KEY POINTS:
The New Zealand new-vehicle industry has labelled planned government measures ranging from curbing vehicle crime to an exhaust emissions standard as "unnecessarily costly, amateur and inefficient".
Hyundai New Zealand managing director Phillip Eustace says the Government has been "sitting on its hands for the past eight years" in face of motoring industry initiatives for a new standard practice.
"What have they done? Absolutely nothing," says Eustace. "They have had ample time to work through the initiatives required to bring this country up to date.
"We want to see some government vision in terms of transport policies. But the Government remains a stumbling block. There's not a lot of good thinking going on at government."
The measures include the use of data dots to help curb vehicle crime, the introduction in 2015 of an exhaust emissions limit of 170 grams of CO2 for every kilometre driven and road user charges on diesel vehicles.
But Eustace says data dots are "horrendously costly", the draft form emissions standard is "nonsense" and the road user charge "inefficient".
Motor Industry Association chief executive Perry Kerr says Energy Minister David Parker can take much of the blame for government "inaction". Kerr describes Parker as having a "blinkered attitude" to the motoring industry.
"Dealing with him is certainly a challenge," says Kerr. "He has his own views - they are slightly out of step with many of his officials. He wants the large Australian cars out of the picture. He seems to think that getting people into small cars is the solution to CO2 (climate change)."
Larger modern cars are cleaner burning than many of the 100,000 or so used imports that will land here in 2007.
The 170gr/km emissions standard for 2015 applies to new cars only and not used imports, many of which will be years old by then and wouldn't pass muster. New Zealand's car park has already been described as one of the dirtiest in the world.
Europe wants a limit of 120gr/km by 2012. "The emissions rule in its draft form for New Zealand is absolute nonsense," says Eustace. "It's to protect the used imports industry. An emissions standard is put in place to protect air quality - the same rule should apply to everybody."
Only a handful of new vehicles on New Zealand roads at the moment meet 170gr/km. One of them is the Suzuki Swift, with 167gr/km. The Holden Commodore and Toyota Hilux emit 273gr/km.
The MIA wants road user charges to be levied at the pump, but the Government wants to continue with the present method, where diesel owners pay periodically.
Eustace says the present method is inefficient. "The Government says the farming community is against changing the charges but I've talked to Federated Farmers and they welcome paying at the pumps.
"It will save farmers from having to write out cheques for road user charges every time they sit down to do the books. It's an example of more inaction from government - they have always maintained that farmers liked the present way."
The Government apparently believes the use of data dots - micro dots implanted with the vehicle identification number and sprayed in and around the car - will help free up police otherwise occupied with vehicle crime. Subaru uses the process.
But the MIA says the Government plan is an expensive waste of time. "The Government, in its haste to appear to be doing something, has completely failed to understand that the universal fitment of electronic immobilisers to new vehicles in recent years is proving to be an effective deterrent against theft," Kerr says.
"The case for micro dotting seems to have been made on the basis of crude data relating to the total number of cars stolen, but any proper analysis will show that the overwhelming majority of stolen cars are older models not fitted with immobilisers."
The MIA says about 18,000 new and used cars a month would have to be treated.
Cars must be dry before the dots are applied and stand sheltered for two hours to allow them to dry. It calculates an eventual cost of $88 a vehicle and said 343,224 car buyers since 2003 would have paid more than $30 million for data dots.
The Government may rethink data dots. Transport officials who watched cars being treated in Auckland the other day described the process as "potentially a huge problem" for government.
