Not sure what you're talking about.

 

See the video link below. Published by US Customs.

A 110 is destroyed.

You can thank Mercedes Benz for the Federal legislation that causes this to happen.

It was a response to the old "grey market" craze.......

 

If your pissed at anyone it should be LR who took the line and said screw it we don't need to sell trucks to the the American market.
Where not installing airbags and we don't care about your pollution standards.
Merc. installed airbags and meet those standards so it's there fault.

ps. gray market cars started back in mid 70's with Italian trash

 

See below the excerpt from an article about the history of grey market regs:

Because of the unavailability in America of certain vehicle models, a grey market arose in the late 1970s. This provided an alternate, legal method to acquire vehicles only sold overseas. The success of the grey market, however, ate into the business of Mercedes-Benz of North America Inc., which launched a successful congressional lobbying effort to eliminate this alternative for consumers in 1988, despite the lack of any evidence suggesting grey-market vehicles were less safe than those built to comply with U.S. regulations. As a result, it is no longer possible to import foreign vehicles into the United States as a personal import, with few exceptions—primarily Canadian cars with safety regulations substantially similar to the United States, and vehicles imported temporarily for display or research purposes. In practice the gray market involved a few thousand luxury cars annually, before its virtual elimination in 1988.

I think this substantiates my point.........

 

Land rover is the one who refuses to make an importable vehicle.

and i'm willing to bet that Merc. of america was not the only one file suite, Ford, GM & Chrysler just stood back and watched.[/B]

BY THE WAY I KNOW WHERE THE BOLD KEY IS ALSO

 

Also did you watch your video? that is not a gray market vehicle, that is a truck that was altered to sneak it into the country.

a gray market car is one that is imported and then brought up to US standards, and re-inspected by the EPA and other and given approval to be in the states.

altering a vehicle to sneak it pass custom into the states does not make it a gray market vehicle, it makes it an illegal vehicle.

 

I was certainly not trying to incite anyone, sorry.

 

Boy do I remember the hay days of the grey market. I had friends driving 280SL five speeds, 500SL's, Range Rovers, Porsche 930's, BMW 745i's, Ferrari Boxer's, Countach's ect. I even inherited a grey market Honda Prelude with ALB (their early version of ABS) and EFI years before it was available on US versions.

Then, by 1986 all the manufacturers got smart. MB was offering the 560, Porsche reintroduced the Turbo, Ferrari had the Testarossa, ect. The grey market shrunk in an instant. Coupled with a miserable exchange rate for the dollar and the grey market was finished. In fact, by the time legislation was enacted in 1988, the grey market wasn't even a player in the US market.

So, I guess the differences with today's Defender issues are two fold. Yes, Land Rover, unlike back in 1987 when they finally reintroduced the brand to the US with the first NAS Range Rovers, is tone deaf to the demand for Defenders. However, I wonder how many of the people who buy these 25 year old trucks would be lining up at the dealership to pay the real cost of a fully Federalized truck?

I put money down on one of the first D90's back in December of 1992 (I remember sitting in a 110 at the NYC dealer Zumbach when I heard about the soft top D90) in anticipation of delivery in October of '93. By the time the truck came in, my needs had changed so I bought a Range Rover. Yes, there was an initial demand fostered by diehard enthusiasts willing to pay a hefty premium over a Wrangler to get into the "Best 4X4XFar" but after that demand was met, I saw D90's languishing on the showroom floor. People coming in to buy luxurious Range Rovers, for the most part, had little interest in the spartan D90. It wasn't until the trucks began hitting the used market that the demand suddenly started to grow.

While Rover may be tone deaf to the demands of enthusiast, I wonder if there is really a market to justify certification and importation? It looks like TaTa is doing pretty well with trucks like the Evoque, a luxurious mini Range Rover. Do you thing Rover would sell as many D90's here in the states as Evoques? How many D90's were sold in '94, '95 and '97? Not very many. Back in those days if Rover sold 5000 Range Rovers it was a banner year.

This brings me to my second point. Given the small numbers of D90's that might really be sold at full retail, is it worth it for Rover to attempt to bring up to code a design that harkens back to the 1950's? They were able to get around the airbag issues in '97 but still had to go through added GEMS to the truck. That was simple. Today? With stringent DOT, NHTSA, EPA, ect. regulations would it be worthwhile, if even possible, to update a few thousand D90's so they could be brought to the US? My bet is that LRNA has looked at this question and determined it is not.

Now, couple Land Rover's tone deafness to the enthusiast with the questionable market for a D90 that has been fully certified to meet all of the latest regulations to the possibility that they are not happy seeing a rag tag collection of old trucks along with some dodgy newer ones being brought into the US through the grey market and you may have a reason for the crackdown.

Land Rover is spending an enormous amount of advertising money on reinforcing a brand. That brand has been researched to the inth degree to insure it plays well with Evoque, RRS, LR4, LR2 and Range Rover owners and potential buyers. Somehow, I don't see them benefitting from sitting by while a collection of relics they don't see the value in, come streaming into the US, potentially tarnishing their efforts. Think, for a moment, about how any premium brand would react in this position and I think you'd agree that Rover's reaction is not so extraordinary.

 

The luddite mentality ..................... all sounds a bit French to me .....