Hi list,
I had a pretty good learning experience with a former employer who brought
three Mercedes Benz cars (brand new) into the country. It's been over 17
years ago. If my memory serves me right, this was the entire experience:
The cars were bought in Germany right off the assembly line and were meant
to be sold in Germany and Europe. They ran on leaded fuel and were
extremely fast as I understand. They were way cheaper than their American
market "siblings".
The cars were put on a boat and arrived at Long Beach many months later.
They cleared Customs o.k. and were given a certain time frame to
"Americanize" them.
The fun started at this point.
All the glass had to be replaced with DOT glass (windshield, rear and
passenger windows, etc). The headlamps and taillights (entire assemblies)
had to be changed as well. All the doors had to be re-inforced to protect
the occupants from a side impact collision (holes were drilled on the doors
and bars were placed inside). I learned for the first time in my life that
most of all safety designated items in the car have been stamped/marked with
whatever agency's (DOT/FMVSS) standards they have to comply with.
The FMVSS (Federal Motor Vehicles Safety Standards) required other
modifications like adding a fuel safety shut-off valve in case of collision
or roll-over. We had to take "before" and "after" photos of the items that
were replaced or added. We ended up with a very thick photo album for each
car detailing the modifications.
The EPA required the cars to have the fuel system modified as well. We had
to put up "unleaded only" stickers on the fuel access door. Had to install
fuel nozzle restrictors to accomodate the "unleaded" nozzles only. We had
to add catalyctic converters and oxygen sensors to the exhaust systems. The
cars had to be taken back up to Los Angeles in order to have a special lab
do some fancy environmental impact test on the cars' tail pipe emmissions.
I think they called it an EPA Certificate or something like that. The
average smog certificate was not sufficient. The DMV would not issue
registrations unless they met the EPA, DOT and FMVSS requirements.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the DMV took oodles of money to finally issue
registrations for these cars. The cars were going to be seized and crushed
by Customs had they not met the registration requirements within the
specific "grace" period.
I was glad I did not own these cars. :-)
I apologize in advance if I've bored or offended anyone with this story.
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