Bailout Watch 280: Republicans Against the Bailout

First thing my Dad did after buying a car in the 70's was to rip out the converter and open up the fuel fill restricter so he could fit the leaded gas pump in it.

golf4me, You are missing the point. EVERY car, regardless of manufacturer had to meet the SAME requirements. Non-negotiable. ALL. Since the dawn of the standards. There was no 'lag', no regulations that were somehow less stringent for the imports. None. Ever. Yes, trucks were/are different. Once again, in the segment, the requirements for ALL manufacturers were, and are, the same. As a manufacturer, you meet the standards however you can. American manufacturers did it their way, imports did it differently. But they ALL met the same safety and emissions standards. Sorry, the facts are the facts.

Then explain to me why my Father's 1973 Nova had ALL of the said equipment and NIETHER of our 1973 imports (Civic and Bug) did? Again, I am pretty darn sure that there were differences for imported vehicles for a window of a few years back then, and not on FMVSS standards, but mostly on the EPA stuff. I could be wrong, but I think I can remember reading articles to that effect in the car mags back then, and there was an outcry in the late 70's because the Domestics finally cried foul because the imports were selling more and more cars, and they wanted to level the playing field. Nothing based in fact here, but I can swear there was something to that effect going on.? Maybe we can both try to dig up some stuff from that era to find out?

I did some digging and cannot find that there were any differences for the imports, but the more I dug, the more I realized that there were no requirements for cars to have these features, only requirements for a stated outcome. So, some imports may have met ,say, an emission standard in 1973 that did not require them to install a converter but another mfg. might have had to to meet the standard. That's probably what I'm thinking of. And I still hate my dad for making me help him saw off the converter on his Nova on the snow-covered ground in the middle of February. Damn that was a cold day. He also took off the air pump, pcv, and related plumbing, installed headers and Thrush mufflers. Car sounded good, but never ran the same. My mom is mad at him to this day for it!