Re: Autodelta, and the laws

[George Graves <gmgraves@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is all very fine and good, however, I have a feeling that most 
modern European cars WILL pass CA smog. I base this on an incident I 
read  involving a V6 156 Alfa, in fact. Some Southern Californian who 
was working in Europe, bought a 2.5 liter 156 as his daily transport 
while in Europe (Germany, I believe). When the job was over he returned 
to the USA and due to the personal property law, he was able to bring 
the Alfa back with him. The Feds, in these cases, waive the safety 
compliance laws (I believe that a US citizen can do this ONCE is 
his/her lifetime) but the CA DMV made him smog the car (enhanced smog 
-rolling dynamometer in SoCAL) before allowing it to be registered. 
When he had it tested, it passed with flying colors. So I don't believe 
that smog is that big of a deal, and I'm sure that there are mechanics 
familiar enough with smog equipment anyway to modify any modern car to 
pass even if it won't from the factory.

What is a big deal is safety and this is where our US laws are stupid. 
the EU has safety laws that are just as strict as ours, in some 
instances, they are even stricter. EU market cars have energy absorbing 
bumpers, crash crumple zone chassis, side impact protection, safety 
glass, seat belts and air bags.The problem is two-fold: (1) these 
safety standards are not based on exactly the same specifications as 
the US laws (EU cars have more powerful headlights, for instance), and 
(2) more importantly, the cars have not BEEN THROUGH THE US PROCESS of 
certification which of course, costs the carmakers a fortune. This 
second condition is the REAL reason why many car makes and models are 
not sold in the USA. One reads in car magazines all the time that this 
car company or that car company has released a new model but they 
haven't decided whether or not this model will brought into the USA. I 
just read about a new V-12 Mercedes that is in this situation. VW, 
makes a GTI variant called the R32 that's got AWD with a six-speed 
manual. Do they bring it into the USA? No. Why? Because the number that 
they project selling in this country is not worth the cost of the US 
certification process. Now, here's the stupid part. As a US citizen, 
you can order an R32 with US emissions fitted, go to Germany and 
retrieve it, drive around Europe for a couple of weeks and then bring 
it back and register it in any state in the Union. Why? Because VW 
already sells a similar car with the same body shell, chassis and 
safety equipment here in the US that has been certified, so the cars 
are deemed similar models. Yet, if VW wanted to import R32s for sale 
here, they would have to submit this model to the same destructive 
crash-worthiness tests as they did for all other models that they sell 
here. They say that they won't sell enough to make this worthwhile, and 
they're probably correct. This is why companies like Fiat,  Lancia, 
Alfa, Peugeot (how about a Peugeot 206 RS WRX?), Citroen, SEAT, Skoda 
MG, TVR, Morgan, most Lotus models, and Vauxhall and Opel's mid-engined 
sports car aren't sold here. No matter how much you want one, or how 
much money you have, you cannot own these interesting enthusiasts makes 
and models in the USA. It stinks of protectionism, it favors 
deep-pockets car companies, and high-volume appliance cars. What 
happened to the spirit of rugged individualism in this country? It's 
being legislated out of our society for "our own good" is what has 
happened to it.

Sorry for the long rant, but this is one of my pet peeves.

George Graves
'86 GTV-6 3.0S



On Saturday, Jul 12, 2003, at 05:14 US/Pacific, alfa-digest wrote:


> ------------------------------
>
> Date: Sat, 12 Jul 2003 00:17:17 -0400
> From: Eric Storhok <alfa@domain.elided>
> Subject: Autodelta, and the laws
>
> Ah, modern emission laws...  Keeps me employed.
> Some notes-
> <snip>
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