gavriil

Anti-lock becomes law - - - Source: Autocar

Every new car sold in Europe from this summer must have anti-lock brakes fitted as standard – bringing a welcome windfall for buyers and an extra cost for manufacturers.

New Brussels legislation makes anti-lock mandatory from 1 July, so that even the cheapest city car must offer the safety device that only a few years ago was the preserve of luxury cars.

Some manufacturers have started fitting anti-lock before the July deadline. Renault this month added anti-lock – previously a £565 option – to the Kangoo, making it the only firm in the top five to fit it to every model.

Low-volume manufacturers, building fewer than 500 of a particular model a year, will be exempt from the new anti-lock brake rules.

fahoumh

Anti-lock brakes aren't mandatory in North America, right?

ItalianStallion

no, i dont think so. but they are in most models, even the cheapest i believe.

gavriil

Right.

gavriil

Well...about that...I beg to differ. It's particularly rediculous in my opinion, for example, that one can buy a Taurus without ABS. Pathetic. There are more examples.

fahoumh

Yes, that is pretty weak; one model that immediately comes to my mind is the Sentra SE-R.

I wonder if a similar law will make its way to North America.

goldmemberer

One night I was a little tipsy so I decided to sleep over at my cousin's house but another (more distant) cousin of mine wanted my navi to get to my place, where we were all meeting up.

Blah blah, he leaves me his 03 V6 Stang. And I'm like fine, how bad can it be? I'm driving back home, trying to keep up with my cousin's modded M3 and there's a traffic jam up ahead.

I punch the brakes and my wheels fucking lock up, I'm skidding and trying to control this underpowered piglet of a car at speeds downwards of 70 MPH. Needless to say, I was floored. Once the wheels were spinning again, I stomped on it lightly to get the car down to about 20 MPH.

Yeah, ABS being law is good.

einsatz

I agree - yesterday this hick with a mullet decided to pull our of an intersection in an early 80s Dodge to make a left turn onto a road that had traffic going both ways. I had to stomp on the brakes and he didn't even look at me as I honked the horn a few feet from his rear qtr panel as he finished the turn. He had a car full of ppl and I could see a girl maybe about 10 y/o in the back looking scared shitless.

Stupid people! If my brakes had locked I'm sure hitting them broadside at ~45 would not have been pretty.

BTW, I think there are some 2004 Civic models that can't have ABS, I think it's the DX and LX? I just noticed this yesterday on Edmunds.