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Japan earthquake shakes NZ car industry

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Japan earthquake shakes NZ car industry

3News NZ

The earthquake and tsunami destroyed around 300,000 cars in Japan (Reuters)

The earthquake and tsunami destroyed around 300,000 cars in Japan (Reuters)

The drastic impact on New Zealand's car industry following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami is now being realised.

The event destroyed around 300,000 cars in Japan, increasing domestic demand for used vehicles and causing a major supply shortage.

On top of this, new emission standards are being introduced next year, which means most cars made before 2005 cannot be brought into New Zealand.

Imported Motor Vehicle industry Association CEO David Vinsen says the idea was to improve air quality.

“If you limit the vehicles that come into the fleet, people have to hold on to their old cars for much longer, and the fleet actually gets older and worse. So what seems on the surface to be a good solution actually has the unintended consequence of making things worse”.

Mr Vinsen says car buyers will see extraordinary price increases next year as a result of the emission standards and Japan's natural disasters.

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Comments

3/07/2011 4:02:02 p.m.

Peter wrote:

A 2005 model car does not emit no less co2 then a well maintained 1990 car. Both have catalyic converters.

As for VW Polo.....they are a piece of shit

3/07/2011 3:42:23 p.m.

Chris wrote:

Wopty doo, every Japanese second hand car yard has like 100 cars on it so its not like we are going to run out anytime soon.

3/07/2011 3:14:33 p.m.

Davo wrote:

The trouble is, Mike, that European cars are crap. They are ugly, unreliable and suffer from poor build quality. These are well known facts that are extensively backed up by numerous consumer surveys as well as statistical data and customer testimonies. Japanese cars make much more sense because parts are still a lot cheaper when they do go wrong (which is comparatively rare compared to European and American vehicles), they are equally just as frugal and they are far better built than either of the aforementioned. One of the main reasons I've found for not buying Japanese cars is actually racism. The term "Jap crap" got thrown around quite a bit by ignorant racists, and even today sadly people still avoid buying cars made by the Japanese simply because of the shape of their eyes. Buy a Daihatsu if you want a reliable, economical small car rather than the notoriously unreliable VWs and reap the benefits of superior Japanese engineering and efficiency.

3/07/2011 10:00:57 a.m.

Mike wrote:

On the other side the Euro currencies from bailing out Ireland/Greece/Spain are low, so you can buy cheap european cars with better saftey ratings (like 5 star vs 3-4), better economy, meet the stringent emissions requirements.

Take the VW polo, it has a 5 star saftey, is frugal on fuel, and its quite cheap vs new Japanese or Australian cars. There are other European cars with similar prices. From experience, most of the european cars also handle/brake better so are also safer in that respect aswell.

The price of diesel does make buying alternative fueled vehicles an option. But at what price? eg I saw recently a small car priced from $23000 and its diesel version was $44,000 - ie you would need to drive the car to death several times to save that much in fuel - ie only an idiot would buy the diesel with that kind of price difference. There is no good reason for a diesel to be that much more price.

A small car like the Polo gives a price not too expensive, plus is frugal on petrol to save ruing costs, has less servicing costs than a diesel, and most runing is done with 1-2 people in a car - just take a look on the Auckland motorway each day. The hybrids like the Prius need to clock a lot of kms to pay for the premium price tag, and the fuel economy of the Prius isn't that great so over like 100,000 or 200,000 km you wont save money buying a Prius over soemthing like a Polo runing on petrol.

These 'Green' alternatives need to be economic so people will use them. NZ public transport is a joke in general. It is not reliable and takes too long. Eg over a year ago Cambell Live show had someone go to Auckland Airport using public transport - having to leave the day before their flight to arrive on time!