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EPA sez kei trucks unsafe?

Discussion in 'Mini Lounge' started by glenn, Apr 16, 2008.

  1. glenn

    glenn Member

  2. There's a good reason to have RHD for sure! :eek:
     
  3. GR.mike

    GR.mike Member

    ouch!!!! That could have left a mark.
     
  4. gbrad

    gbrad Member

    10 seconds before that happened he would have said it was impossible. Just a little farther and that would have really hurt.

    gbrad
     
  5. glenn

    glenn Member

    I have heard that one reason that the mini trucks are not allowed in both Canada and the USA is because they are not safe to drive on the streets...... my thoughts are that all vehicles can be un-safe.....it just depends on how it is being driven and by who......even the most safe vehicles that include such things like air bags etc... can have bad things happen in them just as much as in a mini truck.
    I would think that the main reason that we are having trouble getting these things on the roads has more to do with politics and lobby groups....someone (company) does not want these trucks over here for hurting their sales of their product......not to leave out the oil companies that enjoy people gas'n up their 8 cylinders
    Things will change eventually......the wheels of justice do move slowly eh?:rolleyes:
    just my thoughts.....

    glenn
     
  6. Acerguy

    Acerguy Moderator Staff Member

    Just got back from my second trip to Asia this year. This time the Shanghai area. And boy are there mini-truck (like) vehicles everywhere! Zipping along at freeway speeds too. But that's not to say I'd want to hit anything with it.
     
  7. Ketzer

    Ketzer Member

    I believe it has everything to with lobbying and money. You can't convince me that a Toyota Yaris is any safer than one of our minis being slammed into by a Ford Expedition at 50mph.

    Jeff-
     
  8. JRinTX

    JRinTX Moderator

    Jeff,

    I have to agree.

    I have tried to register my truck in Texas. I was told that it can not be titled and registered because it does not have bumpers (I guess they are right, the front "bumper" is really just a plastic cover and nothing on the rear).

    And the VIN does not meet the DOT requirements!?!? Apparantly late model vehicles MUST have a VIN that is a certain number of characters in length and one particular letter in the string must denote the year of manufacture...???

    Now that is a really crazy reason to not allow these trucks to be registered!! Any Vehicle Identification Number should be acceptable, as long as it is unique to that vehicle. I would be willing to bet that it has a whole lot more to do with them not burning enough gas.
     
  9. canoebuildah

    canoebuildah Member

    As I have said in the past, if the government is worried about safety, then remove all motorcycles from the road. They are inherently more dangerous to drive than a mini truck.
     
  10. JRinTX

    JRinTX Moderator

    Chris you are exactly right....it is not about safety. I don't now the real reasons, but I have to suspect special interest groups.
     
  11. Timetripper

    Timetripper Moderator

    Here in BC Canada after you import the truck they do a OPP [out of province] inspection then after it pass's they issue a VIN that meets their guidelines, it is applied to the vehicle - end of problem. At least I know there's one smart person involved with the proccess.:rolleyes:
     
  12. glenn

    glenn Member

    Timer, not all areas have smart people working in the dmv......out here OPP stands for ontario provincial police, ya don't want to see them......they give out big tickets here.

    btw............. I thought your provincial guys want to change the rules from 15 years to 25 years for being able to register these trucks for on the road eh? Seems that your dot thinks that too many of these trucks are on the road already....... and want to remove them "cause they are un-safe on our roads". I think your probems are just start'n.....let's hope that if they change these rules....we can grandfather our trucks already registered eh?

    glenn
     
  13. Timetripper

    Timetripper Moderator

    Actually a funny thing happened here in good ole BC.............................

    Seems the guys & gals in ICBC's research dept. were doing a whole lot of naughty things the last little while.


    • Rebuilding "totaled" cars and not declaring it on resell
    • Having a inside track on ICBC auctions wereas after the highest bid was put in they would garuntee the bid+$100.00 to the auctioneer, meaning that no one else could win a car at auction if they [ICBC research dept.] wanted it for there own "chop shop"

    • They even resold within ICBC to unsupecting employee's

    Anyway's the guy who ran ICBC [he had a hate on for RHD/ JDM vehicle's] resigned [co-incidence he claimed] when the story broke and the RCMP have ramped up there investigation and ICBC have called in a big time accounting outfit to go over the books. So things are actually probably better right at the present time as far as JDM's go.
     
  14. kargador

    kargador New Member

    Very true sir, here in the Philippines many are already opting for these vehicles due to rapidly increasing price of gas and diesel.

    In fact, some of the cities are encouraging the people to use kei cars instead of gas guzzlers.

    I think its time for the American government to rethink its stance of not allowing kei cars on the road.
     
  15. Timetripper

    Timetripper Moderator

    And the Canadian Gov as well should wake up and smell the sunshine.
    I always get a kick out of the "carbon credits","carbon neutral","global warming" and all the other catch words they use and as soon as there is a knock on the door from the auto industry boys it means as much as throwing a shot glass full of water into the dessert at high noon. They should roll back the 15 yrs to 10 yrs on importing and give the auto industry 4yrs to come up with in house "kei" cars or at that point roll it down to 5yrs if they are that incompentant.
     
  16. kargador

    kargador New Member

    the chassis number and the engine number should be enough to identify a particular vehicle for registration
     
  17. Wolfman

    Wolfman Member

    Well, Texas is officially off of the list of states that will register them. Austin pulled the plug on it. They titled mine, as well as a few others. I haven't had the time yet to dig up the exact reason why. The not enough numbers thing is bunk. Nobody even blinked when I did mine.
     
  18. glenn

    glenn Member



    Good point, I like the info about ICBC with the totaled vehicles:rolleyes:....looks good on them....did you see the W5 program on used vehicles?

    btw....GMC is making a mini truck in Korea on the suzuki platform complete with the gold bow tie:eek:....just for markets other than North America:(....too bad eh?
     

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