German Police Are Repeatedly Fining American Soldiers Over Their 'Extreme' Muscle Cars
German police are clamping down on American soldiers driving modified muscle and pony cars around the town of Kaiserslautern.
Incredibly strict German rules on what is and isn’t legal when it comes to modifications are at odds with the freedom of expression brought in by the army men at Ramstein Air Base, whose cars have reportedly been targeted by the police and clubbed with fines for a huge variety of what we’d call petty offences.
Jalopnik reports that the chief of the town’s police department had said the Americans’ cars were more heavily modified and “extreme” than German cars, even going as far as to say that the big V8s in the resident muscle cars weren’t especially welcome. That guy sounds like he’d be a riot at parties.
Other infractions that have been reported include yellow fog lights, window tinting and loud exhausts, with one soldier apparently being repeatedly stopped over the cooling vents in his bonnet, which are a standard feature on the unnamed model.
The full post makes interesting reading, essentially boiling down to a cultural difference between the Germans’ naturally controlling nature based on strictly-enforced laws, and the ingrained creative freedom enjoyed by Americans, especially when it comes to modifying their cars.
Modified German cars have to have every change noted down in a registration booklet, and if it makes the booklet then it’s passed the infamous TUV test and it’s legal. American cars’ log books don’t have anything like that, which is apparently causing the police some difficulties in determining what is legal and what isn’t.
We’d like to ask the opinions of our German CTzens, or anyone from the other side of the French border who knows the system in Kaiserslautern. Are the police being too heavy-handed or are the Americans taking liberties? Is it a bit of both?
Comments
Passing TÜV and having it registered in the vehicles papers does not mean you won’t get a fine for it. If a police person stops you and deems one of your modifications unsafe then he can fine you or confiscate your vehicle.
As i saw something about steering wheels on here i shall use that as an example. Any form of dished steering wheel is illegal. Doesn’t matter if it comes with a TÜV seal of approval. If policey person sees it and decides he don’t like it he can fine you/impound the car. The reasoning in most cases is you have removed the airbag and thus have endangered yourself (I’D like to decide that for myself thank you!!).
Christ I hate living in Germany sometimes.
It’s honestly not as bad as this arrival is making it sound. I’m stationed in kaiserslautern right now. I tinted the front windows on my car which is illegal in Germany. I’ve been stopped at least 10 times already and nobody really cared but 1 officer and I had to pay a 100 euro fine. As long as you don’t go overboard they don’t really care too much. It’s the dickbags that straight pipe their V8’s and cruise through the city in second gear to make sure the city hears their car and other things like that, that the German Polizei are after when it comes to Americans.
I’ve lived in Japan and Germany. In Japan if you have an after market exhaust for instance they test the loudness with a decibel reader and if it’s too loud you fail inspection. Germany doesn’t do this, for Americans at least. A lot of military do have strait piped Mustangs and challengers which can be loud. Germans value their quiet. For instance there is quiet hours every day and on Sunday. So if it’s a quiet time and you have somebody just driving out of a small village it can be quite loud. I feel it’s a little on both parts. Police trying to be a little too excessive with crack downs on body kits and stuff, but I also see some people with a lot of extreme mods
Cops in Germany are General assholes. Even if you drive a car with aftermarket Rims. They will stop you over and over and over. They have NO knowledge about cars what so ever, but if you try to defend yourself they get pissy and fine you with tickets and Points (if you have 8 points, you lose your drivers license).
Mustangs can’t do anything with the police… they are not a crowd…
Finally all people from around the world recognise that its nearly impossible to modify a car in Germany… you got so many regulations and and that sucks
First off: Not all yellow fog lights are illegal.
And this is not a new problem. In my hometown, situations like this have been already a problem for more than 15 years due to the big barracks in the area.
To be honest, I dont like the connotation of this report. It gives me the impression as if the autor wanted to tell me the german police are morons by pointin out that some hood scoops were not modified, however most of the GIs drive modified cars which would never be legal in germany.
But they dont give a fk. Which is the core of the problem after all.
Be American
Can modify to no end and remove cat converters
Can coal roll and pollute to extremes
Can’t be Mexican
#Freedom
It’s everywhere in germany.
Stupid laws and restrictions like you got trouble getting a 2002 S15 Silvia registered here but a 2000 model is no Problem.
Its not easy living in germany as car people 😔
if you’re driving your American car on the German roads, it has to be conform with the German regulations and standards, not with the American ones.