Sometimes, lawmakers act like they've never seen a car. These ten are their worst bills, with some changing the car industry forever.
10.) Front plates
They don't fit, and there's a good reason for that according to mountain_runner:
I personally hate the front license plate. It's useless, ugly and costs the taxpayers extra money.
Suggested By: mountain_runner, Photo Credit: Máté Petrány
9.) Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems
They are never accurate. How hard can it be to check it yourself once in a while during a fill up?
Too many false positives, especially if you live in an area with huge temperature variations. This thing gets on so often during winter that I just ignore it.
I just switched from my winter to summer wheels and tires, and I haven't had a chance to get to the dealership yet for them to reprogram the TPMS system to the different sensors. So now I've got an angry orange light blinking at me for my whole drive to and from work.
It won't save those who don't care about their cars at all and drive around with flat tires all year long.
Suggested By: Kate's Dirty Sister, Photo Credit: Brentd Payne
8.) 85 MPH Speedometers
Yes, this was a thing. And what a way to get rid of speeding! Ford didn't think so.
Yes, but that's the awesome "85"-mph speedo out of the Mustang SVO where Ford gave the Feds the middle finger and put a 140 speedo in anyway, leaving off the numbering after 85 to comply with the letter of the law.
Suggested By: Demon-Xanth, Photo Credit: allfordmustangs.com
7.) Speed warnings
An annoyed driver is not what you want on the highway. Here's how to switch it off, but what were they thinking? e30s2k:
I haven't seen this in the US, but definitely existed in JDM and Asian market cars. Growing up my parents had a variety of Toyotas, and once you hit a certain speed (it was either 80 mph or 120 km/h...which are 50 or 75 mph WTF!) the car would start making this stupid chiming bell sound. Imagine that on a long stretch of open road during a roadtrip cruising at 75mph - a fucking bell blaring the entire time.
Suggested By: e30s2k
6.) Fender mirrors
I agree, they look amazing, but visibility was an issue. Forgetful:
Fender mounted mirrors were mandated in Japan because the mirrors had to be visible through the area that was cleaned by the windshield wipers. They look cool, but compared to current door mounted mirrors, visibility isn't great.
Fender mirrors couldn't have been very aerodynamic either. Door mounted they're more aero efficient, but they're constantly under attack in the quest for more empeegees.
Suggested By: Forgetful, Photo Credit: R. Lopez
5.) Automatic seat belts for cars without airbags
Welcome to America! Monsterajr:
I hated them. If I opened the door of my 90 GTi too fast it would actually stop the door from moving and I'd catch my chin on the top of the door when trying to get in. I've also had my 93' Passat knock me in the head with the motorized portion and catch my hair. And in my wife's old 90 Pontiac Gran Prix they'd either get hung up and you couldn't quite open the door enough or they'd be so slack that you'd have to reopen the door for them to retention. Thankfully nobody makes cars without an airbag anymore.
Suggested By: jariten1781
4.) Pedestrian Impact Regulations
There are many problems with this one including aesthetics, aerodynamics and the question whether they're only used to score higher in certain kinds of crash tests. However, then comes esalor:
I appreciate lovely bodywork as much as anyone but if those regulations are actually increasing pedestrian safety, designers should find their way around them.
If the shitty Fiat sedan that hit my grandfather 15 years ago would not have killed him today, thanks to these regulations, I'd gladly take a "raised belt line".
Fair enough.
Suggested By: switzerr, Photo Credit: exoticcarlife
3.) The 1974 Seat Belt Interlock
Anything that stops you from starting your car immediately is a safety hazard. Patrick Frawley:
Seat belts had to be fastened to start the car. Led to an epidemic of people sitting on top of always-buckled seat belts and no end of annoying electrical problems. Regulators came to their senses pretty quickly on that one.
Suggested By: Patrick Frawley
2.) Blocked LEDs
Modern headlight technologies are fantastic. American regulations and the reasoning behind them — not so much.
Suggested By: Automatch Tom
1.) 5 MPH bumpers
This regulation, put in place in 1972 and weakened down in 1982, turned beautiful cars into ugly ones that handled like a bowl of crap. Thank you NHTSA!
Suggested By: My X-type is too a real Jaguar, Photo Credit: Venatur Fumare
Welcome back to Answers of the Day - our daily Jalopnik feature where we take the best ten responses from the previous day's Question of the Day and shine it up to show off. It's by you and for you, the Jalopnik readers. Enjoy!
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