James McDowall: MTA Head of Advocacy on the proposed changes to the Warrant of Fitness scheme

The Motor Trade Association is coming out against proposed changes to the Warrant of Fitness scheme. 

Under the proposal, the first WOF on a light vehicle would last four years.

Head of Advocacy James McDowall says the annual check help ensure brakes, tires  and essential parts of the car are working - keeping people safe on the road.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you've got a car, if you drive a car,
maybe you're a bit laxed with your waft. Well. The
Motor Trade Association says the government's planned changes to wafts
in the whole system are a mistake. These are the
changes that will mean you don't have to go to
get a waft as often, only once every two years
instead of every year if your car is less than
ten years old. James McDowell is head of advocacy at

(00:22):
the MTA and joins me now, James, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good ending, right, how are you you good?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Thank you? So what's wrong with this? Because not all.
I mean if you think about organized, sensible people who
would be getting their wafts regularly and on time, they
would surely be looking after their cars anyway, wouldn't they.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Well, there's a few things to that, and one is
that they might be good, responsible drivers and looking after
their vehicles. And certainly that is a good thing, particularly
in between warrant you know, keeping on tires. Tires is
the most obvious thing, but as a system wide scheme,
the warrant fitness, it's often about the car coming the
opposite direction. You know, what's the standard in the condition

(01:05):
of the other cars on the road, how safe are they?
And with the warrant regime the way it is, with
the annual checks, particularly if those cars four to ten
years old, that is just a nice once a year
checking to ensure that things like breaks, tires, et cetera
are good to go, and there are risks associated with

(01:26):
stretching that out over two years. Particular, say a tire
might be right on the limit one point six millimeters
at the moment that that is a pass has to
be passed, and it's debatable if that's going to last
another year. Probably not, and the driver will be told,
you know, you need to get those tires done soon.
But now you'll be looking at that and connect last
another two years And the answer that is most definitely no.

(01:50):
So there is a safety concern in all this.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
Okay, what proportion of cars at the moment fail on
the you know, on the first guy of or off.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, if you take out brand new cars that come
off the ship, because that's a little bit unfair to
include that. If you look at the general fleet, it's
in the low forties, but you approaching forty three percent
fail that that first inspection, and for those newer cars yes,
the fail rate is lower, of course, that's in between
twenty and thirty one percent, and those are the ones

(02:20):
that will be moving to two years, so the reasonable
reasonable fail rates. And even those brand new cars with
a three year warrants, once they go for their three
year checking, they're at about fourteen percent.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Fail Pretty bad, I would have thought, a pretty bad
failure rate. What are we failing on? Is it is?
You know, is it actually important stuff or is it
just little things?

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I mean, obviously there's a lot to that, but it's
it's sally all important if it's in the verm, but
it certainly tires breaks, those are the most common things. Lights,
you know, underbody to an extent, whether there's any rust
and so on. So, but it's those really safety critical
ones that are the big concern, you know, can they
be left two years? The other big main point of

(03:08):
all of this is that the review or the proposals
is pitched as a cost of living measure. You know,
it'll save you the time and the hassle and the
seventy bucks once a year to go get a warrant
of fitness, and we get it. We know that it's
a hassle, but the reality is when you let the
tires run down, it just causes exponential damage. So you
might save your seventy dollars, but come your next warrant,

(03:30):
you've got to do your tires, might have to do
all the tires this time, got to do your breaks. Potentially,
maybe there's damage to the roads. Suddenly it becomes a
very expensive exercise. So having these annual checks is a
good way to sort of stay on top of that.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
James, are you just saying all of this because you
work for the MTA, and the MTA's job is to
represent the businesses that are fixing all the cars and
selling the new ones you have still in the game.

Speaker 2 (03:55):
It's actually sort of the opposite, isn't it, Because you know,
our one, our repairers have been saying to us, and
we do in terms of inspections, our members cover about
eighty percent of wolf inspections in New Zealand. But if
these warrants are pushed out, particularly if they go all
the way four to ten years, get a two year warrant.
Our repairs are saying to us, actually, you know, financially

(04:17):
be a good thing. Cars will come in with more
damage and have more repairs needed. And so it's actually
not such a bad thing, you know. But first and
foremost have said to us, look safety as paramount. We
see these cars, we're on the front lines, and these
cars that come in for their twelve month warrant, and
we think she's imagine if that was on the road
for another twelve months.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
James, appreciate your time this afternoon, James McDowell, who's with
the Motor Trade Association.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
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