Re: [alfa] Mods to sell in USA : Was - 164 Euro Tail Lights

[James Montebello <jamesm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Sat, 30 Aug 2003, Joe Elliott wrote:
> In any case, there was never a law in the USA requiring 'American
> style' turn signals.

I'm pretty sure just from anecdotal evidence that red tail lenses were
required for both brake and turn signals at least into the late 70s.

The DOT was often funny that way.  When sealed beam headlights were
mandated in 1968, only round 7" sealed-beam headlights were allowed at
first, then a bit later the rectangular sealed beam units.  The often
quite attractive light assemblies used in Europe were always replaced
with usually much less attractive assemblies with the US mandated units.
This state of affairs persisted until the US manufacturers started
homologating other headlight shapes (if memory serves, this was roughly
around the time of the first Taurus, so early to mid 80s).  Within a few
years, all cars, US and foreign, had drastically different headlights.
The European cars usually just using the same assemblies they'd been
using in Europe for some time.

Joe's other points about area may very well be correct.  I still
contend that Alfa would have known the US regulations ahead of time,
and could have produced one assembly that would have served for both.
If they chose to go with the more attractive all-red lights in the US,
that was a business decision, which in no way was influenced by the
burden of having to meet US regulations, which I believe is what the
original poster was claiming was the hurdle foreign makers face when
wanting to produced limited runs of cars in the US.
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