http://jalopnik.com/5589270/ A Maryland judge issued an $85 fine to the owner of a Pontiac G8 GT for illegal tail lights, despite being factory-installed and approved by the US Department of Transportation. She's promised to keep fining him. Judicial activism, FTL! Forum member "jackalope" at G8Board.com was ticketed by a Maryland officer who claimed he was sporting illegal tail lights. After amassing a healthy amount of evidence proving he hadn't modified his car and it was approved for sale by the Department of Transportation, he went to court confident the ticket would be dismissed, only to find the contrary. We'll let him tell you how it all went down: Went to court for my clear tail lights on my car and was found guilty! The judge actualy told me she didn't care what the manufacturer said, what the federal govt said, what the DOT # stamped onto my taillights said if the officer says my lights aren't legal then they're not legal. I took the G8 sales brochure in along with pics of my car and other G8 GT's and the VIN trace by 3 different dealers saying my lights were factory none of it mattered she found me guilty of failing to display or reflect red light on the rear of the car. Didn't matter the reflecters were in the bumper, didn't matter where the light is has that little red circle, the whole lens isn't red so they're not legal. Also where the back-up and turn signals are should be the reflectors according to the cop so the V6 cars lights aren't legal either. Judge stupid went on to tell me that maybe I should consider trading in or selling the car since its not legal in MD and that I'm going to continue to get the $60 tickets till I get rid of the car. So I contacted Pontiac's 1-800 # and I have an apt next friday to have my car looked at by them and see if they can help or at least repay me the $85.50 fine and court costs. I honestly don't know what else I can do. The cop was ALL smiles afterwards and winked at me! WTF! Now I'm screwed! How do I go to work now? I drive right thru where he works!! So this ass nuget can make up **** randomly for any car he gets a hard on for and nothing can be done to fight it! This is BS. The problem centers around the clear lens tail lights and bumper-mounted reflectors of the Pontiac G8 GT model. Because the red area in the lenses is reduced in the G8 GT, there are reflectors mounted in the bumper to reflect additional light and bring the reflective requirements into spec. Th officer and by extension the judge considered them illegal. Now, we can understand Mr. Jackalope's momentary lack of respect for the legal system above — this is B.S., but he's got legitimate cause to be pissed. He bought a car he assumed to fall within the operations laws of all states and which was in reality approved for nationwide sale by the government. According to the Judge, the opinion of an Officer of the Law supersedes what the Federal government approved for sale and the design somehow doesn't jive with what the State of Maryland considers legal. One of the other forum members has offered up legal service to fight the fine, but it makes us wonder if all the G8 GT drivers in Maryland now have something to worry about. Should motorists who've bought a car approved by the Federal government be worried about being arbitrarily fined by a Judge who seems to side with the opinion of an officer over the law. [G8Board thread] :hsnono: :hsnono:
More reasons why we shouldnt buy cars that are made by companies that were federalized when their poor business practices caused them to go under. Ford FTW.
Ford was federalized, just in a different way. look at how many government contracts there are for Ford....those right there are helping to keep that company alive. Nothing else. So they got a bail out, just in a completely different way.
Time to file a lawsuit...and not against Pontiac/GM. Also makes me wonder if my stock STI tail lights would be legal in MD...and based on that description they aren't.
I was thinking the same thing when reading, but with any of the 06-07 Imprezas. Time to plan a get together. He needs to get all the G8 owners in the area together for a large caravan to the courthouse where all the owners park out front with their stock taillights and protest the ticket in front of the courthouse. At the very least it would get media attention which would probably be a quicker and cheaper way for the OP to get the ticket reversed. I just hope he wasn't sitting in court recording the proceedings with his camera phone. hnoes:
found the correct thread link i think... http://www.g8board.com/forums/showthread.php?t=32886 Apparently his lights weren't stock when pulled over, he did have some type of modification on them. trying to read and understand what....
If I remember correctly Fore just secured a ton of credit before the bottom fell out of the economy. The G8 driver actually had modified tailights. He is arguing that the specific ticket he received is for not displaying red in/on/ around the brake light. Bottom line the G8 driver admits the light housing was modified.