495 FAULTS
We read the manual instead
Spain's official vehicle inspection manual defines 495 separate faults for a normal car. We counted every one of them.
The vocabulary is not what you think.
ZERO
The word motor never appears
Across all 495 fault descriptions, motor is used exactly zero times. There is a whole chapter called Motor y Transmision, and even inside it the faults are written as perdidas de aceite con goteo.
The first word every course teaches is the one the document never needs.
45 TIMES
Estado is the real winner
Estado (condition) appears 45 times, riesgo (risk) 44, desprendimiento (coming loose) 31, fijacion (fastening) 26. These are condition words, not car parts.
You can point at a wheel. You cannot point at a condition.
THREE
There is no pass or fail
Favorable means you drive away. Desfavorable means you may drive to a garage and nowhere else. Negativa means you may not drive at all.
Only one of the three takes your keys.
32 OF 48
Two thirds of tow trucks are brakes
Only 48 of the 495 faults can end with a tow truck. Thirty two of those 48 are in the brakes chapter. Lighting, the biggest chapter in the manual, produces none at all.
The manual's words: por medios ajenos al propio vehiculo.
GOTEO
One word decides how bad it is
A leak with no goteo is minor. The same leak con goteo continuo is the version that ends your day. The manual draws that line explicitly, more than once.
Goteo means dripping.
2.4% vs 22%
The book and the road disagree
Emissions is 2.4% of the manual by number of defined faults, and 22% of all serious faults recorded in Spain in 2025. Lighting is the only system where the two figures match.
Eight of the twelve emissions faults are written in English acronyms.
376 vs 0
Nobody is ever to blame
The manual says se comprobara, meaning it shall be checked, 376 times. It says usted zero times. Only one of the 495 faults mentions a person at all.
Spanish puts the fault on the object.
SE ME HA
So copy the grammar
Say Se me ha roto el coche, not He roto el coche. Say Se me ha pinchado una rueda, not He pinchado una rueda. The little me puts you in the sentence without taking the blame.
It is what native speakers actually say.
12 DAYS
Presupuesto is worth money
A 1986 royal decree, still in force, gives you the right to a written quote valid for at least twelve working days. Work can only start once you sign it or formally waive it.
Me puede hacer un presupuesto por escrito?
12 WORDS
None of them is a car part
Estado, riesgo, desprendimiento, fijacion, goteo, testigo, averia, taller, presupuesto, desglosada, subsanar, grua. Learn those and you understand the report you are handed.
Tap through for the full count and the tables.