Re: Complain about DOT headlights??

["Dave Puterbaugh" <deputer@email.msn.com>]

The headlights on my 1994 Volvo 850 turbo were better than my Audi Euros!
My Suburban are fine, although I set up the high beams to turn on the low
beams as well.

Dave Puterbaugh
1991 200q
-----Original Message-----
From: scott miller <macatawa@hotmail.com>
To: h93young@creighton.edu <h93young@creighton.edu>
Cc: quattro@coimbra.ans.net <quattro@coimbra.ans.net>
Date: Saturday, August 08, 1998 6:30 PM
Subject: Re: Complain about DOT headlights??


>>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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