Tuning in Germany - Part I
BACK TO OVERVIEW"There is no accounting for taste", says a much-used phrase that sometimes leads to night-long discussions. What is not under discussion, however, is that tuning is subject to laws that must be observed, whether you like it or not. DOTZ will give you an overview of what is legal in connection with rim tuning in Germany. One important fact: "tuning" may only be performed by workshops registered with the relevant trade register and requires professional handling.
Faster, lower, wider
“To tune” basically means “to adjust” or “to adapt”, i.e. an improvement of something existing, be it technically or with regard to design. Rims are still the easiest option to individualise your car. However, safety should be the number one priority because we are usually not alone on the road, and in the event of an accident, uninvolved parties can quickly become victims of overconfidence, carelessness or fraud. Faster, lower, wider suddenly turns into injured, destroyed, and that for a long time and with considerable costs. For that reason, DOTZ has been a member of the Association of Automobile Tuners VDAT, which is not only a politically active special interest group, but also aims at providing a public platform for high-quality, safe and legal tuning products. History of tuning
Tuning has probably been around longer than most people would assume. Gerhard Oettinger founded a company in 1951/52, where he modified Volkswagen cars and let them compete against Porsche 356 in spectacular races. In 1952, tuning pioneer KAMEI fitted a VW Beetle with an alloy front spoiler to provide better driving stability, which was called “depth control” at that time. In 1975, the first Golf 1 GTI entered the market. Together with the BMW 3 Series E30 and the “Baby Benz” 190, these vehicles became sheer icons of tuning. When the movie “The Fast and the Furious 1” came to the cinemas in 2000, it created an appetite for the modification of Japanese models among a wider public and triggered a new boom in car tuning. Poser vs. serious tuning
There are reams of tuners, some of them with an impressive presence on websites, in pictures and videos, but among all those colourful pictures and promises, we have to separate the good from the bad. Not every certificate is valid, which is why it is so important to take a look behind the scenes of vendors and their certificates.
You will find all the details on the legal requirements and the various certificates in the 2nd part of our story. So stay tuned & see you soon.
Photos: Spiegel.de, Motorblock.at, Bilderbeste.com, Jetta-ig.com, Autbild.de