New Zealand, one of the few developed countries to allow imports of second-hand vehicles from Japan, is becoming a dumping ground for worn-out old cars, according to the Motor Industry Association.
Although more than 103 400 new vehicles were sold in the country of 4,1-million people last year, the most since 1985, the total fleet is getting older and older, said the association’s chief executive Perry Kerr.
The average age of a second-hand vehicle imported to New Zealand in 2005 topped eight years for the first time, pushing the mean age of vehicles on the country’s roads to a fraction short of 12, he said.
He said the average age of a used, imported vehicle had risen from 5,87 years in 2005 to 8,01 years in 2005.
”Quite clearly, something needs to be done to slow the rate at which we’re becoming a dumping ground for worn-out old vehicles,” Kerr said.
Noting that less than 16% of used vehicles brought into the country last year were under five years, Kerr said this demonstrated that imports were no longer cost-competitive with second-hand cars that began their lives in New Zealand.
He said cheaper, new car prices were now driving the price of late model second-hand ones, and used imports were now effectively propping up prices at the bottom of the market.
Kerr said by far the greatest percentage of used imports were now in the nine-year-old bracket because 1996 models were effectively the oldest and cheapest cars to be obtained in Japan.
”There are major issues associated with so many thousands of obsolete and worn-out vehicles crossing our wharves,” Kerr said.
”And we’re now set to become a dumping ground for old diesel vehicles that can no longer be used in Tokyo since that city is banning their use unless they can pass the pollution regulations applying to new vehicles.”
Kerr said that apart from obvious safety issues with cars that used technology two generations old, catalytic converters had a design life of 160 000 kilometres, so most nine-year-old vehicles became a major pollution risk within a short time of going on New Zealand roads. – Sapa-DPA