[Chris Martino]

MDA has been sending their cars through SVA with great success and was one of the reasons I opted for their product. Upon asking Transport Canada if they would consider the SVA to be in the spirit of safety and sound engineering they replied with this:

A. Where a replicar or a kit car complies with only those CMVSS listed in the Single Vehicle Approval Testing (SVA) manual it will NOT be admissible for importation into Canada, unless it also complies with those CMVSS that are not listed in the SVA, and the vehicle is certified by the manufacturer and the manufacturer has all the required test records to demonstrate compliance. If the kit is considered a parts shipment, rather than a vehicle, it is irrelevant whether the parts meet SVA or CMVSS.

AND

The directorate has come to realize that, although foreign manufacturers of kit cars may claim to take safety and engineering seriously, and although many kit companies also manufacture complete cars, the industry as a whole has not made any real attempt to comply with federal standards. There are over 200 kit car manufacturers in North America alone, and to the Directorate’s knowledge, from liaising with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in the USA, none of these vehicles or kits comply with federal standards, including kits fabricated by those companies that have manufactured more than 5000 kits. Thus far, the Directorate has not seen any indication that the industry, in Canada or the United States, practices any voluntary compliance with even those safety standards that require minimum engineering and minimum cost. Therefore, kit cars are generally not admissible for importation into Canada.


Chris