“We’ve gotten thousands of thousands of questions regarding issues that Congress never dreamed of,” admit NHTSA spokesfolk to the NY Times. Say it ain’t so! The latest clunker stumper is the issue of gray market imports, which do not have official EPA ratings. When the Gray Lady’s Christine Negroni asked NHTSA if her gray market 1985 Mercedes 230E would qualify for a CARS rebate, the answer was likely accompanied by a heavy sigh. “It’s a question of determining if there’s a comparable model being sold in the U.S. that can determine fuel economy,” explains NHTSA’s Rae Tyson. “Our lawyers are going to have to make a decision.” Meanwhile questions like this have flooded the CARS hotline with some 45,000 calls. Not that calling the hotline would help with the gray market question. “If the question has stumped me, it’s going to stump the hot line too,” says Tyson. “It’s going to require an interpretation that we’re not equipped to make right now.”
Screw ’em!
Why should gray market car owners get special treatment? When they (the owners) skirt the laws to own a gray market car then they pay the consequences!
I’ll have to hang onto my Trabant for a while longer.
I don’t know why it’s so confusing. No EPA rating = no eligibility.
Autojunkie
Just want to say that in the 80’s and I think till the early nineties gray market cars were legal. You were allowed to import one vehicle if it could be certified as EPA (pollution control only) compliant. But of course another way in was importing it as a kit car like many 2CVs, also legal.
The CARS problem is that there were often no equivalent car sold at that time in the US with which to compare milage.
I don’t know why it’s so confusing. No EPA rating = no eligibility.
My thoughts exactly. This shit’s already too convoluted, no need to add more complication. If it’s not on the list, it shouldn’t be eligible. End of story.
So if I swap a V8 into my Bricklin I can get it to qualify?
My lawn mower only gets 17 MPG…
montgomery burns :
I understand and am well aware of the gray market boom throughou the 80’s.
But this “problem” is not really a problem…
“No ticky! No washy!”
Just another reason not to buy grey market imports. If I were running the NHTSA I would have a simple answer: No.
Any change of the program being expanded for cars that get higher mpg? I would love to trade my beater in for a new one, but at 21mpg it is to efficient I guess.
most grey mkt BMWs are worth more than their US counterparts. To old school BMW enthusiasts to cash one in is heresy.
Re: Autojunkie: How can you “skirt the laws” by importing cars by yourself?
Are there any laws prescribing which car you can have? Has importing cars been banned by law? Are there laws that force you to buy a car at an “official dealership”?
Grey mkt cars have to be “federalized” if they are less than 25 yrs old. It is an expensve process and often hacked.
Jesus Christ, who the eff would scrap a gray market car?
This program needs to go away. Now.