FAQs
Why is there a problem?: New Zealand has become increasingly overly regulated as a professional class of civil servants see their job as regulating everything. In the name of health, safety and climate change, regulations are made that fail to show how the rule will actually achieve the outcome.
Why 30 years? Car makers support their product for ten years. From 10-20 years they become old cars with a downward depreciation curve. At about 20 years the curve flattens as many of these old cars are culled, scrapped or stored in barns, sheds and garages. The survivors are called classics. At about 25 years, the value of survivors begins to rise. The best ones begin to become collectible, and by 30 years most survivors have become collectible. Most, not all, hence only protect the collectibles. By 40 years, the value has risen to the point that barn finds become financially viable candidates for restoration. The cull tends to end with very few survivors being scrapped.
Why Drop VIN at 30+? Replacing VIN with a CRW is especially important for first-time imports. If NZ wishes to support a collectible car industry, the time to import them is before their value takes off. By the time they hit 40 years it’s too late. At 30 years, the VIN inspectors are no longer be qualified to know what they are looking at. Imported collectibles that have survived three decades will almost certainly have been repaired sometime in their past. A rule requiring they are sent to an equally uninformed repair certifier who earns a living on hourly billings creates a monopoly with no checks and balances. The existing system has now been in place long enough to show certifiers make unreasonable demands (a) out of ignorance (b) out of pecuniary interest and/or (c) so as to not lose their certificate. VIN inspections are appropriate for daily drivers, but not for collectibles.
Why eliminate 6-month WOF for all cars? LTSA has no evidence 6-month inspections significantly enhance road safety. Advocates for frequent WOF have a pecuniary interest who tend to cite WOF failure statistics rather than death, injury or damage statistics attributable to defective vehicles. Why? Because most crashes are driver or road design/condition related, not mechanical or body.
Why drop the 30+ WOF to five years and exempt at 40? France has the 30+ five-year valid WOF because by that time they are no longer daily drivers, and the five-year encourages the cars to become survivors. The UK exempts all cars at 40 because objective statistics show they do not constitute a risk. When DD’s become collectibles their crash rate drops because they are collectibles – driven less frequency, in better conditions, by responsible collectors protecting their precious.
Why eliminate VIN on lapsed registrations? Collectible cars often are off the road for years, where, if the owner forgets to file a Form MR24 every year, to get it back on the road a full VIN inspection is required, rather than a WOF. The MR24 does not make the car any safer, so why the VIN if the owner forgets? For collectible cars eliminate the VIN and require a fresh WOF that, when issued, enables the owner to apply for a current Rego. Keep Rego ID in the system for ten years.
How should hot rod and modified vehicles be handled: In the UK, if a vehicle has been modified more recently than 30 years, it does not qualify for the MOT and road tax exemption. This seems to have been a concession to get the exclusion approved. These special-interest collectors know their industry far better than a generalist certifier, and have a track record of responsible self-policing. RepairCert NZ holds the exclusive contract with NZTA to approve certifiers. This should be changed, with special interest associations permitted to both appoint approved certifiers for their area of expertise (such as hot rods) and set the standards used in certifying their specialist vehicles are safe for purpose. Further, emphasis should be on doing this in a way that advances the purposes of FOMC (historic preservation), meaning to avoid costly and time consuming barriers erected by holding 3rd parties liable for warranting work that should be the responsibility of the vehicle owner.
Is there a problem with the WOF fail list? In 2023 there were 6,219,805 WOF inspections. At an average of $80, that is almost half a billion dollars per annum spent on paper, not the vehicle. This issue is outside the scope of this white paper, but there are no effective checks and balances on what gets added by NZTA to the fail list. The criteria should be objectively based on failures that contribute to crashes.