From Jalopnik:



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:

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.

 

who cares? nobody owns a G8 on here

ill make sure it's my next rental car though

 

Another reason not to buy a Pontiac!

 

Sounds like Murrlan... That place sucks. Yet Gobbles persists in living there.

 

Yet another reason to avoid any contact with automobiles in the northeast.

 

What ignorance, the judges mind is clogged needs a major service.

 

Another retard in office.

Back when the Evo 8 first came out I had a friend that worked at a Mitsubitchi dealership offer me a ride in one, so out we went. On the way back a cop followed us all the way into the lot where he lit me up. Comes to the window and explains that the rear spoiler on the Evo is too high, impairs vision, etc, it's illegal. I pointed at the seven others on the lot and asked him "Are you going to tell the dealership owner that all his new cars are illegal? They come like this." He didn't say anything, just turned on his heel and peeled outta there.

I love cops /sarcasm

 

BTW, from what I read in the Jalopnik comments on this article, the G8 driver in question had up to four sets of taillights for the car that he admitted to modifying. Oddly enough the relevant threads have disappeared, but the pics are still up in the article.

 

I got pulled over the other day for "too bright headlights". My headlight are completely stock Audi Bi-Xenon lights. The officer said that there was no way my lights were not after market. Even after showing him the receipt where I had been through vehicle inspection only a few days prior with the lights he still didnt believe me. He also looked at the part numbers stamped into the lens.

It was not until he saw my Navy Lacrosse T-shirt and shorts that he let me off with a "warning", still claiming I need to get factory headlights.

Sometimes Police officers are completely ignorant. I wanted to point out that Memphis has more Violent Crime per resident than any other city in the country. Seems he had to bother with important things like illegal headlights that night.

 

Some people, like that judge, need to get a life.