Canada softening rules on bumper safety, should soon enable Canadians to import Evolution models from the US.
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=66696752-771e-46c8-94f8-92a26d5f936f&k=45014
http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/story.html?id=66696752-771e-46c8-94f8-92a26d5f936f&k=45014
Ottawa putting a dent in bumper safety, say critics
David Akin, Canwest News Service
Published: Thursday, April 03, 2008
The federal government moved Thursday to bring some safety rules for bumpers on cars in line with those in the U.S., a tiny adjustment that could have a big bottom-line impact for car makers and broaden the choices for Canadian consumers.
But the Canadian Automobile Association worries that the new, less-stringent rules could make cars more susceptible to damage and that, in turn, could make repair bills more frequent and raise insurance premiums.
"You have to wonder . . . will cars have more damage done to them, therefore will there be more repair costs and will your insurance rates go up?" asked Eamonn Horan-Lunney of the Canadian Automobile Association.
The insurance industry is not yet sure how - or even whether - premiums will change. The Insurance Bureau of Canada agrees that the move to the U.S. standard for car bumpers has the potential to increase the frequency of cars going in for repair, but it could also reduce the frequency and severity of pedestrian injuries. That's because Canadian bumpers, like those in the U.S., will now be "softer", that is, they will absorb more of the blow should a vehicle strike a pedestrian at a low rate of speed.
And as far as insurers are concerned, injuries to humans are a much more expensive problem than dings on bumpers.
"It's a little bit of a zero-sum game. You lose one but you (have) the potential to gain on the other," said Robert Tremblay, director of road safety at the Insurance Bureau of Canada.
Liberal MP Joe Volpe, his party's Transport critic, said Canada should not move down to the U.S. safety standard. Instead, the U.S. should move up to the Canadian standard.
"Canadian governments always have subscribed to a higher standard of safety and that's pushed the envelope quite a bit," Volpe said.
Volpe noted that Ontario alone wields significant manufacturing clout. More cars and light trucks are manufactured in that province than in any other province or U.S. state, including Michigan.
Car makers, though, cheered the move, seeing it as part of a broader push to harmonize business rules and regulations to help ease an economic slowdown.
"It's a real positive step," said Mark Nantais, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers Association. "Working with Transport Canada for a long time now to remove (this) tyranny of small differences."
Car makers say the differences between Canadian and U.S. auto standards costs them millions every year in design and manufacturing costs.
The change announced Thursday seems, on the surface, to be a minor matter. Bumpers on cars sold in Canada will now have to pass a four-km/h front and rear crash test - that's the U.S. standard - instead of an eight-km/h test. For corner impacts, the crash test standard moves from 4.8 km/h to 2.4 km/h.
So far as car buyers are concerned, the move by Transport Canada to harmonize bumper requirements means some cars made for the U.S. and European markets may now be eligible for sale in Canada, said Horan-Lunney. And those Canadians who go shopping for an auto bargain south of the border will also have less to worry about when they try to bring cars back to Canada.
Canadians importing a car pay only a small fee to bring U.S.-bought vehicles here, regardless of the sale price, but the vehicle must meet all existing Canadian safety requirements. The different standard for the bumper safety test meant that many vehicles sold in the U.S. could not be imported unless the consumer paid to install Canadian-certified bumpers.
