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Taken from DealerNews.com - Full Link HERE
CCQuote:
U.S. Customs officials in Dallas last week grabbed more than 1,400 motorcycles and scooters, claiming they violated EPA regulations. About 400 hundred of those units belong to CFMOTO Powersports Inc., the distributor based in suburban Minneapolis. They’re worth about $1.5 million at retail.
My insider tip was that the issues with these siezed bikes were tiny and that the Customs department was just trying to grab some headlines to justify their budgets, trying to look busy and important. We'd rather see them go after the "willful fraud" importers, and leave the "dumb mistake" importers alone...except for $$$ fines.
And Carl, Dealernews is the main sponsor/organizer of the Indy show. If you'll look on their website you'll see a whole page for it here. Feb 12 - 15, hope to see ya.
http://www.dealerexpo.com/
PJ
Well it looks like CHina isn't the only place where the gubmint is making it hard to sell bikes. :rolleyes1:
Thanks for the expo link.. I've bookmarked it! :icon10:
CC
Another case in point where the MAN is making it hard for dealers...
click here for original article from Dealer News
Caaaliforn-iaaaa... :lol8:Quote:
California dealer Balz Renggli says the state’s Air Resources Board is wrongly accusing his store, Moto Forza in Escondido, of once marketing modified dirtbikes as streetbikes, then registering them for street use. The allegations led to a $90,000 settlement in April. (Read that story here.)
What really happened, Renggli says, is that the Department of Motor Vehicles insisted on registering unmodified Husqvarna dirtbikes as streetbikes. Moto Forza employees, he says, informed customers that the bikes were not street-legal, regardless of their registration.
CARB brought a lawsuit against Moto Forza in 2006 for units sold in 2004 and 2005.
“Even today, in 2009,” Renggli wrote in statement, “I can turn in a completely and correctly filled-out application for registration for a 2009 off-highway-only Husqvarna motorcycle, and the DMV will issue a license plate and street registration. We have to stop the DMV clerk every time and argue to make sure we receive an off-highway registration. So what this comes down to is that the CARB felt it had the right to extort money from us because we did not make sure that the DMV did their job correctly.”
Renggli also claims CARB misrepresented what happened when it issued a press release in August stating that Moto Forza had been “fined” $90,000 for street-registering dirtbikes by modifying them. CARB never fined Moto Forza, Renggli says, because the case never went to trial.
“We ended up settling the case as the legal costs to pursue the matter would have cost more than the settlement amount,” he says.
“Unlike most other trials where the losing party has to cover the legal cost of the winning party, CARB has complete immunity. Even if we would have won the case in court, we would still have to pay our own legal costs, and that simply became financially not feasible.”
:riding:
CC
Ironically, up through the 90's, it was quite easy to convert dirt bikes to street bikes, with California's blessing, as bikes took up less road space and can share lanes with each other or cars, so made them more reasonable for commuting rather than idling in endless traffic on the freeways.
Through the mid-'00's, there were street plated Shineray 200 and Jetmoto enduros, in California, probably issued by an inept motor vehicle system. Of course, they are omnipotent, like this dealer stated, so even winning in court means you still lost $! No wonder companies have left California in droves, leaving mostly corporate entities with deep pockets to pay for the government ineptness, while small businesses have set up shop in other states. I am sure this guy sold enough Huskies to cover his ass(ets), but there are others who never could survive such a system.
Come to think of it, California even puts a hold on 49 state EPA/DOT Chinese bikes. California might allow certain Chinese bikes with EPA/DOT to get the off-road green sticker, but takes its role as supreme ayotollah of the air to protect Californians from themselves on the street, too. One manufacturer has a dealer in California who puts the bikes on the road, but now, I have a feeling all those owners will be left streetless in the near future in spite of the bikes having the full blessing of the federal government (I left out the brand name and the dealer to protect them and their customers from jack-booted Kalivornia cops knocking down their door :eekers:)