Buyers to pay for safer motoring

Imported used car prices could rocket by an average $4600 next year when the Government introduces tough regulations on vehicle safety.

The rules could also mean that New Zealand will have lower road safety standards in the next few years, because many drivers will not be able to afford to upgrade their vehicles.

The new safety standards, formulated by the Transport Ministry and the Land Transport Safety Authority, will require imported used cars to meet tougher "frontal-impact" standards.

This means that Japanese cars made as late as 1996 may not meet the standards.

Such cars will not be able to be imported, although models that are already in New Zealand will remain legal.

The authority report, leaked to the Otago Daily Times, says that as many as 53,200 of the cars that would have been imported next year would not meet the criteria.

More than 100,000 used cars are imported each year, at an average price of about $10,000.

The report says the average price increase in the first year of the new regime would be $4600, but this figure would decrease in following years.

Japan began phasing in the new standards, which are subject to tougher testing, in 1994, but many models were exempt until 1996.

The report says: "The restriction would result in a welfare loss to the public through an increase in prices of used imports and limitation of supply of cheaper [but older] used imports."

It says that in the short term, buyers will be forced to buy newer, more expensive vehicles because of a shortage of older models compliant with the new standards.

The restrictions will improve the quality of cars on the road, says the report, but safety improvements will not be seen immediately, because of the likelihood of drivers keeping older cars on the road.

The move would bring "some small increase in risk in the short term".

Land Transport Safety Authority spokesman Andy Knackstedt said the authority believed the short-term price increases would be countered by an increase in safety over the long term.

The chief executive of the Independent Motor Vehicles Dealers Association, David Lynn, said the restrictions would leave New Zealand car buyers worse off and their cash would go to Japanese car companies.

"It's vital that New Zealanders' interests are placed ahead of overseas companies," said Mr Lynn.

"We want the Government to understand the potential for damage before it makes a final decision."

A spokeswoman for the Minister of Transport, Mark Gosche, confirmed that it was likely the regulations would be signed this year and come into effect on April 1 next year.

- NZPA