A new report – and one which has the backing of not only the Motor Trade Association, but potentially the Government – could impact heavily on owners of older 4WDs, particularly diesels.
The MTA is pushing for the inclusion of in-service emissions testing as part of the Government’s current Vehicle Licensing Reform review, stating this has the potential to save not just significant sums of money, but people’s lives as well.
The report is an updated version of the 2007 Health and Air Pollution in New Zealand Study (HAPINZ), and was prepared for the Health Research Council, Ministry of Transport, Ministry for the Environment and the NZ Transport Agency, and released at the end of July.
To put it into numbers, we’re talking around 255 premature deaths a year, at an estimated cost to the economy of around $940 million a year, from pollution caused by road-going motor vehicles.
Put into another perspective, that’s not many less than the 284 people killed in road accidents last year!
All of which is a pretty big incentive for the Government to include emissions testing as part of a new Warrant of Fitness programme.
Naturally the MTA would like to increase the scope of the WoF as this would help protect income for its members, especially if new initiatives in the licensing reform package to reduce the frequency of WoFs are followed through. But the MTA suggestions do have merit in both humanitarian and economical terms as well. .
It is a fact that New Zealand lags behind the world when it comes to in-service emissions testing, witness the high numbers of smoky vehicles we see on our roads every day. The HAPINZ study concentrated on particulate emissions (soot), and only at levels larger than10 micrometres in size.
However, international standards call for particulates of less than 2.5 micrometres, as well as controls on the poisonous emissions of nitrides of oxygen (NOx), which are not even discussed in the HAPINZ study, and which therefore leaves much scope for a graduated hardening of emissions testing in future years.
And why does this affect 4WD owners more than others? Although used imports are emissions tested at their point of entry into New Zealand, it is a strong probability that many 4WDs imported (or built locally) prior to the past 10 years would struggle to meet even the mildest emissions standards, especially vehicles which are not used often.
Many owners of older 4WDs perform their own maintenance, and although it’s relatively easy to ensure the lights, brakes, steering, and suspension are all working properly, it’s another matter altogether when it comes to measuring tailpipe emissions.
In short, it’s going to increase the cost of ownership. It could even put some vehicles off the road – permanently!
