[Vwdiesel] Replies to Taygan & Shephard, recient posts

[William J Toensing]

One of the posts refers to buying tools from NAPA Auto Parts, but I think the party asking the question lives in the UK. I don't know if NAPA has a presence in Canada or the UK but they are a large auto parts chain in the USA. I live in California, but some of our contributors live in Canada & Europe. What might be available in one part of the world may not be available elsewhere. Also, the parts or tools might be known by different names in different countries.
One poster indicates a VW Rabbit pickup or "Cady" imported from Europe might have to be modified to be driven in the USA. Since 1968, as I recall, cars could not be sold in the USA if they did not conform to government DOT/EPA regulations. Prior to the early '80s, cars could be brought into compliance by shops specializing in this. These were known as "Gray Market" cars. After the early '80s (another story), legislation was changed so that auto manufacturers could state whether a particular model met DOT/EPA standards or not & could thus keep a car out of the USA market for what ever reason they had, even if the car met American standards. It then became extremely costly & difficult to import "non-conforming" cars into the USA.
However, it is my understanding that either laws or regulations were changed, sometime in the '90s I think, to permit the importation of any car over 25 years old, without having to meet our DOT/EPA regulations. So, as of 2008, it should be possible to import any 1983 or older car into the USA without having to meet these regulations. Therefore, I wouldn't think it would be necessary to modify any 1983 or older car. Were any VW "Caddy's made after 1983? I thought production of VW Rabbit pickups stopped when VW closed the Westmoreland plant in Penn. By the way, where did the VW Rabbit pickups get the name "Cady or Caddy"?