Imported cars are fine but our fuel needs to be improved, says dealer

Autowerks sales manager Richard Fletcher says a ban on old imports will have the opposite effect to that intended. Picture / Dean Purcell

If the Government is serious about lowering vehicle emissions, it should be doing more to introduce cleaner fuels and improve the fuels already available, says an Auckland car dealer.

Mark Finn, owner of Eade Cars in Greenlane, said most imported used cars were environment-friendly, having been produced to meet Japanese fuel emission standards.

Mr Finn and other dealers the Herald spoke to were wary of who was behind the proposed ban, and said fuel emission standards could be a red herring.

One 18-year industry veteran, who did not want to be named, believed the proposed ban was being backed by the new-car industry, which wanted to increase its share of the market.

Another dealer said bio-fuels and options such as low-sulphur diesel should be available.

The Government is looking at several proposals for reducing air-polluting gas emissions from vehicles.

They include setting an age limit for imported used vehicles.

The proposal is supported by several in the vehicle industry, including Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr.

He described the New Zealand vehicle fleet as "particularly dirty", and suggested a seven-year age limit on imports.

That would suit Mr Finn. "We should never need to import a pre-1998 car again," he said.

New Zealand had for years been a dumping ground for "all that crap from Japan that they have got no way to get rid of".

Although he approved of a ban on elderly imports, Mr Finn did not believe such a move would make any great difference to the price of used imports.

"As far as I am concerned, we are over-stocked with junk in this country."

Dealers already set an age limit on the vehicles they brought in, he said.

Eade Cars did not import any vehicles more than seven years old, and Mr Finn believed most other dealers had similar philosophies.

"A ban is not going to make any difference to the market place at all. It's fair to say the market is imposing its own limits on itself."

Richard Fletcher, sales manager of another Greenlane dealer, Autowerks, believes that any ban would result in drivers holding on to their cars longer before trading up, which would raise the age of the national fleet.

He said a ban would be likely to have an effect in less-affluent areas, such as South Auckland.