From: Ryan Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Sep 08 2002 - 10:00:17 PDT
Frankly the way I see all of the Vehicle regulations is the following:
The people need to be protected. The lady that buys the SUV and has
trouble knowing that she needs to check the tire pressure every fill
up or so is the reason we have thousands of laws and regs covering
automobile certification. She's going to sue (or her husband is) when
she gets severely injured because of an accident and the widget that
someone said would make cars safer wasn't installed in her model. So
the Feds make any new safety widget get installed. This is why cars
cost as much as they do now.
This is why you don't see many cars made by Lotus in the US because
Lotus makes so few of some of their models that they aren't willing
to make 10 of them for the Feds to destroy in crash tests.
Some people are willing to forgo this kind of coddled protection by
willingly buying older vehicles that were made before the
requirements came up. Be they foreign or domestic. Some items are
required for general safety (working brakes, lights, etc) but, in
general, most of them are for the safety of the driver. I have a '76
Monte Carlo. I understand the hazards of driving that car vs driving
my Brand new Honda or '99 subaru. I also understand that my ferret
can get quite dangerous at high speed and sharp turns. They'll roll
like a ball if you drive them a certain way.
I'd have no trouble at all with legislation that allowed M151's to be
nationally exempted based on the owner signing a statement that they
understand the inherent risks in driving this vehicle. Military
Hummbers I would place in this same class. Any arguments by the
automakers for competition should be trashed, basic off road vehicles
aren't even being made any more. All of the 4x4s are shiny, plush
suburban grocery getters now (one or two jeep models excepted).
--
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Ryan Gill rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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'60 Daimler Ferret '42 Daimler Dingo '42 Humber MkIV (1/3)
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