I live just South of Riberac in the Dordogne and also have a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was pretty easy for me to register the car as it was only two years old and so did not need a Controle Technique (CT). I get it serviced at the Jeep garage in the industrial estate in the Northern outskirts of Angouleme. Their labour rates are very cheap compared to the UK - 45 Euros an hour. However, my other car is a Jaguar XK8 which was too old and so needed a CT. It failed only on the lights at the first garage (a nice little Euro 1300 quote from Jaguar to fix). However, after not getting too far trying to find alternate light source (the US sites never had a pair of lights!) I adopted an alternate approach: The first garage has asked me if the lights had been changed - I said no - car failed. I went to second garage (50 Euros for brand new CT), no questions from receptionist, car passed. Jaguar now fully reregistered (although the certificate of conformity took 9 months to get from Jaguar (another story)). I went for the second test option as I could think of now practical way a garage could easily check the lights plus I have them dipped down so they don't dazzle anyway. I am going to use the same CT garage in Riberac for the Jeep when it requires it. (The one opposite the rubbish dump if you want to try it yourself). CJ
