Starting on the 1st of January, the V16 breakdown beacons, which you place on your car roof, will be obligatory, which is why in a lot of car break-ins, they're being stolen.

The damaged done to your car to steal these beacons will cost your more than the price of one of these roof beacons in the first place, but that is not something that will cause a thief sleepless nights.

There have been eight arrests in the city of Granada alone in the last week. One of them, a re-offender (80 arrests) was detained on Monday, released and then arrested against the next day, having been caught breaking into a car again.

When a car owner reports a case of theft, almost always amongst the items ‘lifted’ is one of these emergency V16 beacons. So how much does one cost? The answer is around 40 euros, although it depends on the make and where you buy them — at a gasolinera shop it is always going to cost you more, for instance. We just looked online, Amazon, and they have one for 37.75 euros and no, we don’t get a kick back!

The thieves resell them on the blackmarket for less than the official price — they have fewer overheads!

But this all brings us to whether these emergency beacons are any good at all, and are they, in fact, downright dangerous. Up to now we have had to carry a warning triangle, which are pretty effective because you walk back along the road to where they can be seen, giving an oncoming car time to react.

Now, you can just use any sort of battery-operated light because it has to have the capacity to connect with the DGT 3.0 system (you could also have to download the SOS Alert App), and the fine for not having one will set you back 200 euros, starting on the 1st of January.

So, there you have it. Buy one as soon as possible and make sure it has the DGT 3.0 system, otherwise it will cost you 200 euros (the fine) rather an 40-odd euros. Oh, and keep the damned thing out of sight, in the boot, for example, unless you want to replace a smashed car window.

(News: Granada, Andalucia)

Keywords: Baliza, Beacon, Obligatory, 2026, Car Break-Ins, Re-Offender, Warning Triangles

news, andalucia, granada, baliza, beacon, obligatory, 2026, car break-ins, re-offender, warning triangles

Reader’s comment: “For once we are ahead of the game on this one. I did notice that when register your beacon with the barcode provided on the item it is set against your details, name etc. Surely if someone steals it and sells it on and if they have to use it the police have an easy day since your cars broke down and you can not get away, found you on GPS, receiving stolen goods because it is not registered to you,” – Roberto

Reader’s comment: “There is no requirement to register the beacon in any app. There are apps that you can register your beacon with, but the DGT do not access the information you enter into the app. All you will get is more ads for their products. All you have to do is insert the supplied batteries, turn it on and stick it on the roof. Incidentally, it doesn’t work outside Spain, so keep your existing triangles if you are going to drive outside Spain.” Sid Smith

Reader’s comment: “The reason only Spain has introduced the V16 emergency beacon is because unlike other countries, in Spain hazard lights are used for driving slowly uphill, not for when you have broken down which is the normal practice in evolved countries 🙂” Go Nads

Readers will be pleased to know that Maria Teresa Velasco, who writes out legal column in the paper edition, has covered this topic in the December issue, which will be out on the 1st.

Reader’s comment: “What about us visitors who hire cars?” – Dave Eyre

Hire companies have to provide one in each of their cars. However, It appears so ridiculous, this new law, that you even have to have one if you are a biker! Well the hell are you supposed to put it. Most back boxes are plastic so they’re going to fall off. – Martin