Ban older imports: dealers

By FIONA ROTHERHAM and CHRIS DANIELS

Used and new car dealers have joined forces to push for a ban on all used imports more than seven years old.

The move would be likely to push up the price of cars but dealers say consumers will benefit in the long term through the elimination of unsafe and "wound-back" cars.

The used car dealers' Independent Motor Vehicle Dealers Association (IMVDA) initially opposed the call to the Government from new-car companies as anti-competitive. But it has changed its mind after a heated executive meeting.

Some members remain opposed because their entire business involves Japanese imports older than seven years.

The executive director of the Motor Vehicle Dealers Institute, Steve Downes, said all its dealers were to be polled over the next few days to find out whether they wanted such a change.

He said the proposal would "certainly push up the price of cars."

The Motor Industry Association, which represents dealers who sell new cars, is pushing for the ban.

The Ministry of Transport is writing a report for its minister, Mark Gosche.

IMVDA chairman John Nicholls said he understood the ministry's initial view was that a restriction based on an arbitrary date was not justified on safety grounds and could force up the price of used cars.

But he said it was in the long-term interests of consumers to have import restrictions on poor quality vehicles and to "return some sanity" to the industry.

The association has claimed huge growth in older imports, many of which it says have their odometers wound back and are then sold through car fairs and the Internet.

Of the 131,118 cars imported in 1999, more than 72,000 were first registered overseas between 1988 and 1992.

"This is an excessive volume of older vehicles that is not in the national or consumer interest," said Mr Nicholls.

The assistant chief executive of the Consumers' Institute, Peter Sutton, said it had always been wary of older used imports, which were often less safe and sometimes not a good buy.

He did not know whether seven years was an appropriate cut-off, but there were already plenty of cheap, older imports in the market.

A spokesman for the Land Transport Safety Authority, Craig Dowling, said new compliance rules introduced last year made it much harder for dangerous imported cars to come into New Zealand.

While older vehicles did tend to have fewer safety features, the authority was confident its inspection criteria were rigorous.

Mr Nicholls said a big proportion of older imported cars came from Japanese scrap or dismantling yards, after reaching the end of their economic life. A significant number had been in crashes.

New vehicle sales in Japan dropped dramatically after the Asian economic downturn, reducing the supply of used cars available at auctions.

The National Government's removal of the $1500 tariff on vehicles in May 1998 and the high value of the New Zealand dollar has led to more dealers seeking older vehicles.

Used Japanese cars are becoming increasingly popular around the world. Dealers buying for the British and South African markets are among those competing for the newer, more expensive cars at auction.

"There is an urgent need to reduce the average age by concentrating on the import of later-model used cars which can still be marketed at prices affordable by owners with limited disposable incomes," said Mr Nicholls.

In 1999, 43,000 cars were stolen in Japan and police believe 80 per cent were exported.

The IMVDA says about 1000 of these mainly high-value vehicles came here.