quote:Originally posted by David B:
Mark,
No upgrading or modifying your vehicle? Paying taxes on displacement? Disgraceful.
Thanks for setting me straight. I have long been under the impression that life outside of America was less restrictive, less bureaucratic and more filled with art, culture and freedoms rather than the stupid 'rules' that are becoming more and more a part of our life.
Nope, Europe pretty much wins in the silly bureaucratic bs department. One reason taxes tend to be so high over here is because of the huge government overheads - we have civil servants to supervise the civil servants... and bunches of them make sure that your car has not been modified from the original design that was approved for road use.
The concept I understand. You prove a certain design, with a certain suspension geometry, brakes, etc. Some yo-yo comes along and second guesses the engineers and installs something completely unacceptable from a design standpoint, his wheels fall off and someone gets killed. But here they don't allow you to install 16¨rims instead of 15", even though the overall dimension is unchanged.
Like many government actions, the original theory had some sense but it lost something in the application but not understanding what they wanted to do.