Re: Complain about DOT headlights??

["scott miller" <macatawa@hotmail.com>]

>something regarding the crappy DOT headlights we get here in the States

Actually, I think the headlights on my wife's '98 Econoline are 
suprisingly good.  Not as good as the rental cars I occasionally drive 
overseas, but every year the U.S. cars get a little closer.  The point 
of DOT headlight regulations isn't really about safety, it's about 
protecting the U.S. market.  Foreign cars are generally safe, but 
they've always had to make difficult, expensive, and sometimes ugly, 
modifications to meet U.S. DOT standards.  Look at the bumpers on a U.S. 
Lamborghini.  That helps keep them out of the U.S. market.  Imagine the 
expense involved in putting round headlights in a car designed for 
rectangular back in the '80s, you need a whole new front end!  Making 
aero headlights for just one market in the world is pretty expensive, 
too.  Headlights are just one of very many such tactics.  The U.S. 
foreign car market is huge enough to make it economical to build U.S. 
specific cars now, but the practice is still very much alive.  Other 
countries do the same to us, especially Japan.  I used to be an engineer 
at Donnelly, where we made mirrors and glass products for nearly every 
car market in the world.  The conflicting standards were staggering.  
Trying to introduce plastic mirrors was impossible, even though it was 
obviously safer.  Window trim, digital instruments, rear window 
defrosters, every change stirred up a whirlwind of regulations.  
Aerospace and LCD optics were harder to build, but easier to sell.  Even 
within GM they have conflicting standards that sometimes make it hard to 
sell the same part to different divisions.

BTW, sorry about the rusty mirrors, not my division.  The blue mirrors 
are kind of cool.  Someday I'll get mine resilvered.

Scott
'90 200tqw

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