, and then re-imported sometimes lose the link to their ITV history when their registration plate changes — the VIN survives but the lookup against the old plate breaks. Latin American countries that copied the Spanish framework (notably Argentina, Chile, Uruguay) use similar conventions but with separate national registers.
Why it matters when buying a used car
Spanish ITV records are reliable for cars that stayed Spanish-plated. Imports from Spain that have been re-plated abroad and re-imported are a known channel for laundering rollback — verify ITV history by VIN, not by plate.
Often confused with
MOT
The UK's annual roadworthiness test, mandatory for cars over three years old. Records mileage and any defects on a public-access history.
HU
Germany's biennial roadworthiness inspection. TÜV is the largest of several authorised inspection bodies; HU (Hauptuntersuchung) is the formal name of the test.
APK
The Netherlands' periodic roadworthiness inspection, registered against the vehicle's number plate in the national registry.
STK
The Czech and Slovak roadworthiness inspection. Logs mileage at every test and is one of the more rollback-prone records due to historical paper-based reporting.