This is a Lamborghini Huracan, made in Italy. It costs just over $200,000, and has a top speed of just over 200 mph, so it's basically 1 mph of speed for every $1,000 you wish to shell out. Now for that kind of money you would expect your car to be perfect in every way, even though you know, going in, that Italian supercars can be a bit finicky at times, and you accept that.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration [NHTSA] expects that kind of perfection too if a manufacturer wishes to sell their vehicles here in the United States, and to that end the NHTSA has deemed that the current version of the Huracan is simply not safe enough to be allowed on American highways.
Could it be that 202 mph top speed number that they're worried about? Well, not exactly, and to be honest, any car that can go that fast is only as safe as the driver behind the wheel. No, the NHTSA has a problem with a piece of plastic that is on the car, or should be on the car, but in this case it isn't there.
The piece of plastic in question is called a Blanking Cap, probably about the size of a fingernail, and it covers the screw that allows for adjustment [as in aiming] of the headlights. For this, a recall has been issued for 5,000 or so Huracans that have the piece missing. Lamborghini appealed, claiming that the issue amounted to inconsequential noncompliance, but the NHTSA said "No no no, bring them all back", and so the recall stands.
I remember a time when an old Camaro of mine failed inspection at the local DMV here in New Jersey, because one of the headlights wasn't aimed correctly. Yes, they used to check almost everything back then, and with my rejection sticker I was given a diagram showing how high off the ground at a given distance the beam of light should hit a fixed object, like a wall. At home, it took about 2 minutes with a screw driver to aim the faulty headlight at a mark I had placed on my garage door, then back to the DMV to get the car passed. It was that easy to do because the screw was that easy to get to. That's what it was there for, but... not anymore I guess, because big government always knows what's best for us now.
The NHTSA has about 700 or so employees based in Washington DC, and has an annual budget of right around 1 billion dollars per year. I'm glad my tax dollars are being put to such good use when they are spent on the kind of in-depth investigations this case probably took.
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