Andy,
I was a consultant for one of the legal desks of the EU Commission for five years, so I'm very happy to blame Brussels ( or even more to blame the fact that the UK really has never made the most of EU Directives.) On the other hand, while the whole set up is so labyrynthine that I don't claim to know every bit of it, I'm pretty sure that once type approval has been given, then while to purchase a car with a hood which didn't meet that approval would be a problem, to purchase a car without a non- structural element which did ( such as the hood) would not.
Rant now over! Cheers.
