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Date:         Thu, 11 Jul 1996 10:46:04 +0200
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         wrm@ccii.co.za (Wouter de Waal)
Subject:      Re: VW Customer Relations & reality check

Hi Ron

I don't really know how to reply to you without seeming to attack you personally. But here goes anyway :-)

>> There is no way that we'll even think of going to the trouble of all the >>emission SH*T to export Vanagons. Not to mention that it'll be way > >Wouter, > >I have to take strong exception to this. The emmisions laws in the States >are not 'SH*T'. They exist for a very good reason. Yesterday, looking >across the valley where I live, I could not see the mountains 10 miles away >through the haze. A large amount of that haze is automobile pollution. > >Emmisions controls are good and necessary.

You live in California. Which has probably the strictest emission laws in the world. And still you can't see across the valley. This makes me think that those emission control laws are not working too well.

I also follow the do-it-yourself EFI list. People who reverse engineer the EFI control computers on modern cars say that the 'closed loop' system, where the computer looks at the emissions to adjust the mixture and timing, is disabled at full throttle. What I'm trying to say is, the car manufacturers are programming the emission test into the computer, so that the car can pass the emission test. Granted, that same car is probably cleaner burning in actual use than an older car, but not necessarily. These guys have also found strange time delays in the code, which seem to correlate with the times spent at certian speeds on the rollers when the cars are certified, i.e. the car is run for a certian time at a certian speed to simulate 'real' conditions, and this curve is also programmed into the box to help the car pass.

Another point is that an old VW with a non-standard carb and without half the emission stuff can still produce less smog than a brand new (insert brand here), since a 1600 pumps less air than a 3L, and the test measures percentages.

But that's not the point. Yes, I agree with you, 'emission SH*T' is probably too strong. Emission _hassles_ is probably more correct. Lead free petrol has been available locally since February. I don't know if any locally produced cars have cats yet. So there's a large amount of local development, tooling, etc required for us to export cars, especially to the USA.

What I would like to see, here in SA, but also in other countries, is improved public transport. People who go to England or the rest of Europe come back amazed at what is possible. I hear that Atlanta also has a fairly good system. Also, we (SA) need more _Nuclear Power Stations_ (Oops, I see a flame war coming :-). I've been to Witbank (Up in the Transvaal, where they burn lots of coal to make electricity) and it's terrible. But right now coal mines provide a lot of jobs, so I don't see us shutting down those generators soon. Maybe we should start destroying old cars, then we might feel better about Witbank (wry grin, with a tear)

So, do I have a conclusion? Or a solution? Not really. I know what I would like the world to be like, I also know that money is what makes the world what it will be, and I realise that there's very little money to be made in shaping the world the way I would like it to be.

Wouter


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