testing cars in the USA
cwi@bdol.com
Tue, 1 Apr 1997 10:10:16 -0500
May be I don't understand something but I see no reason why would any
manufacturer bring a non-US car for testing into the US. First of all
because it simply cannot be done. Any car imported into the US by any
commercial entity or private party must be manufactured for the US
market. Exception are tourists who would bring their cars into the US
for a limited time (their cars must conform to fuel requirements and all sorts
of other bizarre things too). I am not sure whether Automobiles Peugeot SA can
declare itself to be a tourist or will go to the extend of smuggling their
vehicles in just for the pleasure of driving an 806 minivan on a long
and empty road through say South Dakota. Of course, they can manufacture
a car for the US market, but then they have to disassemble it back to
the EU standards -- an absurd operation. The expense of bring car in,
attaching US catalytic converter, DOT tires, posting bonds is also
considerable, not worth "inexpensive US test drivers" -- they could as
well hire very expensive US lawyers, fly them first class to France on
Concorde and hire them to test those vehicles -- at least PSA would save money.
Overall climatic conditions in Europe are more varied (and territory is
smaller), than the US (or Russia after Urals or India or Canada or
Australia or China). You can drive from Arctic (Sweden) -- sorry no
Arctic in the Continental US (although you can airlift the poor minivan
to Alaska of course) to tip of Spain (almost North Africa), without
leaving the EU, being under one set of regulations which are less varied
than those of the 48 States, with the same number plate, with no need to
change catalytic converter, tires or windshield and overall less hassle.
So, why would PSA bring a car/van to the US if they did not plan to sell
it? May be they just brought the thing in just for the hell of it -- to
appear in some report -- yes, we were testing a van in America and it
broke down or something like that. Any ideas?
Eugene