Ok it maybe a while before I venture over the Channel but I still have all of the extras needed to keep legal, apart from a couple of out-of-date disposable breathalysers.
Thing is with the GTi I now have bi-xenon headlights and (as far as I know) all-round LEDs for all other lights, so what should I do for a spare bulb kit needed in some Euro countries?
Do I just carry the old style bulb kit for 'show' or if stopped and asked to produce (rare I'm told) do I try and explain about the LEDs?
At least I can now switch the lights from RHD to LHD with just a touch of a button.
|
I doubt if les flics are any more intelligent than the average person and if you show them a spare bulb kit they'll be none the wiser.
Unless you'd care to explain to them the technicalities of HID and LED illumination?
|
Ok, it's been a while and so perhaps it's changed.
With that said, carrying spare bulbs is/was not compulsory in France. It used to be that the penalties for duff lights were sufficiently heavy that it was absolutely recommended that you carry a spare set, but I don't think you ever had to carry them.
Ready to be proven wrong, as I said, it's been a while.
Last edited by: No FM2R on Sat 3 Oct 20 at 23:13
|
www.rac.co.uk/drive/travel/country/france/
RAC knows stuff.
Recommended not mandatory
|
I've carried spare bulbs routinely for donkey's years. Useful on several occasions where I've spotted by either poor illumination or reflection somewhere that there's a headlight bulb out. Also used to rescue family members who've arrived at my house an I've spotted a defective bulb at the rear as they reverse into my drive.
Other than DRL and possibly the high level brake light neither of our current cars have LEDs and, as a bonus, headlight bulbs are accessible too.
|
Thanks, sounds like I don't legally need one (or ever?), also seems the need for the disposable breathalyser has gone from France.
I still find the RAC and AA sites a bit woolly over what is actually needed, maybe ties into both of them trying to sell you various products.
Above what I already would have carried looks like the jury's out on the need for an IDP until trade negotiations have finished.
Probably best to wait until the dust settles before making any plans for early next year (I'll still have a few months left of my 'free' European breakdown cover that came with my new car).
|
|
Re IDP, it never hurts to have one, and while we dont know what the requirements may demand post Brexit, it would be good to beat the rush.
|
>> Re IDP, it never hurts to have one........
....or two if you're driving to Spain.
|
|
Spare bulbs are not much use if you need a Halfords Professional tool kit and a masters degree in engineering to fit one, which is how cars are going now.
|
>> Spare bulbs are not much use if you need a Halfords Professional tool kit and
>> a masters degree in engineering to fit one, which is how cars are going now.
Absolutely. At least in both the Berlingo and the Fabia there's enough space to manipulate the headlamp bulbs.
Thirty years ago the BX, sold with the pitch 'loves driving hates garages' had both front and rear lamp units that could be removed without tools.
Only a torx tool needed to access rear bulbs on current cars but that's not something everybody has.
|
>> with the GTi I now have bi-xenon headlights and ... all-round LEDs for all other lights
I've been over the water in a C-Class, a BMW X3, several Land Rovers and a Skoda Octavia, all so-equipped. As long as there's a hi-vis in the back of the seat and a few more under the boot floor next to the warning triangle, you're good to go. The French motorway police are about as interested in you and I as the British traffic cops are.
A Sanef tag helps a lot, as does a spare phone charger and an insulated lidded coffee cup (French motorway services' coffee doesn't come with a lid).
Last edited by: Dave_ on Sun 11 Oct 20 at 22:30
|
Going back a few years I arrived in Dunkerque in the early hours with not much gas. The only fuel station I could find (no satnav!) was automatic and refused my one and only credit card. So I always take more than one these days.
More recently I relied solely on my phone for keeping the destination address, and for directions etc.
I can't even remember now quite how it happened, but after a late night services break in France I found myself without the address of the AirBNB where I was going in Germany and no directions as the phone was bust (I think I dropped it and shattered the screen). I knew the town I was heading for but had no route. I don't really remember how I eventually got there (SWMBO was at home so maybe I got details from her, but I don't think so) but I do remember the futile attempts the next day to find a place to repair the phone, and I also now remember to take a second phone, fully loaded, and sometimes even print out some stuff.
|
Mine was a different world. By the time I had a cell phone I also had an expense account sufficient to care for difficulties.
My traumas mostly occurred in the 10 years before cell phones, so say 1980 - 1990. That was 10 years of chaos throughout Europe. Usually caused by my trying to survive on a shoestring and thus when something went wrong I had no resources to cope with it.
|
>> and I also now remember to take a second phone, fully loaded, and sometimes even
>> print out some stuff.
>>
...do you keep those in the reserve car....
;-)
|
Spare bulbs driving in Europe - bathtub tom
