RE: All this talk about cat converters

["Nick Koleszar" <npk@domain.elided>]

Surely, in the interests of PR, Audi could simply provide a new cat to be
fitted in place of the empty one?

Even if the "duped" owner has to fork out, the new cat must be available?

$4000? Is that HK dollars?

I can't imagine it takes anything other than fitting a working cat to get
the emissions down.

nk

> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 17:27:54 +0200
> From: "John Fielding" <johnf@domain.elided>
> Subject: All this talk about cat converters
>
> Hi All, no Alfa content here but an interesting story that
> happened here recently.
>
> In a local actuality magazine published here an article featured
> the nefarious dealings of
> a certain Gemanic motor manufacturer based here.  Seems a guy in Cape Town
> bought an A**i A4 1.8T cos' it was fitted with a cat converter,
> he paid big $$'s cos the
> car is fully imported and attracts an additional tax because of this .
>
> Now in this country we have no emissions issues as yet, talk is
> that it will be introduced
> maybe in 2010 or later, who knows?  Why buy a car fitted with a
> cat con when the law
> doesn't require it?  Well the guy was planning to emigrate to the
> UK in the future as he
> was originally from there and under the UK tax & customs laws if
> you have owned a car here
> for longer than 2 years it doesn't cost any duties to import to
> the UK, it is simply
> treated as part of the "chattels & possessions" belonging to you.
>
> Well he went shopping for a suitable new car, chose the A**i 1.8T
> cos it was emission
> legal in the UK & Europe and the brochure listed the emissions
> features "O2 sensor, cat
> converter etc etc".  The salesman confirmed the car indeed did
> have a cat converter and
> the workshop manager instructed the new owner on collecting his
> new car "under no
> circumstances use unleaded fuel cos it will destroy the
> converter".  All of this was known
> by the buyer and he dutifully paid an extra 5c a litre everytime
> he filled up with
> unleaded fuel, cos unleaded here actually cost more than leaded!
> Screwy tax system here!
> The owner was very pleased with his new purchase, although he
> could have bought a much
> cheaper locally made car, and he lavished vast sums on servicing
> over a lengthy period,
> everything had to be just right for his "new toy".
>
> Fast forward a while and the time to depart is approaching and he
> has to obtain an
> emissions clearance certificate for importing the vehicle into
> the UK.  He goes along to a
> certified testing station for a smog check (funny we have several
> of those but no legal
> requirement to comply, they exist to check imported vehicles!),
> and was told that his
> vehicle fails the UK emissions test badly.  The car is only about
> 18 months old and
> meticulously serviced by the A**i agent and only genuine A**i
> parts have been used - yada
> yada - when the tester informs him the car never will pass
> emissions as it has no cat
> converter!
>
> Seems A**i have been selling a lot of cars claiming they have cat
> converters fitted when
> in fact they aren't fitting them!  The owner was livid and
> confronted them about the
> matter only to be shown the "fine print" in the sales brochure
> which stated that the
> specification is only "a representation of the build standard &
> some vehicles may not have
> all the features listed, A**i reserves the right to amend
> specifications etc etc ".
>
> The "cat converter" was cut open by an independent test
> laboratory and found to
> contain ------------ nothing - just an empty box!!!!
>
> The owner is now down a lot of $$'s and has a car he can't
> legally import to the UK
> without spending about $4000 to have it brought up to emissions
> standards, which the UK
> will not accept because it wasn't done by the original factory
> and tested against the
> certification lodged with the EU specification authorities.  A**i
> have washed their hands
> of the matter but have offered technical advise to assist the
> conversion, no suggestion of
> them paying for the conversion.  The case is going to court soon!
>
> BTW  The sulphur content in the fuels produced here are far too
> high for cat converters to
> work correctly, many of the imported vehicles have the converters
> removed by the agent
> before delivering the cars to the buyers, cos they make a
> terrible smell of rotten eggs!
>
> It could only happen here.
>
> John
> Durban
> South Africa
> Alfetta 1.8L turbo - no cat converter!
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