vehicle inspection and carnet
 

Do any countries with manditory vehicle inspections require that a vehicle be returned to the country of origin before the inspection expires to renew a carnet?
Here in Japan, the automobile association (JAF) just changed the rules so that a carnet cannot be extended (reissued) for a vehicle whose inspection is expired. Bikes in of 251 cc or more in Japan require an inspection every two years. So, if the bike is out of the coutnry for more than two years, the inspection is expired and a new carnet cannot be issued. In effect, they have just restricted overseas travel to less than two years or bikes to 250cc! (and stranded a traveller in Egypt right now!)
I am going to try to get some people here to protest the issue, but it would help if we knew what other Road Traffic Convention signatory countries did.
Thanks

[This message has been edited by Chris in Tokyo (edited 07 April 2004).]

Chris, each state in Australia is differrent. In Victoria an anual inspection is not required, you just pay your registration and insurance renewal. Random checks by police occasionally see veichles taken off the road due to poor standards, eg rust smoke no brakes etc. The bike must remain registered while under the Carnet.

Hi Chris,

are they crazy at the JAF ?

Germany. To get the Carnet over he automobilclub ADAC your bike has to be registered. They dont care about the inspection TUV we have every two years for bikes over 80 cc (maybe now 125cc). But riding in Germany with an expired TUV can cost us a lot of money in fines, in other countries nobody unders this TUV system. And I have to say I dont understand it even in Germany.

Good luck with the JAF.

Mika from Merida / Venezuela

Yes. They are crazy at JAF. But telling that story would take a lot of space and I could get in trouble ^_^

The rider I in Egypt I mentioned before was granted his Carnet extension but he had to sign a paper that said JAF would take no responsibilty for any problems from expired inspection. The inspection term is only written in Japanese (not on the English international registration), so nobody would know anyways!

Does anyone else have information? I'm sure Japan and Germany are not the only countries that require inspections.