Revised act opens way to 'disreputable' vehicle sellers

The Motor Trade Association (MTA) says some car sellers are taking advantage of the revised Motor Vehicle Sales Act.

MTA spokesman Andy Cuming said in a statement today the act had provided loopholes for "some disreputable persons" to set up vehicle sales operations that flout the law.

Mr Cuming said they were bringing the motor industry into disrepute, and exposing consumers to the consequences of fraud and deceit.

The act, which became law in late 2003, had been a substantially retrograde step for car-buyers who were expecting protection from such persons.

Under previous legislation, it was compulsory for people who wanted to be a motor vehicle dealer to be licensed, and that required "meeting a whole raft of qualifying criteria", Mr Cuming said.

Under the 2003 act, compulsory licensing as well as compulsory membership to the Motor Vehicle Dealership Association, was removed and replaced with a lower level registration requirement.

"Quite often people have found to be operating as dealers but are not registered," Mr Cuming told NZPA.

"A number of these had actually been expelled previously from the industry, and banned from vehicle dealing under the stricter licensing requirements of previous legislation," he said.

"There are others who would never have qualified under the scrutiny of industry watchdogs that had been present to monitor new applicant qualifications under the tight licensing standards that were previously applied," Mr Cuming said.

The simple registration requirements of the new Act were proving no barrier to such people.

He said that MTA would be pressing for change when it makes its submissions to the review of the Motor Vehicle Sales Act, scheduled within the act to take place later this year.

"There are at present a number of quite high-profile cases under consideration and it is clear that car-buyers can be at risk outside the mainstream of an industry comprised of business persons with a financial and personal investment in fair trading," he said

- NZPA