RIYADH — The Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO) last year uncovered a total of 1,025 imported cars that were not according to the Kingdom's standards and specifications, local daily Al-Riyadh said quoting a statement by the organization. "SASO last year examined 62,810 imported cars of which 1,025 were not complying with specifications. Of those, 424 encountered various accidents in their countries of origin and 433 were salvage cars," the organization said. It added that 42 imported cars had fallen into water in their countries, 26 were used as taxis, in addition to six that were police cars and 22 that were scrap vehicles. "All these cars were prevented entry into the Kingdom," the statement said. According to the organization, two vehicles were found to be carriers of contagious diseases while the number plates of six cars were changed. A salvage car in the US is defined as a vehicle involved in a severe accident and its repair costs more than 75 percent of its market value. Salvage cars are not allowed to use the roads in America and they are not issued with registration papers. SASO had earlier prevented the entry of salvage cars because of the threat they pose to safety. It has also banned import of police cars, rented cars, vehicles that had fallen in water or had overturned and taxis. The organization said some of the imported cars had severe accidents in their countries of origin but were fixed by some workshops to look like new before they were exported. Mahdi Al-Mutairi, director of SASO's car inspection unit, said a number of departments usually send their imported cars to SASO for inspection. "The department of customs sends to us all the imported cars, trucks and motorbikes for examination to check if they are meet the Saudi specifications before giving them custom clearance," he said. Al-Mutairi also said the Directorate General of Traffic has made it a point to send to SASO vehicles that were tankers before they were converted into trucks and cars with suspected technical manufacturer faults. "The organization will check the engine, gearbox, chassis, body, paint, weight, length and safety measures before issuing any car with a certificate stating that it meets Saudi specifications," he said. He said when the car is found not to be according to Saudi standards it will be sent back to the customs department for re-exporting or to the department of traffic so its registration could be withheld. Al-Mutairi explained a salvage car could be identified by entering its chassis number into certain websites, such as Autocheck and Carfax, which will provide all data about the car. He said salvage cars are normally cheaper than other cars because they are usually sold as spare parts and because of their short validity. He said some cars might transmit contagious diseases that may be hazardous to the importer. "These are the cars carrying the blood of severely injured passengers or drivers and the cars in which dead bodies are left for a long time until they decompose, thus breeding dangerous bacteria," he said. He added three imported cars were discovered to be biohazards. Al-Mutairi said SASO has six car-inspection units in Riyadh, Jeddah, Dammam, Tabuk, Jazan and Al-Huditha.
