A roadside survey has revealed that nearly 9 per cent of cars being driven on Tauranga roads do not have a current registration.
The unscientific survey, carried out yesterday by the Bay of Plenty Times Weekend, involved 326 parked cars at different locations, from the city centre to Greerton. None of the 28 cars found with expired regos had expired warrants of fitness, meaning they should have been safe.
Tauranga downtown's street-front carparks emerged with the lowest rate of lapsed regos - only 3 per cent of the 100 cars checked in the Durham St/ Elizabeth St/ Grey St/ Spring St block.
Yesterday's survey did not cover the big privately owned customer carparks like Fraser Cove and Bayfair, which are favoured by people driving unregistered cars because they know they will not get pinged by council parking wardens. The wardens also check for expired warrants of fitness and regos.
Nearly 11 per cent of the 123 cars checked in Greerton shopping centre's Chadwick Rd and surrounding streets had expired regos. But the biggest statistical blip was in Merivale, where four of the 10 cars parked along the shopping centre frontage did not have a current rego.