Jun 25
Bumpers Away!!!
Finally, The ammendments to section 215 of Schedule IV of the Motor Safety Regulation concerning Bumpers have been passed into law!
- This has the effect of aligning the test speeds of the Canadian bumper safety standard with those of Europe and the United States and provides manufacturers the option of meeting the European safety requirements or the safety and no damage provisions of the United States. As a result of this amendment, there is one consistent set of globally regulated test speeds for the design of bumpers,
http://canadagazette.gc.ca/partII/2008/20080625/html/sor199-e.html
Thanks to all that have participated and hounded the powers to be to move quickly on this issue.
We have been told today that Transport Canada is working on a new list that should be available within the next couple of days. It look like 30 cars are now admissible…
http://en.autos.sympatico.msn.ca/guides_and_advice/article.aspx?cp-documentid=8147821
Ok Mario, now that the American Bumpers are ok, we wonder if/ what GM is going to do to prevent you from plating your car!
June 25th, 2008 at 12:27 pm
So what does this mean with regards to the US 2008 Corvettes etc? RIV doesn’t show any changes
June 25th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
The RIV does not Manage the list anymore. Transport Canada is reponsible, and we have been told they will have a new list in a couple of Days….
June 25th, 2008 at 1:26 pm
Excellent news guys…. Thanks for this wonderful website and all the information you guys bring forward, along with helping ordinary Canadians like myself take a stand against these gouging car manufacturers….
June 25th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
What strategy will Mercedes and BMW do now that they can’t gouge for the bumper replacement? Do ya think they will up their cost for the recall letter?
I’ve been delaying my purchase of a 2004 SL600 priced at about $50000 US with 30000 miles on it. I was told by a local Mercedes dealer that bumper and other? modifications would run me about $8,000-10,000.
June 25th, 2008 at 8:32 pm
So does this only apply to new cars or will this also apply to all cars 15 years old or less?
June 25th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
I wonder what BMW is gonna do now. I was planning to import a G37 since there’s no hassle with that but now i’m considering a 135i
June 25th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Eddy stick with the G. dont give the BMW rats your hard earned money. Remember who was not blocking us when all this began. Also i drive an Infiniti, and its the most reliable car ive driven. Plus the G37 is (my opinion) much nicer than the 135i.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Robert,
Did I read your statement correctly? The RIV will no longer be in charge of deciding which cars will be allowed for import into Canada? It will now be the responsability of Transport Canada? If this is so, I wonder if they will still allow the auto manufactureres to dictate what needs to be modified to comply with canadian standards.
June 26th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Great work guys - you were no doubt a huge factor in getting fellow Canadians to weigh in on the issue,
so let’s see TC turn this process around so that is fair for the consumer, not the manufacturer….now to
start looking south for all those great vehicles that were never offered here…..
June 27th, 2008 at 2:31 am
félicitation les gars ! avec votre aide nous allons offrir plus d’une 30e de nouveau véhicule en importation!
http://www.quebec-usa.com/
June 27th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I have to thank the people of carswithoutborders for this change - finally you did it! This sure as hell would never have changed without the tireless efforts of this website getting Canadians involved. I am sure the auto makers will come up with some other crap way to gouge us still, but in the mean time, thank you again. Now they have absolutely no excuse to keep prices so inflated - Subaru, BMW, VW, Merc, Mazda - all bastards. Now I have to find some way to afford my dream car (VW R32) now that I can finally get one. I look forward to the excuses the auto makers come up with now for their foolish 10 000 dollar premiums for Canadian cars.
June 28th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
This is an email received by Serge Bergeron from an important person in the business who is very familiar with the Auto Industry in the three countries – Canada, USA and Mexico. Read the last sentences that I have underlined. Price Premiums….
Subject: RIV, Transport Canada Standards, Bumpers
I’m 100% in favour of the concept of free trade for most cars. In an ideal world, every car made in the NAFTA zone would be made to common standards and sold/traded legally anywhere in the NAFTA zone. Unfortunately, we have situations where Mexico allows the importation of vehicles like the Ford Ka and the Songyang Musso, which are not sold in the US. Similarly, the US standards with respect to the importation of motorcycles are lax and therefore safety considerations exclude some Chinese-made motorcycles from being made in Canada.
Large corporations typically take advantage of different standards to create non-tariff barriers that serve to separate different domestic car markets. Things like immobilizers, daytime running lights and metric speedometers are software preferences, with the practical result that most new cars sold today will meet either Canadian or US standards depending on software settings.
While there may be some differences between Canadian and US standards, the cost of compliance with both or changing from one standard to the other is often negligible. Nonetheless, companies like BMW want to be paid for re-call information on imported cars and others tell us (falsely) that their US models can’t be modified to use daytime running lights.
The problem you face (CWB) is not different standards between the US and Canada. It is the fact that large multinationals are working hard to justify a price premium in Canada and will do everything possible to find a new non-tariff barrier to discourage Canadians from importing vehicles from the US.
Signed – June 26, 2008
Unanimous as agreed with Serge Bergeron
June 28th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 10:20 PM
Subject: Re: Canadian Bumpers = US Bumpers
Hello Robert, Serge and Mario,
Congratulations on a major step forward.
Hopefully, Mario you will soon be able to register your car in Canada. You have been through a lot and have suffered much stress and delay.
Robert and Serge,……….
You have both done such a wonderful job !!!! The commentary posted on the Transport Canada website, today, stated clearly that the petition with 1400 signatures and the many letters from citizens was a significant factor in Transport Canada’s decision. I received a reply just a few days ago to a very strongly worded letter that I wrote to Mr. Cannon in February. His bureaucrat’s reply, was a letter of complete nonsense, purposely avoiding giving me any meaningful answers to the points that I had raised, however, it did confirm to me, that my letter had been read. So I am sure that they did read many of the letters and paid at least, some attention to them.
We still have a battle ahead of us, with other aspects of the import process, such as the recall letters and the admissibility issue, in general.
It will be interesting to see how Volvo, Mercedes and BMW respond to the changes.
If these companies continue to withhold information from the public, then their cars may continue to remain inadmissible, or at best, importable, only after extortionist sums of money are paid to them.
It is very likely that we may have to keep up the pressure on Transport Canada to go yet another step further and revamp the entire approach to the so called admissibility issue.
You have already demonstrated, that letters, petitions and constant pressure can be very effective in achieving accountability.
Transport Canada has dishonestly misled the public when it claims, in the RIV list, that it has not received information from certain manufacturers.
One only has to go back to the old RIV lists of less than a year ago, to find that information, clearly posted there for all to see.
The information was provided, it was posted, it remained in the public domain for many years and it was then simply withdrawn, as if it had never existed.
“The manufacturer has not provided”….. is a complete lie.
Robert and Serge,………….. you have managed in less than a year, to force the federal government to change two pieces of important legislation.
This is more than many members of parliament are able to achieve during an entire political career.
Well done, well done, well done.
Sincerely,
Andrew J. Timmis
Victoria, B.C.