Originally Posted by
hunterboy
FlyTCI......I think it does depend where the car comes from. I assume US car safety standards are equally as high as EU ones. The difficulty lies where certain car markets do not comply with EU standards.
There are essentially two sets of vehicle standards in the "first world"; the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards and almost identical Canadian equivalent (FMVSS & CMVSS), and the European standards which are generally equivalent to Japan, Australia, etc. Australia tends to adopt European standards, but often with a time lag.
The traps with American vehicles into Europe vary from potentially unfixable but usually not an issue such as crash test performance, to seemingly trivial but still a hassle such as headlight standards. Seek advice before committing!