Bad News for Car tuning / modding scene !!!

[Tempest2 0]

Just read an interesting article in a German VW Tuning mag, where it discusses the impending new regulations that those useless politians in Brussels have have been dreaming up recently (instead of dealing with far more pressing issues like job creation in the face of threats from China et al).

 

Highlights:

 

In the future we may only be able to run vehicle manufacturer approved alloys in approved wheel sizes and tyres sizes, no more things like spacers, fatter wheels or stretched tyres.

 

The German ABE (Allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis = general permission for usage) system, whereby you need to have every single non-standard item on your car approved by the manufacturer (document supplied with the item) or else it needs to be single-approved on your car (=expensive, if at all possible).

 

Some of these issues have been discussed and written down by (of course non car-enthusiasts, i.e. not people like you and me, but rather politicians) here: http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/automotive/pagesbackground/spare_parts/hearing/index.htm

 

What it says in the EU document is that safety relevant tuning parts (e.g. coilover suspension kits, bonnets, i.e. this new fangled pedestrian front crash directive - I mena, if a bloody pedestrian can't see and simply walks onto the road, blind people excepted, than sorry, but he/she deserves to get hit - Darwin award anyone?) need testing for type approval, something that only the bigger car companies can afford. As testing fees will be several thousand Euros, it means it's a few cents per car for the likes of VW, but not for the likes of Rieger, who will only sell a few hundred of a particular spoiler/bumper/coilie kit or whatever. Testing is reuqired for a spoiler bumper like on my Mk1 Rocco, but for each car make and model!!! You can see that the likes of Rieger are artificially being killed off by this proposal from Brussels.

 

Much to the pleasure of the big car companies, as they apparently never liked the tuning scene, they often find that their cars are made to look worse by our modding efforts. They also, given the sales crisis in the automotive sector across the EU, want a slice of the modding scene action ...

 

The only hope we have is the http://www.e-t-o.org, an organisation to fight for the interests of the tuning / modding industry, as no-one will listen to us, the car enthusiasts :-(

 

Apart from that the German mag calls us for action, yes, us, we who are at the base of a democracy. We can still approach the relevant people in British politics (any car enthusiasts there? No, don't mean the boring hoards of chauffeur-driven Jag-morons, real people who'll drive a Rocco with a loud zorst on weekends). I'm not familiar with who to write to in this country, but you guys might be ;-)

 

Tempest

[CazzaVR 0]

Eric, this will be an absolute disaster if it happens. 99% of us have got at least a couple of mods on our cars...

[dr_mat 0]

I have to say I think stuff like this is inevitable. Looking at the upside, it's going to make bullbars (at least aftermarket ones) completely illegal (and the pedestrian safety rules will even make the factory fit ones illegal). ;)

 

There are more and more regulations about making cars safe for everyone (including pedestrians). I mean, no one worries about the MOT rules of not being able to have any exposed "sharp" edges of bodywork anymore, and in the same way we won't worry about these new regulations in the future .. as long as they are sensibly applied.

 

PLUS none of this will apply to old cars. None of the regs ever do, because they can't retrospectively test cars that are no longer in production, it's simply not reasonable.

 

And on top of all this, the car manufacturers have been making increasingly ugly (read "modified") cars anyway. The aftermarket stuff for modern cars is really now reduced to only being blue nipples and stick-on spoilers...

[CoxyLaad 0]

In the future we may only be able to run alloys in approved wheel sizes and tyres sizes, no more things like spacers, fatter wheels or stretched tyres.

 

thats not a bad thing, overwide stretched tyres look shite IMO :roll:

[Yandards 0]

In the future we may only be able to run alloys in approved wheel sizes and tyres sizes, no more things like spacers, fatter wheels or stretched tyres.

 

thats not a bad thing, overwide stretched tyres look **** IMO :roll:

 

And they do f**k all for handling!

 

Don't think this would go through in its current format at least in this country anyway - far too much money in 'modified' cars and it would put a far section of people out of business.

[bristolbaron 10]

i dont see this being a problem.. buy the time this happens ill have a gallardo!

[mattnorgrove 0]

Sounds like another Brussels money-making scheme to me.

 

They just cant keep their dirty fingers off anything! Swines!!

[Mave 0]

Lol, no way can I see this happening. It'll be wayyyyy too time consuming for the police etc....

[vdubCorrado 0]

funny cause i've known people with strectched tires and said there is absolutely no differnce in handling with them strwetched or not... basically if you're getting a car for handling then you don't want your sidewalls to give out... you'd want them stiff... so also in theroy strech should also make no difference as well... but hey i haven't stretched... yet... but just what i hear...

[G60Jet 1]

spains been like that for years, anything none standard = new itv style approval test. anything over 10% increase in power is the same

[A1 VR6 0]

Putting a corrado back to standard means standard but you still have a great car. The bonus is the wipeout of all the badly modded cars you see everywhere.

[khurrado 0]

Putting a corrado back to standard means standard but you still have a great car. The bonus is the wipeout of all the badly modded cars you see everywhere.

I dont like sebrings. :(

[A1 VR6 0]

Putting a corrado back to standard means standard but you still have a great car. The bonus is the wipeout of all the badly modded cars you see everywhere.

I dont like sebrings. :(

Speedlines aren't my fave wheel but I could live with them if I had to.

[peteTDI 0]

i've just spent over 3k on mine,theres no way i'am refitting the old bits

[Tempest 0]

Don't like any VW standard alloys :-( Stretched tyres look cool IMHO, and as on my Mk1 I have slightly stretched tyres (195s on 8" alloys), I can't say I have noticed any degredation in handling, on the contrary due to its Sachs Racing coilies it handles like a dream :-)

 

Yes, I too hope that these new regs won't apply to old cars. But looking at Germany, they do already apply all these rules to any car, irrespective of age. Which makes my German Rocco and Rado mates' lives such a darn misery, they're having to jump through millions of hoops just to get their Roccos/Rados the way they want them, i.e. personal, not like any other car (the basic idea of tuning is still personalisation).

 

I would agree that it's a good thing to get rid of the ASBO-cars, though :lol: Better to get rid of the ASBOs altogether (deport them to China or something :lol:).

 

The argument that there's too much money in the modding industry doesn't count either, as there's more money still in the automotive sector selling brandnew cars, especially in a car-manufacturing country like Germany (and looking at the list of contributors to that EU document, it's mainly the German MOT-organisations, who in the meantime have also started to make serious amounts of money with approving alloys/coilies/etc. for the big car manufacturers, so don't really care about the small tuning/modding company sector which is by comparison relatively small). So we're being forced to adopt the painful German procedures in the long run.

 

Wouldn't be surprised if we then also have to adopt German emission laws, whereby you roadtax is based on what type of CAT you're running, irrespectively of the age of the car (unlike in this country, where we still operate a fairly fair system), i.e. if your car was built in say 1978, has no CAT, then you automatically pay approximately 450 Euros extra roadtax per annum in Germany, as your car is considered environmentally unfriendly (any excuse for the government to rake in the dosh from the motorist).

 

Tempest

[bristolbaron 10]

Putting a corrado back to standard means standard but you still have a great car. The bonus is the wipeout of all the badly modded cars you see everywhere.

I dont like sebrings. :(

 

but bbs splits were an option on the rado.. just means oem+ would dominate

[PhatVR6 0]

i detest this country

[gixxer 0]

They've been trying to do this sort of sh*t to bikes for years now & never seem to get anywhere, but you never know with this government, say one thing then turn around & p*ss all over you.

[skinnyman9000 0]

This will never come into power, it will take waaaaay too much time and money to implement. Its like the black box idea for pay-per-mile tax, it would cost far too much money to fit one into every single car, and to then maintain the system.

 

It makes me laugh though how the government keeps trying to tie us all down. They want to stop car modfication, stop binge drinking, drugs are illegal, hell what am i supposed to spend my money on?!?

[Tempest2 0]

what am i supposed to spend my money on?!?

 

More and more taxes, so that these politicians can increase their wages :-(

 

Tempest

[NickVR6 0]

Well mod while you can, because i cant see them having the power to get you to remove stuff you have fitted already when it comes in.

 

If they have, then they will be paying me a fair old wedge in compensation ;-)

 

I can see manufacturers backing it, and creating a whole new side business for their own approved tuning and styling parts!

 

Skinnyman, I really like that red C in your avi!!

[Tempest2 0]

i cant see them having the power to get you to remove stuff you have fitted already when it comes in.

 

Hate to burst the bubble, but in Germany they already have those powers. Certificates of conformity for certain tuning parts are no longer unlimited, e.g. if new regulations come in, existing certificates can be declared void and hence any car sporting such tuning parts becomes non-road-worthy, and can be taken off the road by the cops. This has happened already in Germany !!!

 

they will be paying me a fair old wedge in compensation

Sorry to disappoint, but it's the cops that will be able to force your car to the nearest MOT station instead (I know of a recent case where exactly this has happened: Severely modded gorgeous looking Audi RS4 in Germany drove to a local meet, plod turns up, looks at all the cars, and declares the RS4 non-road-worthy, as the suspension in plod's opinion is too low, owner shows certificates of MOT approval, plod says owner has to immediately take vehicle to their own appointed MOT station, until then the vehicle cannot be driven!!! The owner at that point risked losing everything as he started telling the plod what he thought of them. Anyway, upon bringing his car to the plod-appointed MOT station his car suspension was declared illegal despite his own certificates of approval!!! That's Germany, it's a dictatorship, if you ask me!).

 

Tempest

[skinnyman9000 0]

I like that part "Take it to our MOT station, oh look, its failed" Surprisingly

[A1 VR6 0]

"but bbs splits were an option on the rado.. just means oem+ would dominate "

 

Nothing wrong with OEM+ BB - Just ask OSV!

[CrazyDave 0]

Well mod while you can, because i cant see them having the power to get you to remove stuff you have fitted already when it comes in.

 

I agree, make the most of it while you still can.

 

If I end up paying extra tax to have a 'gas guzzler' on my drive then I'm going to make sure it really guzzles! VR6T here I come!