On the contrary, take your gripes to the manufacturers and the people.
Other than trucks, which carry a 25% duty on import, the duty to import a
passenger vehicle is a relatively small 2.5%.  The real costs are in
demonstrating the safety of your vehicle and meeting EPA emissions
standards.  All vehicles sold in the U.S. must meet the minimum FMVSS
standards (airbags, bumpers, etc.).  Additionally, they must have modern
emission systems and be OBD-2.  The costs required to make a vehicle that
meets these standards is prohibitive and there must be an expectation of
large enough number of sales to make the process worthwhile.

If enough people wanted small, efficeint vehicles, I can guarantee you that
we would see manufacturers lining up to sell their small, cool cars here in
the USA.  We're starting to see a small change in American mentality towards
smaller cars, and that is why the Smart will be sold here in early '08.

So if you want that really cool Kia, Hyundai, or Mitsubishi you've seen on
the web... no problem, just get 10,000 of your friends to buy one too.

Cheers,

Jeff

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM]On Behalf
Of Loren Busch
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2006 10:19 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: : End the hegemony of the US auto makers

On 10/25/06, BJ Feddish <bfeddish@netreach.net> wrote:
>
> >> Will we ever be free of the hegemenony of US automaker's dominance over
> what is perceived to be marketable vehicles? <<

You need to be writing to you favorite Congressman or Senator on this one.
The laws they have passed and the power they have given to the 'We know
what's good for you, don't confuse the issue with facts' regulatory agencies
makes the cost of entry into the US market by competition from other parts
of the world prohibitive.  RE: Smart Car for an example.  I'm sure that is
why we never saw many of the very desirable variations on the Vanagon that
VW produced for other markets but we never saw on the showroom floor here.
To much red tape and hoops to jump through.