This article on stuff this morning got me thinking about how Small rural towns often have a dissproportionally large collection of old vintage and classic cars, that only ever get driven on sunny Sunday afternoons. It only takes a couple of Model A's,a DA dodge, a smattering of Morris 8's a few early Chev'sand a XY GT replica or two, and the average age of a small towns fleet has just got substantially older.
Little old Kurow further up the Waitaki valley, although probably too small to even be counted (we're talking less than 250 residents here) can easily pull 30 plus classic cars out for a jaunt round the lakes on a sunday.
The powers that be however, have suddenly decided that an a fleet that averages 17 years old is a terrible thing and it needs to be addressed quick smart.
I was in Waimate yesterday briefly (I dont like stopping) and if anything, i would say the average age of cars that are in REGULAR use in Waimo town is probably newer than in the big smokes of NZ.
I wouldn't mind betting however that the boffins who complile this info never even considered the effect of classics that are rarely driven but still registered as a road user.
trogedon,
Dec 5, 7:22pm
Good on them ;-) If they don't have to commute in them in the cut and thrust of bumper to bumper traffic they probably figure they can keep what they've got.
meathead_timaru,
Dec 5, 7:37pm
I don't know how you got that. This is all about the MTA attempting to continue the rort of 6 monthly WoF checks for their member's income stream.
rsr72,
Dec 5, 8:24pm
#1- Yep, a final attempt to keep their noses in the trough. Why is it most of the world doesn't have, and has never had, WOF's! We must be mad to continue to accept this nonsensical imposition upon our daily lives. Even the home of the motorcar, the USA, has never felt the need to have any form of WOF.
3tomany,
Dec 5, 8:51pm
kaipara was mentioned to, where i live so this got me thinking i have two cars a falcon 2011 and a ranger 2011 making my everyday fleet average 1 year old but i also have a weekend car ionly realy drive once a month, spending the rest of its time cowering away from the weather in a shed that is 28 years old making my average fleet 10 years old
noswalg,
Dec 5, 8:55pm
In some ways I agree with you, the thing is people that live in countries that have never had WOF type checks have an ingrained mentality that they must maintain their own vehicles for their own safety. The problem in NZ is that a huge amount of people rely on WOF checks as a trigger point for remedial work rather than regular preventative maintenance, take that trigger point away and I think there would be some very dangerous vehicles on the road, not sure I,d like to be driving in the transition period while people's mindsets change.
phillip.weston,
Dec 5, 9:56pm
Have you seen the vehicles first hand in countries that don't require regular inspections! Unless the car gets ordered off the roads by police, many are driving around with bald tyres and massive rust holes everywhere. Without WOFs who is going to be addressing the issue of getting unsafe vehicles off our roads! The under-resourced and over-stressed Police force that's who.
Keep the WOF. End of story.
meathead_timaru,
Dec 5, 10:02pm
Yes, in the US. But that has little to do with road safety.
The fallacy in your post is the suggestion that if it has a WoF it must be safe to be driven. The fact remains that the driver is by a massive margin the greatest contributing factor in risk to personal safety.
phillip.weston,
Dec 5, 10:05pm
Yes I do agree that a WOF is really only valid on the day it was taken for the inspection, but even still if it means that it's 6 months until a worn ball joint or suspension bush gets addressed because of a WOF fail, it's still better than not being addressed at all and eventually failing completely while the car is driving.
meathead_timaru,
Dec 5, 10:18pm
But you and I both know they won't abolish it completely or go with the W.A. model of roadworthy inspection only at change of ownership. Given NZs tight fisted vehicle maintenance culture that would be dangerous. It's a just a political red herring. Like the ACC levy for motorcycles. ask for lots more, then give a concession so the hoi plloi think they've won a compromise.
If it changes, they'll simply make it annual for 10 years and 6 monthly after that.
wimwom,
Dec 5, 10:26pm
In many cases the WOF system is ruled by the "quota" system that the inspectors are so busy looking for rust stains on doors and scratches on windscreens that things like stuffed ball joints etc are being completely missed, the human factor in these inspections makes them a joke and it's time they were gone. Seeing results of accidents both in real life and via television shows how often "mechanical failure" is a factor and it's not very often.Those who wish to buy and operate dangerous motor vehicles continue to do so even with the system in place, cheap cars are plentiful! WOF's as they stand are nothing more than a subsidy for the providers which is why Murphy and the members are screaming!
bellky,
Dec 6, 4:02am
That's interesting; one 'old' car drags the average up quite a lot but the median age of your fleet would still be one year.
inkapuka,
Dec 6, 6:41am
Invercargill has quite a few left handy impalas chev bel air's and many others my partner has a 80 trans am and a 78 caddy coupe de ville and a 76 mini lol lotz around just the price of fuel not making them a cheap fun run around
franc123,
Dec 6, 7:20am
Just more bleating and reporting of false figures from an outfit severely concerned about a large dropoff in golden eggs laid by the large orange goose called VTNZ. Wouldn't take too much notice. If the pollies were that concerned about an ageing vehicle fleet they would have reallowed the free import of used Jap cars of any emission level and scrapped the anal laws we have currently. Would be good for the GST take, keep MAF and customs in plenty of work and maybe bring prices back a tad and encourage people to upgrade.
aredwood,
Dec 6, 7:37am
The govt could easily do some data mining on the rego database. Combining the age of the car with the odo readings. To workout the average age of daily driver vehicles Vs the Sunday drive Vehicles.
berg,
Dec 6, 5:40pm
Interesting point is many of the, let's call them sh1theap" vehicles that I see on a day to day basis at work don't have WOFs anyway. Combine that with the multitude that get a WOF then go straight home and refit the illegal wheels and tyres or tinted tail lights etc and it makes WOFs almost pointless. A WOF is only a snapshot (now often done by a non mechanic who has 5 years "interest" in vehicles but can pass the open book test) that is carried out by a provider who's interest is to make money. Hmmmm
jkm,
Dec 6, 5:54pm
It would be interesting to know what precentage of the fleet are over 30 years old.
3tomany,
Dec 6, 7:41pm
yea the two newer cars do 30,000 ks each a year but the toy does 5000 funny thing is its the toy i maintain the most as it gets everything it wants the others just get driven
Since the public registrations are closed, you must have an invite from a current member to be able to register and post in this thread.
Have an account? Login here.