Signed, but not holding my breath.
Petition to reduce import ban from 25 years to 15 years (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter jdlobb
- Start date
This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.
Three days in and already one third of the way to the necessary number of signatures. 
Like green sacked fxxxhead Obumma is gonna even think about this
I know, I know. But believe me--the press picks up on a lot of these petitions and it can be quite interesting the lengths to which the administration (any administration) will go to answering without answering such questions. Mushmouth politicians, don't you know.
The only "press" that will pick this is up is "enthusiasts", like us. Non-starter
yep........
- Thread starter
- #28
doesn't matter what your belief is. It is policy that if 100k people sign a petition he at the very least writes a letter in response. Look it up, he's written response letter to some pretty out there petitions. the one that jumps to the top of my mind was the petition to build a Death Star. No s***, that was a thing, it got the required number of signatures.
I signed it but there's not a snowball's chance in hell it will even be discussed, let alone passed. 
NOPE. They will not add any part numbers to the system outside of what was sold in the US, regardless of the import law. If you import something from outside the US, it's on you to find parts. They are under no obligation to stock stuff for your imported diesel 80 or 105 (which would be my choice). I've fought this battle for years. It simply ain't gonna happen. It actually got MUCH worse when the import laws on parts became more restrictive in 2010 and TMS changed their import/export sales policies a couple of years ago. I've actually gone as far as to request that TMS do a special import for a diesel flywheel, to which they replied, NOPE.
While I can see the benefits of this petition to fellow Cruiserheads, I can also see major obstacles.
1) There are groups with "deep pockets" that have a vested interest in seeing the current regulations stay in effect.
2) The EPA ( under the current Administration ) have never been more powerful and in my opinion has "zero" interest in changing any law that benefits the average consumer.
Hopefully I am wrong on both accounts.......
This subject is also being discussed in the 70 Series Tech section.
1) There are groups with "deep pockets" that have a vested interest in seeing the current regulations stay in effect.
2) The EPA ( under the current Administration ) have never been more powerful and in my opinion has "zero" interest in changing any law that benefits the average consumer.
Hopefully I am wrong on both accounts.......
This subject is also being discussed in the 70 Series Tech section.
That's fine if they (dealers) don't opt to stock such things. So long as I'm able to order interesting parts through Dan, Onur, or you, it makes little difference to me. Oh, and four days in and almost 50% of the signatures needed.
No one is saying this could get anyone to change anything. All this petition can accomplish is require the administration to provide an answer to it and that is worthy on it's own merits. All I want is to harmonize with most of the rest of the developed world on this issue. I want to keep "poking the bear" on this issue until I no longer am able to drive, or until the law changes. Soon enough, it won't be up to the Obama administration and it will be the next guy/gal's headache.
Me thinks you're missing the point of the petition, and the subject at hand.
My bad .......My inability to read stuff carefully dates back to grade school.
I just don't want my government standing in the way of my having vehicles that should reasonably be able to be imported into this country once they are importable into other countries. I detest the fact that Canada has a ten-year jump on us for the really tasty used vehicles.
I don't doubt that the number of signatures will be reached. I just don't think anything will become of it. If we really wanted change, we should mobilize all these (MANY) forums, clubs, etc and hammer our elected representatives until they are so sick of us that they finally bring it to a vote. That's the more realistic path. Although, even if we did all that, I still don't think it would pass.
ain't a single person in the EPA or NTSB that would look at changing this, even if Obummer told them to. Too much enviro pressure.
- Thread starter
- #38
it's not environmentalist pressure that would stop it from happening. European and Japanese emission and crash test requirements are as good or better than our own, but they are different. For example, the use of off-set frontal crash testing for NTSA vs head-on crash testing for EU. (might be the other way around.)
A big part of the problem is that there aren't unified global emission and crash standards. Everybody has their idea of what should be tested and how to test it, and nobody would be willing to change and retool. Either the US would have to adopt EU standards, which would throw our insurance and auto testing industries into a mess, or the EU would have to adopt US standards, and their insurance and testing industries would be thown into a mess.
But some level of a ban IS absolutely necessary, because of the difference in standards. If there were no such ban it would be possible to build cars somewhere in the world that requires a lower spec, like India or China, and import them unchanged to the US without testing. That's not "enviro" getting in the way, that's a very real problem that we simply don't want. We often forget that this ban isn't JUST about european or japanese cars. Other countries produce cars as well. I really don't want Indian, Russian, or Chinese spec cars on US streets unregulated, and neither should you.
Absolutely! Why deny us the crazy foreign cars&trucks we deserve... 'Murica.
This legislation would not infringe on any "NEW" vehicle purchases. I sell cars for a living at the moment...I don't get new car buyers to flip for a 15 year old vehicle...nor do I get a buyer that flips from the idea of purchasing a 15 year old vehicle...to a new one. The auto dealers would make money from it on the pre-owned, parts, service and eventually the auction side. Making previously unavailable parts available in the USA is not really very difficult for a Toyota, Jeep, etc.
