Crazy new EU regs - can they be stopped?

[MPV]

Has anyone seen this yet?

http://www.the-ace.org.uk/armageddon/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It will make it ilegal to modify any car.

I haven't significantly modified any of my cars, just replaced the fuel pipe to a larger diameter and made it shorter and without so many interconnects (to help it reduce air ingress and to use veg oil more easily. But even this could soon be breaking the law.

This is going to have a serious impact on UK business and make it harder for us all to keep our old bangers going.

[CitroJim]

Rule one. Never believe all you read on the Internet..

That article, whist it may have some grains of truth in it and I sure it has, seems to me to be rather hysterical on the subject and therefore not worthy of serious study.

It's not news really, this has been the case for many years. It's called Type Approval.

If you really study the rules already there then modification to cars is already legislated. The SVA test for kit-cars and other highly modified cars for instance. For instance, all post-2001 cars must have a cat even if the engine could pass emissions tests without one.

In some cases (not all by any means) I believe some legislation to curb the most radical of modified road-going cars is no bad thing.

And anyway, we're a member of the EU. It inevitable that their laws, however potty, will be enacted here and warmly embraced.

[spider]

I'm still reeling from their 'cookie' articles. I'm not 100% convinced they know what they mean to be honest either. Implemented a quick disclaimer bar for now I have.

[CitroJim]

I'm still reeling from their 'cookie' articles.

I'm supposed to be an IT Engineer and gawd only knows really. Without spending a day or so studying how cookies work I really don't understand what the significance is and why some people seem to go all po-faced about it. What I do know is the bloody pop-up that comes up to tell you your rights and responsibilities with regard to what you do with a packet of Yank biscuits is bloody annoying in the extreme.

I do know one thing. As a nation we're legislating ourselves to death and killing original thought, spontaneity and adventure with it This is sad as the ultimate is a sterile grey mushy race all doing the same thing to command. There's a name for it and you all know what it is...

[Peter.N.]

Certain people seem to take these things very seriously - where as others don't. I will elaborate.

We have an LPG cooker here, the mains gas being some miles away, I installed it many years ago with the gas cylinders outside as seemed only sensible at the time, when I came to replace the flexible hose which had perished I asked my wife to call in at the caravan centre, where incidently she used to work, to pick up a length of hose - they wouldn't let her have it, 'has to be fitted by a 'Corgi' fitter. I got one from ebay of course.

When we went to France sometime later we stayed in a cottage with an LPG cooker, guess where the gas bottle was, in the cupboard next to the cooker. The French are in the EU aren't they?

Peter

[Xaccers]

Re the cookies, there was a change in the law regarding tracking cookies, if they are used on a website from the UK, you need to be notified of it and agree to it (or not which normally involves leaving the website).
However if the cookie is only required for the site to work, such as a session cookie like we use, you don't need to have that annoying pop up.
Cookies are a little text file downloaded from websites in the background to identify you to the website. They're normally called something@thewebsitedomain so for instance 12345@frenchcarforum.co.uk
In the forum's case they contain a unique number which matches a record in the database linked to your username.
Tracking cookies are searched for when you visit other websites in the tracking network.
So you'd go to wibble.com, pick up a tracking cookie of 12fg4ge5@tracknet.com, then if you visit another website in the same tracking network it will search for any cookies you have ending in @tracknet.com and they'll know what sites you have visited.

[Xaccers]

I do know one thing. As a nation we're legislating ourselves to death and killing original thought, spontaneity and adventure with it This is sad as the ultimate is a sterile grey mushy race all doing the same thing to command. There's a name for it and you all know what it is...

Management?

[CitroJim]

Thanks Xac, for the clear description of cookies

, then if you visit another website in the same tracking network it will search for any cookies you have ending in @tracknet.com and they'll know what sites you have visited.

So the evil buggers can target their filthy, stinking advertising at you Advertising is the evil of this world..

Management?

Sort of Legislation prevents me from naming it

[Xaccers]

So the evil buggers can target their filthy, stinking advertising at you Advertising is the evil of this world..

That's a bit harsh Jim, but basically yes.
If you've been to a website that sells camping equipment recently, and then you go to a forum that is funded through advertising, then you may find the adverts have an outdoors/camping theme to them.
I get it a lot with Play.com, as they're cheap for many DVDs etc so I use them a lot. Quite often afterwards one of the forums I go to which is funded through adverts will show offers from Play.com so nothing sinister there really. They have probably several million hits on the forum a day, so I can imagine their hosting costs are huge, much larger than donations would provide for, so having adverts is the only way they can survive.
You do get some bizzare ones at times though, when I was searching for a wedding suit I looked on Debenhams website. For the next week I was "treated" to adverts of their womens' lingerie!
Unfortunately with advertising comes some risk to end users, as the ad provider just pulls in the advert content from the advertiser's website, and if it's been hacked, well that's a great way to get your malware onto a lot of computers!
It's one of the reasons why we're against it for the FCF

[xantia_v6]

If you don't want tracking cookies, try installing the blocker from http://www.ghostery.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;, you will be amazed how many it blocks on some sites.

[myglaren]

I don't really see the problem, haven't seen any adverts for years.
Clear all browsing data/history etc. weekly as a matter of course.

Perhaps as a result of working in the advertising industry for quite a few years I am oblivious to them though.

[Peter.N.]

I use CC Cleaner, its a free download that works very well, you can set it to keep and erase whatever cookies you like, when you connect to this forum for instance it will leave cookies so you don't have to sign in every time, there are two lists on CC one is those you want to keep, so after you have connected to whatever it is, go to the cleaner and look for the cookies relating to the website you are using and transfer them from the 'delete' to 'save' list. Simples

Peter

[markflip]

The problem with this legislation is that it will be very difficult to enforce if passed and I can see it being thrown out for this reason. When you take your vehicle for an MOT test there are certain things that have to be inspected and pass muster, even these have proved difficult as 'advances' in technology are made - electric handbrakes being an obvious example, some not happy with being applied on a rolling road (albeit old transmission brakes on Landrovers weren't either) but generally all vehicles have brakes, steering and suspension etc and the methods of testing are similar for all vehicles, as are the standards that they have to pass. How can you enforce 'all vehicles must be in factory condition' it implies that whoever will test them knows intimately what parts were fitted to, say a 1984 Ford Orion LX with optional air conditioning fitted by Ford and every other vehicle ever made in the last 30 years??? If you have fitted different wheels, a natty spoiler or LED rear lights to your Citroen Saxo, OK it's going to be obvious, but the devil is in the detail here about when and why you would need to submit your vehicle for an inspection, more importantly, who pays for it and also who keeps a record of what has been inspected and passed - if I subsequently change my Saxo's lights for a different set of LED's for example, how will an enforcement agent know this if I produce a certificate showing that the rear lights have been inspected already?? I see it a bit like the fairly recent changes in regs regarding Electrical installations in the home - That led to virtually all electricians having to pay (handsomely I'm told) to schemes that would hold/maintain all the relevant paperwork etc, the cost of course being paid by the consumer. If it were to come in, every backstreet garage/tyre and exhaust centre, AA/RAC man etc etc would no doubt have to join a similar scheme to 'certify' all repairs or modifications made as compliant with the legislation and us home mechanics would 'have to' go and have every repair inspected by a qualified person (yeah right!) - the good thing is that presumably an enforcement agency would have to prove that someone knowingly carried out a modification without having it checked - this is going to be very difficult!! To my mind UK law already gives us protection from unroadworthy and dangerous vehicles and those folk who choose to drive around with other minor defects, there frankly aren't enough people enforcing those laws now, so I don't feel too worried that someone is going to pop my bonnet and see if I've fitted a new set of heater plugs.

I do hope it is not passed, as the biggest losers will be small, independent garages, who as we all know are generally the best out there, but won't be able to compete with the bigger operators if they are suddenly overburdened with EU detritus to deal with. GM, Ford, PSA, BMW, Audi and Seat etc are behind this legislation though and want us all to have a main dealer only, throw away any car over 5 years old continent. Of course, as someone said above, it won't be enforced in many other countries at all, it's about time our Govt. realised this!

[CitroJim]

Mark, that's an exceedingly well written piece and I agree with every point made.

[Gregg1100]

Basically , the eu knobs have been trying this on with motorcycles for a couple of years. They are paying dekra, a private company who are in it only for the money, to come up with facts and figures which they must have dreamt up, to try to force their ¼ baked schemes through. Sounds like they are trying it on with cars now. Heath conveniently forgot to tell us that bloody brussells would be telling us what to do eventually, when he signed away our rights back in 1970/71- should have stuck to sailing yachts. Will post the MAG write up if anyone is Interested. Should be, it is up to us to try to stop all this crap from the eu.
Having said that, I think they should do with new car drivers what they do with new bikers. Make them restricted to a small car-Fiat 500 type for two years, then up a bit for a further 2 years, then full car licence.
As it is now, someone can pass test in a very small car in the morning, and drive daddies Jaguar in the afternoon, or up to 3½ ton truck. NOT good