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Date:         Mon, 2 Mar 1998 06:54:05 -0500
Reply-To:     Scot Douglas <sdoug@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Scot Douglas <sdoug@CONCENTRIC.NET>
Organization: Mitsubishi Motors R&D of America
Subject:      Re: re; smog sympathies
Comments: To: lcarter@cowichan.com
Comments: cc: van <vanagon@vanagon.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Larry Carter wrote: > > Well Scot those are your regulations, not mine. Also I'm curious what > makes you feel you're right, and everybody else is wrong.

Larry, you and a whole lot of people are missing the entire point. They are not *MY* regulations, but I have to abide by them.

> Could it be your > blinkers? Not everybody lives in California, or the USA for that matter. > Not everybody has been (?) educated (?) into believing all this nazilike > eco-terrorism that has become so fashionable, and so costly.

Whaa??? I work with this everyday, so I have not been "educated" into believing anything. I have accepted the truth that the EPA and CARB have the final say of what gets put on a car and what will be put on the next cars. Nazi-like and eco-terrorism? I don't understand what you're trying to say. Eco terrorism by whom?

> As for > experience; I'm a 50 year old heavy-duty mechanic, what they call a donkey > doctor in the logging camp I worked in for the last 24 years. "With a deep > love of things mechanical stretching back to the early 50's. Most of the > lessons that life have taught me have had little to do with regulations, > mostly hands-on in your face stuff. I've had enough VWs over the years, > that I know when it's running good. I won't be consulting your CARB or EPA > to verify this for me.

It's my CARB and EPA as much as it is yours.

> About this OBD 11 thing, are you telling me your in favor of this? Is it > the Hippie in me that causes the alarm bells to go off? This is > big-brotherism big time, and you should wake up to this. Or am I wrong? Is > this the way everybody wants it?

I must not have been clear enough. OBD II(2) is currently in production. And yes, I am incredibly in favor of this. It does have it's downsides, but it makes vehicle diagnosis easy for anybody, even somebody of the old school that tunes cars with his ears and sparkplug color instead of the latest mega-buck diagnostic tools.

The next stage is what is scary; OBD III(3). It's the proposed system that will alert a local service center of your check engine light.

> I guess you have spotted the cultural > differences by now,damn, I was going to hide that. >

As much as it will disappoint you, we're not that different. While not as old or as experienced as you, I share a deep love of all things mechanical. I started out wrenching on german cars to put me through junior college, I moved up to operating an engine dynamometer to help out with the university bills, and now I'm calibrating ECUs on tomorrow's cars. I don't like CARB or the EPA any better than you, especially since I jump through hoops to make them happy, however, I do know that they are here to stay short of overthrowing the government.

The emission control systems are there to help the environment. If many people start bypassing them 7-10 years down the road the government will only come down harder on those vehicles in the future.

-- Best Regards, Scot Douglas Project Engineer; Chrysler/Mitsubishi Joint Programs Mitsubishi Motors R&D of America P: (734) 971-0900 x124 F: (734) 971-0901


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