Consultation has opened on reducing the frequency of safety inspections for vintage cars, vintage motorbikes and motorhomes.
The proposal would see WoF checks for vintage and veteran vehicles over 40 years old change from every six months to every 12 months, and see CoF checks for privately owned heavy motorhomes also change by the same time period.
Transport Minister Chris Bishop has said the change will strike the right balance between safety and over-compliance.
Earlier this month, 1News reported the change would impact 128,000 vehicles and 39,000 motorhomes.
In 2014, the law changed so people who owned cars made in 2000 or subsequent years only had to get them warranted once per year. Older cars continued to have to be warranted twice a year.
Joining Breakfast this morning, classic car enthusiast David Lane said the proposed change is be something he will “very much look forward to”.
“The majority do very little mileage, and related to owners of these sorts of vehicles, the accident rate is virtually zero. The failures in warrants and CoFs is very low because they are valuable and we look after them.
“We have wanted this legislation to change for probably 20 years now. So this is the nearest we’ve got.”
Lane said he hopes classic car and motor home owners will provide feedback on the proposed law change.
“We look forward to the change and to this end I’m pleading with everybody to send their submissions … and tell it how it is and that way we will hopefully bring about a long awaited change that is very overdue.”
‘The law is basically out of step with reality’
“The stats show that people who drive vintage cars, they actually pass their WoF at a higher rate than people who drive non-vintage cars, and so the law is basically out of step with reality, and we’re bringing it into line with common sense,” Bishop told 1News earlier this month.
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association Inc chief executive Bruce Lochore said at the same time that the association has been raising with the Government that CoF frequency is inappropriate for the use of motorhomes for around five years.
“It’s never made sense because these vehicles do a fraction of the mileage of normal vehicles, they have a fraction of the serious accident.
“It got lumbered in with all heavy vehicles,” Lochore said.
He said motorhome owners travelled around 5000 kilometres annually.
New Zealand Federation of Motoring Clubs Inc had been campaigning for a reduced inspection frequency for at least five years too, President Garry Jackson said.
He said vintage cars were well maintained, don’t get driven that much and inspectors were often not that familiar with vintage cars.
Consultation is open from now until April 4.
