5 Reasons Why Government Regulations Are Ruining Cars #IOCT
Introduction
This article applies to petrolheads across the globe, whether it be in the USA, England or Australia. There are bound to be laws that hinder your driving pleasure in some way. Most of the time, federal governments are overblown and interfere in our lives like an invasive traction control system. Here are some ways that the federal government poisons the water hole of the car community.
One: US Import Laws
Many of you are probably familiar with US Import Laws, being that it makes it illegal (most of the time) to import a car like the R34 Skyline GTR (insert rage comment here). Here is a clip from US Customs explaining those laws. “As a general rule, motor vehicles less than 25 years old must comply with all applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) in order to be imported permanently into the United States.” Basically, if you want to import a car that’s less than 25 years old, it has to meet US safety standards and emissions standards in order for it to be imported. For those of us who want to hear the swan song of an S15 or an R34 Skyline in the US, we’re out of luck. A possible solution to this dire problem is to put a warning sticker on imported cars, saying that this imported car is potentially less safe and pollutes more. Besides, most people who buy an S15 Silvia in the US don’t give a hoot about emissions and safety.
Two: European (and US) Emissions Laws
Car guys want to hear that VROOOOOOOM and BRAAAAAAP STUTUTUTU! Unfortunately, emissions laws can get in the way of this (this can be a bigger problem for VW TDI owners). To quote Road and Track in their article Why Ferrari engineers hate turbos, “By all rights, Ferrari shouldn’t give a flaming tailpipe about mpg. But governments are cracking down on CO2 emissions, and the only way to emit less carbon dioxide is to burn less fuel. So even Maranello is looking to the turbo to reduce fuel consumption.” Because of emissions laws, many sports cars that once had big engines with natural aspiration have had to switch to small engines with forced induction; don’t even get me started about the VW emissions scandal. Granted, we shouldn’t over pollute the planet, but maybe our federal governments should step back and take a better look at all of this.
Three: Speed Limits
Apart from lucky Germany, almost all countries have speed limits on all their roads. For the most part, this is a good thing, the last thing we need are idiots in riced Citroens going 100 MPH down a residential street. However, sometimes, we petrolheads just want to drive fast on an empty road in the middle of nowhere. This reminds me of the multiple times that Top Gear has gone to America and every time, they complain about the speed limits. “What are we going to hit? There’s nothing. No wildlife, no people. It’s shtupid! It’s shtupid!” –Jeremy Clarkson. Also, if you’re going 66 MPH in a 60 MPH zone, a cop can pull you over and write you a ticket, even if the majority of traffic was going the same speed. Speed enforcement can be too strict, and can be very irritating. In my opinion, straight highways in the middle of nowhere should have very high speed limits, or no speed limits at all.
Four: Safety Standards
Safety standards have increased in scrutiny over the years, and that has had some impact on the cars we drive. Cars are safer to drive and crash, but there are a few downsides to more strict safety standards. Modern cars are heavier, bigger and have lower visibility compared to classic cars. Petrolheads don’t want cars that are heavy, big and have low visibility, we want the opposite of that; that’s why the Mazda Miata sells so well. Also, because of the added weight, it means that modern cars can’t be as fuel efficient as they could be. It’s common sense that lighter cars usually get better fuel economy. Strict safety standards have in certain ways hurt performance cars.
Five: U.S.A. CAFÉ standards
In 2012, US News reported “The Obama administration released new Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards this week, requiring automakers to raise the average fuel efficiency of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.” Basically, the US government is forcing automakers to make more fuel efficient cars, and they’ve been doing this since 1975. Many American cars used to have glorious V8’s but V8’s have slowly been phased out of cars where V6’s and Inline 4’s have taken their place. It shouldn’t be the government that forces car makers to make more fuel efficient cars and trucks. It should be competition among car makers and consumer demand that makes cars and trucks more fuel efficient.
Conclusion
Don’t come away from this article thinking that the government is absolute evil and that all regulations should be done away with. What I want you to learn is that government can sometimes be too overbearing and that these regulations have negative consequences towards us gearheads. Thank you for reading this article and let me know about anything I missed in the comments.
Comments
“Safety standards suck”, yeah….that’s a really stupid thing to be mad about. I would want a sports car or performance car that I buy to be safe because I want to survive if someone hits me and also insurance rates will be much lower if the car is safe. Its bodily injury coverage that costs insurance companies the most so having will result in lower rates for you.
I agree, however, I’m looking at the drawbacks of safety standards.
More stuff like this Chad. Great post. Also, other CTzens, the standard of good article content has been set
thanks
The state I live in has no emissions :D hehehe.
Cuz south dakota
There’s more to the UK than just England…
like scotland and northern Ireland
Indonesia : There are rules, but nobody follows them. Modding cars without the dealer’s approval is currently illegal ( this is a new rule ), and all modding must be done in a certain garage, but I doubt if that rule will even last a year. I can understand why they did make this rule, the car/ bike modding scene became a bit stupid and dangerous lately, but I still don’t think people must have the dealer’s approval just to mod their cars.
God forbid we try to reduce vehicle emissions so we have air to breathe and thus people alive to make the cars in the first place.
Sure modern cars are heavier but that’s because as much as most of us like our cars we would rather not have to be buried encased in the tin can body that was our car just because some moron pulled out in front of us.
Nice to hear the government forcing better fuel standards given my 89 corolla got better mileage than any of the modern cars I’ve owned even though I beat the living crap out of that engine. We get worse mileage but are told it’s better. So it’ll be nice to get back to the 45 to 50 mpg some of the japanese cars got on the hwy back in the late 80’s (a good 25 years ago). Most of them seem to average 30 - 35 mpg in real world us, quite the drop if you ask me.
Great article, and so true
thank you
I think here in Canada we can already get the S15 Silvia and the R34 Skyline since it’s only 15 years as opposed to 25.
We shouldn’t push technology so fast because what will we have then in the future? Every car will be the same. Soon, all cars will be EV or hydrogen cell or whatever. Gas stations will become obsolete, oil companies will go bust, and mechanics will be a thing of the past. Heck I’m expecting to pay a “gasoline powered vehicle annual taxation” here in the next few decades.
It does seem a little ridiculous that the government can pull numbers out of a hat and force manufacturers to comply, especially when each of the pushes are contradictory. “Be more safe, but still double the efficiency” they say. Well, making it safer adds much weight, which in turn lowers efficiency. What they say sounds good to most people, but producing those results is much harder for the engineers than what people seem to think.
VW dieselgate really didn’t surprise me at all. The customers want performance, but the governments want low emissions. The two requests are contradictory, and increasingly difficult to achieve. As the engineers get closer to the line of feasibility, they are forced to decide which is more important: customers or governments. Governments don’t pay the bills if you know what I mean… Yes, other manufacturers are still currently meeting both requests, but VW took the path of lower development cost=higher profit.