Government thinking is dotty, says Hyundai

5 July 2007
Immediate release

Government thinking is dotty, says Hyundai

Fast-rising vehicle brand Hyundai says the Government has lost touch with reality in its defence of the proposed micro-dot marking system.

Transport Minister Annette King yesterday defended her department’s figuring that the scheme can be introduced simply and with little cost.

However the Executive Director of Hyundai Motors NZ, Philip Eustace, points out the Government has not done its sums.

“Perhaps the Minister’s officials have not given her accurate advice, but the concept remains a simplistic answer that creates big problems,” he said.

“David Lumsden of Datadot seems to suggest that aside from the $88 to mark each vehicle the process is cost-free, however he produces no figures to support that. In fact Mr. Lumsden runs a company which wants the Government to legislate so he can cash in.

“We have had a long look behind the scenes and the figures just don’t stack up.

“Micro-dot marking is already underway in a limited fashion in New Zealand.

“Subaru applicators report it is taking around 30 minutes per vehicle for the actual marking, and the vehicle must be dry so often it’s left for a period beforehand.

“Then the vehicle is left standing for two hours afterwards, for the application to dry.

“Now, take account of 18,000 vehicles which the Government says must be marked per month, at the minimum half-hour per vehicle without any allowance for drying: that’s 9,000 hours or 225 working weeks per month.

“That works out to 2,700 working weeks per year or 52 working years, for each year’s worth of vehicles on current import rates,” he said.

Mr. Eustace also points to issues of land around compliance centres.

“Most of them are squeezed tight now … how are you going to find the processing time for these extra 18,000 cars a month?

“Clearly, the Government has not thought this through when suggesting the micro-dot work be built into the current certification process.

“In speaking with one typical compliance centre, it’s clear they struggle with existing cars and issues, without throwing this at them.

“The delays will be huge,” said Mr. Eustace.

“We can envisage massive wharf demurrage charges, at the current $56.50 per day per car, as backlogs will occur consistently.

“In Hyundai’s case, with our passenger cars and SUVs affected by the proposal, a delay of say four weeks on half of our vehicles would mean an additional bill of $412,000 per year for additional interest costs alone.

“Extrapolate that right across the motor industry and the cost quickly grows into tens of millions of dollars.

“All of these additional costs will have to be passed on to the vehicle buyer.

“Our previous costing was way above the Government’s stated $88 a car and more like $200 … and even that is a light estimate.

“Call it by any name you like, this is nothing more than a further tax on the long-suffering motorist.”
And Mr. Eustace says there are other problems with the proposal.

“There are serious issues with consistency and accuracy of the data as more people and organisations become involved.

“We see now from the warrant of fitness process that mistakes and even shonky practices creep in.

“And needless to say this Government will be interested in equity of the scheme, in particular safeguarding all the vehicles currently on our roads.

“That’s more than two million vehicles …. imagine the shambles marking all those vehicles right now,” said Mr. Eustace.

“Or, if you leave them unmarked, it’ll take 15 to 20 years until they are out of the national fleet so this scheme won’t become properly effective until then.

“And also of course these older cars are the very ones which are more vulnerable to theft … where is the equity in that?

“You clobber the new-car buyer, yet it’s the buyer of a cheap second-hand car this proposal is really aimed at.

“Massive costs to the car buyer, delays and confusion, blowing out into a huge bureaucratic nightmare: the Government needs to go back to the drawing-board on this one.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media