Govt import restrictions - value?

[Guest Andrew]

A free market is all well said and done, it does provide an individually effecient outcome, however its not socially effecient.

Car drivers do not take into account externalities imposed on the environment when they drive and when they purchase cars. They do not take into account noise disruptions when adding mufflers as it increases their own wellbeing etc etc the list goes on. How free do you want your market to be? If there is no regulation then there is complete anarchy. The concern here is to reduce greenhouse gas emmisions. Who when purchasing a car thinks about this minor fact? Nobody. So if a free market was the way to go you are effectively saying that grenhouse gas emmisions arent of concern. You, me and everyone else will act in their best interests yet the net outcome is that society will suffer (global warming etc). The net social benefit with these restrictions imposed is greater than without them. The reality is that without regulations such as these, humans will eventually drive themselves into extinction

Straight out of an economics text book

Emissions testing at WOF time. It takes 5 minutes to do - the equipment is only a couple of grand (Cain would know). I don't see why it's that hard to do.

Congrats on spending money on roading and not public transport - I mean really, who wants to go on a bus?

[ED1RTY 2]

Wow, thats alot of reading. basically i agree with bullitt, NZ government = crap. They only do things if they are going to make some money off it. Basically somewhere in this 'legislation' the govt are going to be making some $$ otherwise they wouldn't bother, they just feed the public bullshit, emissions, fuel consumption blah blah... in all reality WTF is the point in stopping older cars from coming in?

Edited October 16, 2006 by sakdbma

[Jazzbass 1]

Everytime I roll my e46 through the warrent station they pick on something .. Its actually funny watching them over test the e46 to find any fault with it. Where as I have taken older cars through with more issues than you can shake a stick at .. and they have passed through without a problem

Really!!!

Bloody hell, I thought it was just me. I got thoroughly sick and tired of that crap, so I get my wofs at Jeff Gray now.

I get bitter & twisted when I see old crap cras with obvious wof-related faults, but still hooning round town get away with it all, when the WOF station would make me replace the air in my tyres just to piss me off.

[DCEIVN 0]

Straight out of an economics text book

haha yea BCa major in Economics

[cainchapman 0]

284 new registrations in 1 year is extremely impressive for a country with 7.5M people.

Last count, NZ had 426.

My point is, that NZ has a nation of petrol heads.

A visible smoke test is no less subjective than the "your exhaust is too noisy, according to my earometer". Unless it is under load and a time period associated with it, at the very least.

Seems as sensible as asking males if they are colour-blind without using green or red in the test.

[DCEIVN 0]

Yes but loudness of our exhaust is on variable scale. Visible exhaust test is discrete - either YES I can see smoke coming from the exhaust or NO I cannot see any smoke.

[cainchapman 0]

So, you're relying on the clown who tests your vehicle to have good eye-sight then.

Not conclusive evidence. Money buys you justice. I'd get off that one in court in a heartbeat.

Again, I was positive that one of the ladies we met in Rarotonga, was completely pissed, as she was staggering around and slurring her words.

Turns out she had MS.

Can I see smoke.... What a joke.

[DCEIVN 0]

So your point is that you cannot provide conclusive evidence of a vehicle smoking by eyesight? I suppose this is where trust and good judgement comes into play

[kiwi535 538]

Wow, thats alot of reading. basically i agree with bullitt, NZ government = crap. They only do things if they are going to make some money off it. Basically somewhere in this 'legislation' the govt are going to be making some $$ otherwise they wouldn't bother, they just feed the public bullshit, emissions, fuel consumption blah blah... in all reality WTF is the point in stopping older cars from coming in?

Just who is the gummint who are "making money"Is Helen transferring money to a swiss bank account?.This i beleive is a long overdue step in making us take some steps in reducing our impact on the enviroment.It will take some small steps like this involving whole populations that will actually start to have an effect on pollution and global warming.whatever the arguments there is no doubt that there is global warming,and some very very strong links between co2 and temperature levels.Dont argue about it,lets actually start doing something about it...and buying more fuel efficient and less polluting cars (which are available NOW) is a good start isnt it?

[rxsumo 33]

I know a little bit about this, as Ive been involved from a Car Club perspective in workshops with the LTSA.

The master plan is to cap the level of all emissions at a given point some time in 2011? This is ALL emissions of which vehicle emissions is only a sub-component. The targets include emiisions from Home Heating...industrial....aviation..etc etc.

The current import regime only restricts cars for frontal impact, and some structure standards stuff, and nothing is in place regarding emission control. This means that cars dont have to comply with any emission standards whether they are new or used.

For SUVs and Trucks we can import and register stuff that doesnt comply with any regulations (with the exception of the visable smoke rule).

To my knowledge the rule change will address this.

From sometime next year?, all cars (except for vehicles meeting the 20 year rule) coming across the border will have to comply with the a minimum emission standard....this will be the minimum of one of the international standards that are currently in place.

This means that if the car arrives in NZ as a "street" racer without its emission controls in place or they are worn out, then before the car is complied, these will need to be back to the specifications set by the standard.

The emission controls will need to remain to this standard for the lifetime of the car for the car to remain road worthy.

There is no intention to retrofit emission controls into cars that are already on the road.

Within a couple of years of the cars regulations being in place, the Truck regulations will also be introduced.

This stuff is being introduced for the better health of the population. The emissions from cars alone in CBD Auckland, and on some intersections in Wellington exceed WHO standards currently, and in low lying towns during winter the "smog" from home heating also exceeds the WHO standards. The intention is to clean up the air we are breathing and the vehicle stuff is a smallish component of the big picture.

[Jazzbass 1]

The intention is to clean up the air we are breathing and the vehicle stuff is a smallish component of the big picture.

Bah! Who cares - I'll be dead long before it affex - uh efst - I mean fxs - uh before it does anything bad to me!

[kerrynzl 3]

Bah! Who cares - I'll be dead long before it affex - uh efst - I mean fxs - uh before it does anything bad to me!

Yeah! I like ya attitude Mate!

Last time I was in Los Angeles, There was Talk about Boring two 100ft diameter tunnels thru the hills [to make 2 giant expelairs]

the smog will be Nevada's problem. [brilliant haha!]