Army refuses faulty vehicles

The Pinzgauers have a gearbox problem.

The army has refused to accept any more of the new vehicles it ordered to replace its old Landrovers until the British manufacturers can guarantee they have fixed a problem.

Defence chiefs ordered 321 Pinzgauer light operational vehicles in a $93 million contract from Automotive Technik Ltd (ATL) in Britain.

However, only 95 of the Pinzgauers had been delivered in January before a gearbox fault was found in 17. They were all ordered off the road.

Defence chiefs have since told ATL they would not accept any more until they fixed an overheating problem in the gearboxes.

New Zealand Defence Force director of communications Warren Inkster said ATL had told them it believed it had a fix.

"They will advise what they are going to do about it," he said.

Mr Inkster said the fix would apply to all 321 vehicles ordered, including those already delivered to New Zealand.

Faults were found in the 17 which were being road tested in New Zealand. The balance of the 78 machines from the first delivery batch of 95 were going through preliminary checks but all 95 had been ordered off the road, he said.

Mr Inkster said it was standard commercial practice procedure to refuse to accept any more until the fault had been fixed which was a warranty issue.

"It is a matter of a pause in that (the delivery) until the warranty issues have been clarified. They have come to the party."

In the meantime the army has continued to use its 566 old V8 Landrovers, bought in 1982, although many have been breaking down and are increasingly unreliable.

The army has said the state of the Landrovers was affecting its ability to train and conduct exercises.

The Pinzgauers can carry twice the load of the Landrovers over nearly twice the distance.

They were originally designed and built in Austria but have been built in the United Kingdom since 2003. The army said more than 30,000 were already in service in 24 countries.

They were all due to be delivered by the end of this year.

- NZPA