Hi All, Could someone please tell me if cars and motorbikes undergo yearly Safety checks in the Philippines? Also, I understand insurance is voluntary? What of yearly road tax? Martin.
No test that I am aware of. Expats are I believe required to to have third party insurance in the Philippines, don't know about anyone else but it would be madness not to have insurance in the Phils as if you injure someone you are basically responsible for them for the rest of their lives.
Thanks for the information. I'll definitely be insuring my vehicles, looking at the standard of driving there!
You will have to cover a lot of bases, as soon they realize there is a Kano driving, it will be open season.
Believe have to register the car annually and an emissions test is required for that. Don't think there is an mot equivalent and if there was not sure how the jeepees would get through that. Not sure how they get through an emissions test. Sure the the registration requires a very basic insurance for the car. Would not rely on that to cover anything useful.
In general it is not that easy to go very fast in the major cities, but some do when they get on any open highway and put themselves and others at risk. A lot of collisions are low speed with fewer consequences than similar accidents in the UK, I've been in a taxi that crashed before now. How they manage to avoid things being worse is a mystery but I have spent the albeit short time of two weeks driving in the country over the last 15 years and it was not too bad.
Iv had some good times travelling by motor scooter on Palawan, including in Puerto Princesa, also good to ride around Bohol and Panglao, Tagbilaran is a bit busy but manageable, done a little bit of riding around Maramag and the locality, but generally i drive around in Bukidnon, there is no way i would drive in Manila or Cebu . My wife says vehicles have to be registered every year which i guess is a form of Road Tax, as for Insurance some do and some dont entirely up to the owner, no yearly MOT so long as it moves and is registered annually its good to go, there are regular check points around Maramag with Land Transportation Officer,s checking registration and the wearing of crash helmets.
You need to be careful out there as there are some idiots about. For example, I was riding about on a motorbike, with my wife on the back, and people were coming straight at me. Then I reaslised I was riding on the wrong side of the road. Idiot.
Every time I was tempted to ride a jeepney.. I had a look at the thread on the tyres.. Temptation soon went south...