The Government is proposing to reduce the frequency of safety inspections for vintage cars, vintage motorbikes, and motorhomes, 1News can reveal.
Under the planned rule change, warrants of fitness and certificates of fitness would be required annually instead of every six months. Vintage light vehicles over 40 years old and private motorhomes were eligible.
“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,” Transport Minister Chris Bishop said.
The Minister said there were around 128,000 eligible vintage vehicles and 39,000 private motorhomes.
New Zealand Motor Caravan Association Inc chief executive Bruce Lochore said 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.
“So you know it’s an over-exaggeration of compliance for something that’s really not necessary.
“It’s costly as well… It’s up to $300 every six months for a motor home to get this.”
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.
“We’re just delighted.
“It’s been a consistent frustration and nagging issue, not only the cost of doing it every six months but the time it takes to do it.”
He says the WoFs for vintage cars cost between $70 and $100.
Jackson says vintage cars are well-maintained. The association’s own research showed that the average annual spend per historic and classic vehicle was $6355.
“The amount of money that people spend on these cars, right across New Zealand… is probably four times the average of any vehicle,” he said.
He said inspectors often weren’t familiar with vintage cars, which added to the burden.
“It’s the time it takes, and for many of these cars, the mileage that they will have driven between the previous Warrant of fitness and the current warrant of fitness might only be literally from their house to the testing station, but you’ve still got to go through it.”
Jackson estimated the average modern car was driven 15,000-20,000km annually, compared to the association’s research finding that a vintage vehicle was driven 3700km annually.
He said the Federation’s vehicle survey report included an estimated total economic footprint for costs relating to historic and classic vehicles in New Zealand of $16.5 billion.
“I think the fact that we did this research a year ago was part of the reason, and that coincided with the change of government.”
New Zealand Automobile Association Inc principal policy advisor Terry Collins also welcomed the move but wanted the Government to go further with its inspection review.
Collins said the Government’s proposal to include light vehicles in road user charges systems was the right time to implement an inspection regime based on a vehicle’s distance travelled rather than its age.
“It’s utilising the changes that they want to make, and we think it will be a better outcome because those vehicles that need to be inspected will be inspected…
“Those vehicles that don’t because they’re aged… Or some people own six or seven vehicles… particularly the vintage and the classic car people… So they’re not travelling in each vehicle a lot of distance, but collectively they’re having to get them re-inspected all the time.”
Collins said the public consultation for the proposed vintage and motorhome inspection change was a “great opportunity” to consult on a distance-based regime, too.
Collins said distance was a “very good” indicator of wear and tear to a vehicle.
“We see that on tyres, that’s one of the main reasons that they fail, they get to a certain point after travelling 40,000 kilometres.”
The public can give their feedback on the Government’s proposal from February 24 to April 4 on nzta.govt.nz.
