Another day, another White House Petition; this one, however, should have fans of crazy cars we don’t get in the US all worked up right now.



There’s a petition now to the Barack Obama Administration to Repeal the DOT/EPA “25-Year Rule” Car Import Ban. The proposal put forward by Petrolicious is to change it to a 15-year ban on vehicles that do not comply with federal motor vehicle standards and therefore were never sold in the US new.

The Motor Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988, an attempt to stop grey-market importers from trying to adapt foreign-market vehicles to US standards, has long been a thorn in the side of people who want to import Nissan Skylines and weird Citroens legally, for example.

The points made in the petition:

• Differences between U.S. vehicle and the rest of the car producing world are shrinking all the time. Most 15-year-old cars coming from Canada, Europe, or Japan will not be significantly different in safety or emissions

• Importers of grey-market vehicles have been targeted by monies taxpayers have intended to be used to secure our country against terrorist activity.

• There’s no reason why rules couldn’t be relaxed with no real detriment to safety or environment.

You have until Sept. 5 to sign the petition, and it needs 100,000 signatures by then for a White House response.

And after all this, what car would you want to import most if the ban is repealed

By Zac Estrada

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