>I always thought (and I am NOT a US citizen nor live in the US) that
the reason was liability. Manufacturers don't want grey market cars
because they are afraid of a lawsuit in the US by a crash victim.
The liability reason does sound legit, but can be easily answered with
a rhetorical question:
"So Mercedes, you sell all your unsafe vehicles outside the US market,
correct?
I do not buy the belief that cars outside of the US market are somehow
inferior in terms of safety. My Renault 18i would never have passed a
British MOT test. My personal view is that what really makes a car
unsafe has more to do with lack of maintenance and/or modification
than some inherent lack of safety in design. I can understand their
fear of US litigation given the fact that the average crash test dummy
displays driving skills superior to what I see from people on the
road. However, I think one would have to sue a company in the venue
where the car was purchased. Best of luck navigating the French court
system from here in the US.
If the cars are so unsafe then maybe the US State Department should
put out a travel advisory for tourists renting Renault Clio's in
France. I'm surprised we are not dieing off from vacation car wrecks!
If you really enjoy this kind of grey-market stuff, read the petition
letters on the DOT's DMS Website.
There was one rather famous battle between GS Imports and Ferrari
North America. Ferrari stated that the Italian sourced grey-market 355
was incapable of meeting US standards. The importer said that was
bollocks!
The importers argument was that there was absolutely no way a company
the size of Ferrari could make separate models for each and every
market. Essentially they manufactured a product for the toughest
import market.
Ferrari lawyers countered, but had to back off their statement as this
argument is 100% correct; they do make only one model.
While a pain, it is easier to do with a model that is sold here. For a
car that is not, you have no basis of comparison. At that point you
shell out $7000+ dollars to a Registered Importer to essentially take
the car apart and evaluate if it could stand up to US standards.
The problem with this is that some tests require a component to
undergo destructive testing. You end up buying one car to drive, and a
2nd one for the government to drive….into a wall.
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Received on Sun Jun 25 17:52:26 2006
