Allow European Autos into the US

Wards Auto ^

[linbiao123]

To comply with regulations, car manufacturers have to design and manufacture separate models for the European and American markets. This needlessly costs car manufacturers billions. Copy or copy and then water down European car regulations. Why hasn't this been done yet?

I have a second article quoting Bob Lutz.

http://wardsauto.com/ar/lutz_break_testing_080829/

[Erik Latranyi]

Government has always been an obstacle to capitalism. Frankly, gov’t should be out of the car regulation business, but since that is not an option, let do this:

Since the US wants its car companies to sell worldwide and Europe wants its car companies to sell worldwide, the governments should get together and decide on a global auto standard. Get together with Japan, Korea, China, etc and let’s set a worldwide basic standard for autos. Then any car sold can be purchased anywhere else.

Without regulations, computers use the same architecture worldwide, allowing for global economies of scale.

Doing this for the auto industry would probably result in fewer players, but that is OK as long as the playing field is level.

[wendy1946]

I assume it’s mainly the 40 years worth of govt. regulation which make today’s small cars (in this country at least) a thousand pounds heavier than the small cars of 1960 - 1970.

[CORedneck]

I know back in the 1980's with the grey market cars, you had to do some mods on the car to make it acceptable. I know one thing was to put in the lamer US-DOT headlamps for example.

I own two vehicles that have the old standard sealed beam headlamps. I swapped out the US-DOT regulation lamps for the ECE standard lamps. What I put in was Hella H4 lamps and they are good lamps. Here in Colorao, the law on headlamps are pretty lenient but other states especially the East Coast states like VA require you to be US-DOT compliant. They get you in the safety inspections.

I would favor changing our regulations to where ECE cars are acceptable without modification.

Another item, I considered taking several months and travel around New Zealand and Australia. I would consider buying a motorcycle there and when the trip was done, bring it home but US regs get in the way.

[Kenny Bunk]

The EU had adopted California DOT Regs as the EU Standard. Germany first. I thought this meant that all euromobiles (gasoline-powered) would be automatically USA compliant.

In re lighting: I thought that US cars now used euro-style halogen headlights. I remember in the bad old days, we used Hella, Cibie, Lucas, or Carrello headlights, switching them back to those weak old-fashioned sealed beams if state inspections came along.

The biggest foolishness is the Greens' prejudice against diesels. If small, modern dieselswere an option to power American family cars, there probably would be no need to import oil.

[MichiganConservative]

Here’s a crazy idea. Let consumers drive what car companies design, build and sell. Tell the imperial, criminal, federal government to piss off.

[enduserindy]

I have worked in the auto industry for many years and can tell you the biggest problem with bringing Euro cars here is they don’t meet emission standards.

[PrincessB]

I agree about the diesels. I live in a moderate climate and would love to have one of the Ford Fiesta diesel cars that are in Europe right now.