So i have sold my Teana and i just had to get the test done in order to transfer ownership, now i was over 3 months late so i had to go to the goverment test centre located in the outskirts of Taipei… forget the name, but its after banchao.
Anyway i have lowered suspension, a proper aftermarket exhaust system and thats about it, but thats enough for it to fail its test, especially at the proper goverment test center right???
WRONG!!!
As you drive onto the road where the test center is located there are loads of shops and people standing in the street offering to help you pass your test!.
You just pull into any one of them and theres an actual pricelist depending on what mod you have!.
For instance my car had suspension and exhaust, that cost me $800nt on top of whatever i pay for the test.
Test took 5 minutes, as soon as they took the car and i sat down, the car was back again with a freash stamp on the vehicle document
I asked them what if i had an engine swap and they said anything will pass if you pay, you can even TOW your car there (for instance if its one of the ‘power cars’ with the donor car) and the worst case is a few thousand NT.
Its bad and im surprised its allowed, obviously somebody up top is taking a BIG fat bribe!.
Anyway i dont condone it, but i needed the car to pass its test so i can get shot of it, if you need info on where this place is just shoot me a message.
I think this is fairly well known by now. This has been mentioned and used to warn people a few times already. The test is merely another money earner. Consider it an additional tax on driving.
If you want a proper inspection, then call me to do it!
I knew it could be cheated but i wasnt so aware that the area in which its tested is like a red light district from thailand!.
People standing outside shops waving your cars down, they are also pretty smart, able to tell if your car is lowered within a secound of seeing it!.
The engine swap thing made me smile, so i could have a E46 with a 4.4 V8 slammed in… hmmm
This worry me.
You could upgrade a ford ka with a huge turbo V8 without brake and suspension upgrades other than original springs that have been cutt.
Why wont they just open up the regulationsand lett people do a good jobb upgrading the car with manufacturers recomendations for upgrading?
Home it’s quite easy if you can present ducumentatio from TUV or manufacturer that your ride can safely be used with the modifications you have done.
But that would close all the opportunities for graft, wouldn’t it? Anyway, someone up there in the power elite just doesn’t like modified vehicles. The laws have always repressed individualism in this regard and I don’t see anything changing anytime soon. Back in the martial law days the local kids couldn’t even put a backrest on a scooter without a bunch of chrome-helmeted MPs pulling them over.
If you could mod a cheap car to do what an expensive one does, what would that do to the import market? If noone imports expensive cars then what happens to all that tax revenue? It’s not in the government’s interests to change the system, nor the manufacturers’ or importers’.
Plus, doing a “proper job” of modding a vehicle in a safe way is some sort of an offense to the local culture.
[quote=“redwagon”]
If you could mod a cheap car to do what an expensive one does, what would that do to the import market? If noone imports expensive cars then what happens to all that tax revenue? It’s not in the government’s interests to change the system, nor the manufacturers’ or importers’.
Plus, doing a “proper job” of modding a vehicle in a safe way is some sort of an offense to the local culture. [/quote]
Think about the local producers of brakes and suspension upgrades.
Turbos and aftermarket EFI computers would still be needed and a bunch of kids spending thousands on upgrades would create more tax revenue than one old guy buing a M5, but this might be logic
If it was legal more performance shops would open up creating a cashflow and jobs.
It would also be more easy to force all this 3wheelers that transport garbage to register as trikes and get them taxed and force them to be constructed in a safe manner.
All modded viecles should be aproved at DVM, a workshop + a laberatory to enshure more profitt and less chance for coruption.
It could be done, but all the jerks driving like idiots on moded viecles are not helping.
[quote=“Stian”]
Think about the local producers of brakes and suspension upgrades.
Turbos and aftermarket EFI computers would still be needed and a bunch of kids spending thousands on upgrades would create more tax revenue than one old guy buing a M5, but this might be logic
If it was legal more performance shops would open up creating a cashflow and jobs.
It would also be more easy to force all this 3wheelers that transport garbage to register as trikes and get them taxed and force them to be constructed in a safe manner.
All modded viecles should be aproved at DVM, a workshop + a laberatory to enshure more profitt and less chance for coruption.
It could be done, but all the jerks driving like idiots on moded viecles are not helping.[/quote]
You ever been to Southern California (particularly around Ontario), San Jose or Seattle? Things range the whole spectrum from really horrible to totally awesome, all while having to pass smog. In WA, though, they didn’t sniff, so people would run catless with O2 sims and pass like that. CA is harder, but converting a car to pass CARB then back is an afternoon affair in most cases.
My point is that regardless of what you put in, people will find a way around it.
In many ways the car addiction can be way worse and more expensive than drugs.
There is nothing wrong with modding vehicles to be better than they were before. There is no reason in the world for example that my commercial SYM 125cc bike with its front drum brake shouldn’t be allowed to be fitted with at bare minimum a stock SYM front disk and calliper set. It would be safer as it would perform better. A vehicle doesn’t always have to be modified to produce more smog, but blanket bans on modifications is just plain daft as well as being so backwards in thinking that it puts potentially positive developments on hold.
If I was to legitimately want to improve the performance of my fuel efficient Prius and make it more fuel efficient and less poluting, then shouldn’t I be granted some leeway? If I wanted to do the same for some old gas guzzling hog, then wouldn’t that be a good thing?
And lets not forget that its even the development of race cars that have led to almost all safety related vehicle paraphernalia as well as fuel efficient engines and slippier bodywork, that have produced things like the Prius in the first place. A great deal of efficient cars owe the majority of their design to men in sheds who have fiddled an extra brake horse power from their Austin Maxi, or Morris Traveller. As lame as it seems a great deal of positive modern technology is owed to blokes with thick rimmed glasses, who regularly set themselves on fire.
And lets not forget folks, that life is for the living. My mother was a chronic asthmatic, and as much as we liked the city, we just moved to the countryside. Job done!
Well, it wasn’t though, because the damned oil seed rape was worse than the air pollution where we came from. One man’s passion is another man’s poison it seems.
Its a dumb law, but lets be honest here… this place is run by people who aren’t exactly in tune with the rest of the world.
I know a guy who imported his audi S4 from the states, it was heavily modded with RS4 turbos, big rims, coilovers… everything you can imagine, its a track car and i believe it holds the record at longtan.
Anyway he brought it through customs and the exams in that exact state.
When the car arrived he realised the shocks were too damn hard and low for driving around the streets, so he swapped on the stock setup.
One year later his test is due and he drove it along to the inspection center…
Exhaust system, fine
Modded turbos, fine
Big brakes, fine
Big wheels, fine
Suspension, FAIL!
Oh yes, his suspension was 30mm or so higher than whats registered on the database, so he had to go home and swap to his stupidly expensive coil overs, hop, skip and scuff the roads back to the test center and retake the test!.
:roflmao:
Should of gone to the same place i went to, probably cost him $400nt and save an hour under the car!.
Remember these agents are your ‘last chance’ kind of service. If you go to inspection within the time limit you can use the private stations who can barely tell one end of the car from the other, let alone what make or color it is. They currently have a directive to hassle those with incorrect ride heights and aftermarket bumpers because of the incident a few years ago which started the crackdown on offroad vehicles. I know of plenty of cars that should have had automatic transmissions in them being passed with a manual with zero comment. Actually, I’m not even sure it’s illegal to convert the transmission. You could try going to the DMV with your rego and asking how to change that field from auto to manual.
You can haggle with them if you have loads of things that are illegal.
Worst case is a couple of thousand, probably $2000 for an engine swap and gearbox swap.
My next car is 100% road legal and doesnt need to be tested for the next 5 years… so i wouldnt care, but for those of you who wish to do something exciting with your car, this info will be usefull.
My next car is 100% road legal and doesnt need to be tested for the next 5 years… so i wouldnt care, but for those of you who wish to do something exciting with your car, this info will be usefull.[/quote]
So you encourage to pay those fucking bastards? I rather take the bus or stick with a scooter.
My next car is 100% road legal and doesnt need to be tested for the next 5 years… so i wouldnt care, but for those of you who wish to do something exciting with your car, this info will be usefull.[/quote]
So you encourage to pay those fucking bastards? I rather take the bus or stick with a scooter.[/quote]
I’ve never heard of anyone having to pay to get their stock, safe car passed. Stay stock, keep your car maintained = no problems, agents, bribes or whatever. First rule of car modification is that you want to play, you gotta pay.
Or not. I know sellers here who claim to be able to pay a little and get any car through a TüV inspection too! As long as there are Taiwanese, there are ways!
Or not. I know sellers here who claim to be able to pay a little and get any car through a TüV inspection too! As long as there are Taiwanese, there are ways![/quote]
Mmm. No experience in the EU but I can tell you inspection in Switzerland is no joke. Those guys are not messing around.
[quote=“redwagon”]
Mmm. No experience in the EU but I can tell you inspection in Switzerland is no joke. Those guys are not messing around.[/quote]
The periodic controll in Norway is not a joke eather.
They allways find something and it keep alot of cars off the road that in Taiwan would be rolling around.
As long as there are Taiwanese, there are ways!