France - requirement to carry spare bulbs.

[RayS]

Earlier this year I found an article which stated that France recognises (at last) the nonsense of requiring the carrying of spare bulbs (obviously not possible with xenon lights and where bulb replacement is a workshop job, and with the increasing reliability of LED lamps). I thought the article had been posted or link shown on this Forum but have been unable to find it.
Can anyone advise please ?

 

[RayS]

My mistake - the article I saw referred to Spain and not France. It seems the Spanish authorites repealed this requirement in 2010. Be nice if other countries followed.

 

[loadsadogs]

How seriously do other countries take this requirement? With the headlamp bulbs for our Pathfinder costing hundreds of pounds (surely that can't be right, but I think that's what OH told me) we settled for a couple of kits from the Pound Shop, which we could bring out to impress anybody that asked. They'd probably be worse than useless in reality, but how would anyone know that just with a quick look?

PS Sorry if I'm being a big girlie here, but I don't do cars 🙂)

 

[Lutz]

I can only speak for Germany where there is no law to carry spare bulbs, but there is a law that you must not use a vehicle with defective lighting equipment, which virtually amounts to the same thing. In general, however, the powers-that-be are fairly tolerant in the way they interpret it. Where the bulb cannot be replaced easily by the average owner you will be given a warning to go to the nearest garage and have it seen to. I have known the police to accompany the offending vehicle to the next motorway exit to make sure that the journey was not continued without repair, but no fine was imposed.

 

[NickinFrance]

France is the same as Germany, there is no requirement to carry spare bulbs but if you are stopped because of defective lighting you will not be allowed to continue your journey until the problem is rectified.