EU Roadworthiness Package - potential threat to classic and modified cars

[Mr.G]

Originally Posted by moggy240

there are 2 types of cars in OZ unmodified and modified.
unmodified is your stock car as straight from the factory
modified is for cars that have been engineered and comes with a certificate to prove it.even if you go more than 1" bigger on your wheels it is classed as modifed and needs to have an engineered certificate which is not cheap.thats why older cars that have been engineered for modifications fetch good money as it is harder to get it done these days and the rules keep changing.
thats why i would not buy a modified car in OZ unless it had all ther certicates for all the mods it had as you might end up with a car you can not use on the public roads.
Examples

Call me cynical but you've just got me thinking... You've made a good point bringing up the Oz model. This is probably already on the minds of the EU legislators already, two classes of cars across Europe too - modified and unmodified.

And it's what they want all along. This whole we will ban modified cars is to get everyone worried. And finally, once everyone is up in arms they give in a little with a compromise. Basically you should be grateful we are letting you keep your modified cars, now pay up for the new certificates of conformity.. And this will be called a compromise proposal and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief thinking they've won and they'll pay up. . Give someone the worse possible scenario and they'll grab whatever crumb you throw at them... They know this already though...

Oh, and we all know by now what the arguments for doing it will be, for our safety

[Mr.F]

for our safety

...and the environment! Don't forget the global warming.

[moggy240]

Originally Posted by andrew muir

Aye!! but nearly everyone ignores the rules in Oz, in Victoria anyway. I have a mate that has an F100 2m longer than standard and about 1000L in gas tanks strapped underneath as he hates going to the petrol station. I have driven this vehicle and it has a chevy large block motor as well. I know for a fact he has no certifaicates for this.
My father in law has 2 x mustangs which are modified as they are converted to RHdrive.
I take it these certificates are only applicable in NSW?
And I drove a modified car in South Australia, NSW, Vic and Queensland. No certificate either. Police usually have better things to do I suppose.

not sure if it is most of Australia as the states all have different rules,yes people ignore the rules but if they are in an accident then things could get tricky but as i said modified cars with the certificate of engineering do fetch more money .but the daft thing is in ACT is that you can have a car 20 years and never take it for a MOT unlike NSW which is every year and you can be banned from driving in ACT but you are still able to drive in other 99% of Austrailia

[moggy240]

Originally Posted by Mr.G

Oh, and we all know by now what the arguments for doing it will be, for our safety

having worked for an International company you can never win an argument when they mention safety even if it is vey obscure

[andrew muir]

The State laws do vary a lot and Vic has no roadworthy requirement at all as long as you don't sell the vehicle. So you can keep a car for 60years or more and never have it checked.
Having been involved in an accident in Oz I can verify that there is no insurance requirement and as long as no one is injured or sues you can get away with anything.
Drove to Canberra in a modified 77 commodore no problem. No powersteering or A/C and 39 degrees wasn't fun though.

Originally Posted by moggy240

not sure if it is most of Australia as the states all have different rules,yes people ignore the rules but if they are in an accident then things could get tricky but as i said modified cars with the certificate of engineering do fetch more money .but the daft thing is in ACT is that you can have a car 20 years and never take it for a MOT unlike NSW which is every year and you can be banned from driving in ACT but you are still able to drive in other 99% of Austrailia

[andrew muir]

Hey Mr G
Yer spot on, not just with this but most legislation!!.

And it's what they want all along. This whole we will ban modified cars is to get everyone worried. And finally, once everyone is up in arms they give in a little with a compromise. Basically you should be grateful we are letting you keep your modified cars, now pay up for the new certificates of conformity.. And this will be called a compromise proposal and everyone will breathe a sigh of relief thinking they've won and they'll pay up. . Give someone the worse possible scenario and they'll grab whatever crumb you throw at them... They know this already though...

Oh, and we all know by now what the arguments for doing it will be, for our safety [/quote]

[richiep]

If they were to go down the route of certificates of conformity for parts and mods, this could still cause massive problems for rarer vehicles (like our early Zs) where many upgrade parts are manufactured by small or bespoke businesses, whether those be in the UK, US or Japan. Meaning getting some form of documentation for them will be impractical/impossible. This could only work if there is a common sense element and the engineer (to use the Australian model) has the latitude to make decisions about the parts that doesn't entail individual bits of paperwork for them from the manufacturer. Either way, we'll get shafted with massive expense to allow us to keep our cars roadworthy in the eyes of some Brussels d##khead.

All in all, the EU document is incredibly badly worded, clearly tainted by influence from Hunnish car manufacturers trying to stealthily kill the aftermarket and force us to buy their Kubelwagens every three years, and the obvious product of technocrats who have no idea of the impracticality of what they are suggesting. The EU loathing for individuality and love of "harmonisation" is also implied. It will probably get passed into law regardless, and then have to be rewritten many times over as it is totally unenforceable, horrendously expensive and largely gets ignored. I just hope the spineless British civil service do not embrace it with the passion they normally seem to with EU rules.

[richiep]

Incidentally, having a had look around the web, it seems the EU are starting to go into damage limitation/rebuttal mode after the very bad press over the last few days on this issue. They need to learn that, given the already low opinion of the populace towards the European experiment, they are not helping their cause with incidents like this...