India is a growing  automobile market and that is one of the reason why we have seen the entry of several new models and brands into our market. Many manufacturers have even launched expensive and powerful sports cars and super cars into our market. These models however are not cheap by any means and not everyone can afford to buy and maintain these. One of the most popular method of making a car stand out in the crowd is by modifying it. Modifying cars is a common thing around the world but, in India any type of modification on a vehicle, be it car or a two wheeler is considered illegal. Here we have a video from a foreign media house that shares how they feel about this modification ban.

The video has been uploaded by Donut Media on their YouTube channel. The video starts by explaining the reason behind why people are modifying cars and not buying sports cars instead. In India, if a manufacturer wants to import a new model and sell in the country he has to pay 100 percent of the cars value as import duty. This instantly doubles the price of the car. There are lot of car enthusiasts in the country who cannot afford such expensive cars and that is the reason why the trend of vehicle modification started in India.

According to the new judgement, Supreme Court of India had ruled that any modification of the vehicle that varies with the manufacturer’s original specification (as noted in the Registration Certificate) is illegal. What this means is that buyers cannot even install wider tyres, bigger alloys, aftermarket exhausts or horns in their car. According to the vlogger, one of the reason why modification is not allowed in the country is because of the population.

If there were no regulations on modifications in the country, almost everyone might have made some or the other modification on their car and that would become a nuisance in future. The actual reason behind is that some people tend to go overboard with the modifications and this affects the structural integrity of the car. By doing such modification the owner is putting his as well as the life of other people at risk. Another reason why modifications are illegal is in case of an accident, it becomes difficult for police to trace down the car.

When this new rule was implemented few years ago, the Motor Vehicle Department in various states had started inspections and had started putting fine on modified vehicles. We had featured some reports were extremely modified cars were fined by cops and were restored to stock shape. In case, owner of a vehicle makes modifications and does not restore it back to the original state, there is a possibility that the authorities might cancel the registration.

Vehicle modification and accessories is a large market. Even though, the modifications are now illegal in India, we still see pictures of tastefully modified cars on the internet. The vlogger sums up the video by saying that Indian car scene would thrive even with these restrictions in place.