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Re: Re: regulations (was: US safety Regulations)

I acknowledged the fact that the aforementioned European car makers left the US market for economic reasons (Alfa selling only 500 cars in North America in 1995 is certainly a sound economic reason to pull-up stakes), and certainly no one is arguing that they don't have the right to do that. My only real gripe is that these arbitrary, ineffective and mostly poorly applied safety regulations shouldn't make it impossible or indeed, impractical for individual American citizens to go to Europe and purchase the car of his/her choice and ship it back whether it be new or used. I wrote the quoted text below to answer Luca's question about safety regulations as I've beaten the 'right to import' dead horse enough.

George Graves


On Tuesday, September 17, 2002, at 11:15 AM, alfa-digest wrote:



Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:13:11 -0400
From: "John Hertzman" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: regulations (was: US safety Regulations)

Luca writes "Please enlighten myself.

"What's up w/ all these craps about US safety regulations?

"I mean, what does US govt really want for making a car street worth? "I
suppose the cars are basically the same. Differences must be about lights,
parking lights, daytime lights, turn signal colors or things like that. Aren't
they??

"I would like to know. Thanx.

Similar questions are raised by people here. George Graves replied to Luca:

"'Craps' is right. The US government, in its most benevolent 'Big Brother'
role, is determined to save Americans from their cars. To do this, they have
written a huge book (which gets added to constantly as they think-up newer and
ever "cooler" new laws with which to saddle the auto industry). This 'book'
covers such things as bumper height, headlight height, tail-light location,
the types of lights that the tail-lights shall have (in the USA we have to
have a back-up light on BOTH sides of the car). Next there is the glass
requirement. US cars are REQUIRED to have safety PLATE glass in all windows.
Most European car manufacturers are only required to use safety plate in the
windshield for their home-market cars" - - - and on and on and on.

Luca I can understand; the USA must be a strange and distant place, almost as
unknown and peculiar to an average Italian as Italy or France might be to an
average American. Some degree of ignorance will be ubiquitous and should be
accepted. Good buddies, live and let live. George, in my recent dyspeptic (and
I hope transitory) mood is a little harder to take. Undoubtedly another of the
nice guys with a few weird ideas and unexamined facts who we enjoy for their
many other merits, but still a little harder to take than the innocents
abroad.

"Next there is the glass requirement. US cars are REQUIRED to have safety
PLATE glass in all windows. Most European car manufacturers are only required
to use safety plate in the windshield for their home-market cars." One cannot
help wondering: Has George ever looked at a piece of automotive glass, really
LOOKED, or at any regulations governing automotive glass? I have to doubt it,
on the evidence. He did not use the word "laminated" but there are two basic
glass types used in auto glass: laminated, commonly called safety plate, the
term he used, and tempered. I doubt that he has ever seen, outside of perhaps
a museum, a car with "safety PLATE glass in all windows". I very much doubt
that they are REQUIRED in any jurisdiction anywhere in the world, although
there is a remote possibility that there is some province in some third-world
backwater that is as perverse as he thinks his own US government is.

He continued: "Most European car manufacturers are only required to use safety
plate in the windshield for their home-market cars". How ass-backwards can you
get? Is there ANY European car manufacturers which is ALLOWED to use safety
plate in the windshield for their home-market cars? There may be. Saab and
Volvo, perhaps, in Sweden, perhaps. At one time, many years ago, certainly
Sweden did. Not gifted with his certitude, I can't say about the present, but
I very much doubt it.

Alfa (and Fiat, Citroen, the whole laundry-list of car-companies) have from
the beginning in the late nineteenth century accommodated different
regulations in different countries. That is what a 'country' is: a body of
people in one place with one currency, one set of central bureaucrats (OOH!
Bad word!), usually one dominant language, and one set of interests perceived
to differ from those of some of their neighbors. Ipso facto, different
regulations, as well as different customs, which a vendor has the option of
complying with or not. Alfa couldn't sell the same cars in France that it sold
in Sweden, and it couldn't sell the same cars in France or Sweden that it sold
in Italy, and couldn't sell the same cars in Britain that it sold in France or
Sweden or Italy. In the mid-sixties, before the US DOT or EPA were created,
Alfa furnished eight different windshields for the Sprint GT Veloce- and
different headlights, and different parking lights, and different license
plate frames, and different wiring connectors, some differences for local
preferences, some for Alfa's own marketing decisions, some for national
regulations. The company made its choices for its reasons. None of the
equipment restrictions, then or now, were as onerous as the economics-based
local-content laws which have been common in South Africa, South America, the
Orient, and emerging economies generally, which Alfa, VW, and many other
manufacturers complied with, or didn't. Their choices.

"Yes, but" someone will say, DOT and EPA stupidities made it much worse. Oh?
After they were in full bloom the number of different windshields Alfa used to
equip cars for different markets went down from eight to six. Where is the
"worse"?

George wrote "For this reason, companies like Fiat (Fiat, Lancia, and Alfa
Romeo), Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, MG, TVR, Morgan and a number of other
European makes have chosen not to sell their cars in North America any more".
But you can buy a Morgan - no problem, except the price and the waiting list.
Somebody decided to import them, and does. The difference between Morgan and
Alfa in this respect is that Morgan doesn't object. Fiat has no reason, in its
judgment, to cooperate with the "Autodelta USA" enterprise, so it doesn't. You
want to compel Fiat to help Autodelta sell rebadged Alfas? Talk about coercive
bureaucracies.

On the occasion of the decolonization of one of the European colonies in
Africa some years ago a reporter asked one of the locals which side of the
road they would be driving on after liberation. The reply was that with
freedom we will all be able to drive on any side of the road we feel like at
any time. Great. No regulation will satisfy everybody, but people make rules,
as best they can, that they think they can live by. Am I uniformly happy with
all of them? Income tax, property tax, sales tax, zoning restrictions,
building codes, leash laws, pooper scoopers, smoking restrictions, traffic
laws, tort laws, concealed carry laws, abstinence-only education, immigration
laws, restaurant sanitation, ad infinitum? Of course not, but generally more
yes than no. Imperfect it may be, but it is what is called "civilization".
Given the alternatives, I'll take it, I'll vote, and I will try to avoid
specious arguments.

Grumble over, and I will try to keep it that way. Thank God for the
page-down.

John H.

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 14:11:53 EDT
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: 164 wheels (& GTV)

I am planning on getting some nice alloys for my 164LS, so if anybody is in
the market for stock LS alloy wheels (telephone dial type) let me know.
Probably will change them around beginning of year but only if I can sell the
stock ones. Likewise four good Campagnolo (finned) wheels for a GTV.
Graham Arlen
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