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Date:         Wed, 25 Oct 2006 13:38:57 -0700
Reply-To:     Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Jake de Villiers <crescentbeachguitar@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: : End the hegemony of the US auto makers
Comments: To: Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@vanagonparts.com>
In-Reply-To:  <CAEOIPKOOCKNBBDDDMBPAEFGLPAA.jeff@vanagonparts.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed

The Smart car has been for sale in Vancouver for a couple of years now and there are scads of them all over, especially downtown. Reliable reports of 60-70 mpg (that's Imperial gallons Mark) and very parkable!

There is a great video from Top Gear where they ran one into a double-sized Jersey barrier at 70 mph. Made a big bang, but both doors were operable afterwards ie no deforming of the passenger compartment. Very impressive little car.

On 10/25/06, Jeffrey Schwaia <jeff@vanagonparts.com> wrote: > > On the contrary, take your gripes to the manufacturers and the people. > Other than trucks, which carry a 25% duty on import, the duty to import a > passenger vehicle is a relatively small 2.5%. The real costs are in > demonstrating the safety of your vehicle and meeting EPA emissions > standards. All vehicles sold in the U.S. must meet the minimum FMVSS > standards (airbags, bumpers, etc.). Additionally, they must have modern > emission systems and be OBD-2. The costs required to make a vehicle that > meets these standards is prohibitive and there must be an expectation of > large enough number of sales to make the process worthwhile. > > If enough people wanted small, efficeint vehicles, I can guarantee you > that > we would see manufacturers lining up to sell their small, cool cars here > in > the USA. We're starting to see a small change in American mentality > towards > smaller cars, and that is why the Smart will be sold here in early '08. > > So if you want that really cool Kia, Hyundai, or Mitsubishi you've seen on > the web... no problem, just get 10,000 of your friends to buy one too. > > Cheers, > > Jeff > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf > Of Loren Busch > Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:19 AM > To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM > Subject: Re: : End the hegemony of the US auto makers > > > On 10/25/06, BJ Feddish <bfeddish@netreach.net> wrote: > > > > >> Will we ever be free of the hegemenony of US automaker's dominance > over > > what is perceived to be marketable vehicles? << > > > You need to be writing to you favorite Congressman or Senator on this one. > The laws they have passed and the power they have given to the 'We know > what's good for you, don't confuse the issue with facts' regulatory > agencies > makes the cost of entry into the US market by competition from other parts > of the world prohibitive. RE: Smart Car for an example. I'm sure that is > why we never saw many of the very desirable variations on the Vanagon that > VW produced for other markets but we never saw on the showroom floor here. > To much red tape and hoops to jump through. >

-- Jake 1984 Vanagon GL 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie" www.crescentbeachguitar.com


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