Old imports 'diluting' safety

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

The Government should phase in an age limit on imported used vehicles to enable New Zealand to benefit from modern safety technology, says the managing director of Honda New Zealand, Graeme Seymour.

He said he and the Motor Industry Association would like to see used imports restricted to vehicles no older than seven years, reducing to an age limit of three years after a phasing-in period.

Under the present regime, where there is no age limit, used imports were "diluting" life-saving advances in vehicle safety.

He said countries like Sri Lanka banned used imports over three years old.

"Every year vehicle manufacturers spend about $90 billion on research and development, an amount equal to about 75 per cent of New Zealand's Gross National Product," said Seymour.

"Of that $90 billion, about 60 per cent is directed towards safety issues - improvements in body construction technology and testing, as well as features designed to improve active and passive safety.

"Because only a third of the vehicles being added to the New Zealand fleet each year are new, and the other two-thirds have an average age of about eight years, New Zealand motorists are being denied most of the benefits of this massive expenditure on safety.

"It's just not good enough to say that 1996 cars are safer than 1988 cars and therefore New Zealanders should feel safer on the roads than they used to be.

"We need to operate at the current technology level if we are to make the roads genuinely as safe as they can be," he said at a Traffic Institute conference.

Seymour said there is a huge difference between a 1996 Honda Accord that meets a frontal impact standard and that of a 2004 Honda Accord, in terms of the most recent model's ability to protect its occupants in an accident, as well as avoiding the accident in the first place.

The 1996 Accord received a three-star rating under the previous Japan New Car Assessment Programme, while the current model has a five-star rating under a newer and much stricter system.

"Add faster, more intelligent front airbags, new side and curtain airbags, seatbelt pretensioners, advanced seatbelt systems and other features and you have a 2004 car that is in a different ball park when it comes to saving lives in a crash over that of a 1996 model," he said. "This is true for every Honda but also true for every new car from other makers as well.

"The tragedy is that most of the cars currently crossing our wharves are no better from a safety perspective than that eight-year-old Accord - and many are a great deal worse."

Seymour said that the economic justification for recycling end-of-life used cars through the New Zealand market was no longer necessary. If continued it will jeopardise any hope that New Zealand's accident statistics will match those of other developed countries.

"To accept that the horse has bolted on the issue of used imports is to condemn New Zealand to accepting crash statistics comparable with under-developed countries. No amount of work by the police, LTSA or other road safety organisations will make up for the fact that New Zealanders are driving outdated safety technology."