Originally posted by Rich Wales
Mattias Hembruch wrote:

> As of approx 2001, IIRC, all cars imported HAVE to have
> air bags, regardless of the original manufacturing spec.

AFAIK, this is not strictly correct. Used vehicles being imported
into the US from Canada (or elsewhere) must meet the requirements
which were in effect IN THE U.S. for new vehicles built during the
model year in question -- which may or may not be the same as the
non-US requirements (for the same year) to which a given car was
originally built.

> My '94 Corrado (relatively rare car) does NOT have airbags.
> It actually meets California emissions for '94 . . . but
> because of the lack of airbags, I can't take it. WAY too
> much $$$ to retrofit airbags.

Again, this is because US rules for the '94 model year required
air bags for all new cars -- but Canada didn't require this at
that time.

From the mid-80's until the mid-90's, US and Canadian vehicle
"safety" requirements diverged considerably -- primarily because
the US imposed various kinds of "passive restraint" rules to make
accidents more survivable when drivers refused to fasten their
seat belts. Canada, on the other hand, addressed the problem by
enacting mandatory seat belt legislation -- something Congress
never could reach a consensus on in the States.

Oddly enough, when the US first started requiring new cars to
have "passive restraint" systems in the mid-80's, many US-market
cars were illegal for importation to Canada, because some of the
new schemes (especially the lap-and-shoulder belts that had the
two outer points attached to the door, rather than to the car
body) were not considered safe enough to meet Canadian rules.
Conversely, many Canadian-market cars of the same period were
illegal for importation to the US, because their old-style,
three-point lap-and-shoulder belts weren't idiot-proof enough
to meet the new US requirements. The advent of air bags, their
adoption in Canada as well as the US, and the subsequent return
to "plain old" lap-and-shoulder belts made this issue pretty
much disappear for most cars built in or after the mid-90's.

Rich Wales [email protected] http://www.richw.org/dualcit/
*DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer, professional immigration consultant,
or consular officer. My comments are for discussion purposes only and
are not intended to be relied upon as legal or professional advice.

Originally posted by Folinskyinla
Hi:

Historical side note -- for the 1974 model year, the US imposed a seat belt interlock requirement. The concept was simple -- buckle your seatbelt and then start the car. You could NOT start the car until the driver's seat belt was fastened.

My dad had a 1974 Ford and that interlock was not a problem. However, many people DID find it to be a problem and would leave the belt buckled all the time which was quite uncomforatble to sit on top of. The interlock was discontinued as politically undesirable.

BTW, I have a new car which is the first one I've ever had with the interlock that you can't start the car without firmly stepping on the brakes. Since I learned to drive in the day of carberated cars [and a manual choke!], I've been used to stepping on the gas slightly when starting. In fact, this car simply requires the ignition key to be moved to "start" and the engine management computer determines how long to run the starter motor until the engine "catches".

Originally posted by lairdside
Manual chokes. There's a memory

I never drove one but my Mum had a Mini when I was a kid and I remember it well. You had to pull the choke all the way out when starting the car and then push it halfway back in after the car had started........

Oh the joy of vinyl seats in summertime..lol

I found myself until recently wanting to put my foot on the brake when starting the car, in lieu of a clutch as I had always driven manual transmission cars before I came to the US.

Originally posted by Folinskyinla
..... However, we figured that automatic transmissions now last forever if maintained and fluid changes are cheaper than clutch replacements .....

Originally posted by Folinskyinla
Hi:

The last manual choke I had was on a 1976 Honda Civic with the "CVCC" engine. However, the pollution controls on the engine opened the choke automatically after a while -- so you just closed the thing to start the car.

From 1972 to 1996, I had always owned stick-shift cars. I remember my mother borrowing my first stick shift car -- a 1968 VW Bug. Mom had learned to drive on a three-speed where the idea was to get up to "top" gear as soon as possible. So after she drove it, she complained about having to get to FOURTH gear quickly, one extra gear and the car seemed unhappy on city streets in that gear! Groan and fear for my clutch.

Mom never did drive my subsequent five-speeds. On the new car, we actually test drove a manual SIX-speed. However, we figured that automatic transmissions now last forever if maintained and fluid changes are cheaper than clutch replacements and the gasoline mileage difference is now minimal. Also, neither of our daughters have learned to drive stick and I think its unfair to ask a friend to offer a sacrifical clutch. Sigh -- I think they should know how to drive one. So, a six-speed automatic it is.