TEXAS NEEDS YOUR HELP

alfadriver said:

Cooter said:

In reply to The0retical :

Why is everyone assuming SEMA isn't involved?

 

 

Of course, the kit car community is fighting back. Vincent Parisien, the president of the Manx Club, told Hemmings, "We’re not about making the streets more dangerous. Our members are willing to go through all the same safety standards as other cars." Another enthusiast, Faron Smith, started a GoFundMe campaign to hire lobbyist Ron Hinkle, the man who got the Polaris Slingshot approved for street use in Texas, to fight this ban on the owners' behalf. The SEMA Action Network and the Historic Vehicle Association are stepping into the fight as well.

Because someone asked to send support someplace else.   While it's great to demonstrate impact from a bunch of different people, one should focus the largest effort on the most powerful of the lobbies.  Instead of hiring Ron Hinkle, just keep the SEMA lobby funded.  

That I can agree with.

But SEMA's lobbyists are actively working on this, even if it isn't plastered all over every webpage.   

I've only been in Texas a short while but I have to say that of all the places I've lived it's the worst place I've been for being a car guy. Specifically a car guy without a lot of money. I'm sure it's fine if you have a lot of money.

To be honest I mostly get around the laws by just not following them. I sit on untransferred titles, rarely actually register (/renew registration on) a car unless im going to put over a thousand miles on it in a year, and only keep things on insurance when im actually driving them which means im switching things on and off my policy all the time.  

I'd honestly like to just do everything by the book if it wasn't extremely onerous. If the laws were tenable, i'd follow them. Unfortunately if i kept every car i owned registered, insured and inspected under the current legal regime, it would cost about 10k/year. If i wanted more than basic liability coverage that would go up a lot. So, i basically do what Roadkill does, which is that almost everything is illegal except that i have insurance coverage on the car that is being driven. 

I'm an NRA member and have been hearing about "reasonable gun laws" forever.   Now "reasonable" is hitting the custom car world.   

Dealers don't want competition, don't want a free market, and are paying big bucks to get laws passed to protect their profits.  

Corporatism, Crony Capitalism, whatever you want to call it, this is it.

Reminds me of that scene in the Godfather where Barzini keeps reminding all the Godfathers that they are all "reasonable" men.

jharry3 said:

I'm an NRA member and have been hearing about "reasonable gun laws" forever.   Now "reasonable" is hitting the custom car world.   

Dealers don't want competition, don't want a free market, and are paying big bucks to get laws passed to protect their profits.  

Corporatism, Crony Capitalism, whatever you want to call it, this is it.

Reminds me of that scene in the Godfather where Barzini keeps reminding all the Godfathers that they are all "reasonable" men.

There's a lot of irony in this post, but it would make this tread a fish.

alfadriver said:

jharry3 said:

I'm an NRA member and have been hearing about "reasonable gun laws" forever.   Now "reasonable" is hitting the custom car world.   

Dealers don't want competition, don't want a free market, and are paying big bucks to get laws passed to protect their profits.  

Corporatism, Crony Capitalism, whatever you want to call it, this is it.

Reminds me of that scene in the Godfather where Barzini keeps reminding all the Godfathers that they are all "reasonable" men.

There's a lot of irony in this post, but it would make this tread a fish.

Not that much.   In business school, using legislation as a way to gain advantage was discussed.

Lobbyists are paid for a reason.

Not going all conspiracy theory, but these things exist.

Vigo said:

To be honest I mostly get around the laws by just not following them. 

Not the sort of thing I'd admit on a public forum...

stuart in mn said:

Vigo said:

To be honest I mostly get around the laws by just not following them. 

Not the sort of thing I'd admit on a public forum...

 

Also, you're not really "getting around" the laws so much as "not getting caught yet".

I know someone who, at one point, had roughly 6x the number of running cars as license plates.  He'd just screw the plate onto whatever car he was driving that day.  That is way more illegal than that time I theoretically was doing 110 in a 60 in a really sweet interchange on the way to work a few days ago.

In reply to icaneat50eggs :

This has nothing to do with Legislature or else we'd be able to vote it out.  This is a hired official and so far no one has been able to get him fired.

In theory SEMA is involved, but somehow there's not much help from them.  We keep getting told they are involved but we don't see them at my level.

alfadriver said:

jharry3 said:

I'm an NRA member and have been hearing about "reasonable gun laws" forever.   Now "reasonable" is hitting the custom car world.   

Dealers don't want competition, don't want a free market, and are paying big bucks to get laws passed to protect their profits.  

Corporatism, Crony Capitalism, whatever you want to call it, this is it.

Reminds me of that scene in the Godfather where Barzini keeps reminding all the Godfathers that they are all "reasonable" men.

There's a lot of irony in this post, but it would make this tread a fish.

lol, I was going to say the same thing. 

Also, you're not really "getting around" the laws so much as "not getting caught yet".

Well, if you like it better you can look at is as 'getting around not being able to afford to be a car enthusiast' (despite being solidly middle class and messing mostly with very cheap cars) instead of 'getting around laws'.  

Regardless of what state you're in, 'the book' is quite large and some part of it can be thrown at almost anyone. I would hope that most realize that the people who end up being charged and with what is the result of a discretionary process among LEOs and prosecutors and only vaguely related to any sense of public good. My status as a middle class white male upstanding member of society (teacher, salt of the earth blue collar man with no criminal record whatsoever yadda yadda) who can afford a lawyer and is doing his car stuff in a low density unincorporated area means im pretty unlikely to be targeted, whether that's right or wrong and regardless of what's illegal. If i ever WAS targeted it would be by the kind of person that we should all be worried about. If a power-tripping asshat decides to make a move out here, I am far from the lowest hanging fruit. Probably about 20% of the people on the road driving their one and only car still manage to be less legal than i am with 20 (no insurance or DL). The number of people on the roads out here without insurance is astounding. 

Insurance is required by law but i pay for it out of respect for other people on the road. If I make a mistake I don't want to put anyone else in a terrible position financially over it. So even though I do always drive with insurance and jump through a lot of hoops to do so (keeping policy updated with whichever vehicles im driving out of my fleet), it's not even for reasons of legality. It's for human beings.