1
00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,240
Speaker 1: If you've got a car, if you drive a car,

2
00:00:02,360 --> 00:00:04,480
Speaker 1: maybe you're a bit laxed with your waft. Well. The

3
00:00:04,480 --> 00:00:09,039
Speaker 1: Motor Trade Association says the government's planned changes to wafts

4
00:00:09,119 --> 00:00:12,280
Speaker 1: in the whole system are a mistake. These are the

5
00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:14,159
Speaker 1: changes that will mean you don't have to go to

6
00:00:14,200 --> 00:00:17,040
Speaker 1: get a waft as often, only once every two years

7
00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:19,119
Speaker 1: instead of every year if your car is less than

8
00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:22,880
Speaker 1: ten years old. James McDowell is head of advocacy at

9
00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:25,800
Speaker 1: the MTA and joins me now, James, good evening.

10
00:00:26,480 --> 00:00:27,880
Speaker 2: Good ending, right, how are you you good?

11
00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:31,160
Speaker 1: Thank you? So what's wrong with this? Because not all.

12
00:00:31,320 --> 00:00:34,000
Speaker 1: I mean if you think about organized, sensible people who

13
00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:37,800
Speaker 1: would be getting their wafts regularly and on time, they

14
00:00:37,840 --> 00:00:41,199
Speaker 1: would surely be looking after their cars anyway, wouldn't they.

15
00:00:43,120 --> 00:00:46,080
Speaker 2: Well, there's a few things to that, and one is

16
00:00:46,080 --> 00:00:48,800
Speaker 2: that they might be good, responsible drivers and looking after

17
00:00:48,840 --> 00:00:51,960
Speaker 2: their vehicles. And certainly that is a good thing, particularly

18
00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:55,800
Speaker 2: in between warrant you know, keeping on tires. Tires is

19
00:00:55,880 --> 00:01:00,560
Speaker 2: the most obvious thing, but as a system wide scheme,

20
00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:02,920
Speaker 2: the warrant fitness, it's often about the car coming the

21
00:01:02,960 --> 00:01:05,720
Speaker 2: opposite direction. You know, what's the standard in the condition

22
00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:08,800
Speaker 2: of the other cars on the road, how safe are they?

23
00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:11,800
Speaker 2: And with the warrant regime the way it is, with

24
00:01:11,880 --> 00:01:14,520
Speaker 2: the annual checks, particularly if those cars four to ten

25
00:01:14,600 --> 00:01:18,040
Speaker 2: years old, that is just a nice once a year

26
00:01:18,160 --> 00:01:21,160
Speaker 2: checking to ensure that things like breaks, tires, et cetera

27
00:01:21,840 --> 00:01:26,160
Speaker 2: are good to go, and there are risks associated with

28
00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:30,399
Speaker 2: stretching that out over two years. Particular, say a tire

29
00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:32,759
Speaker 2: might be right on the limit one point six millimeters

30
00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:36,000
Speaker 2: at the moment that that is a pass has to

31
00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:39,560
Speaker 2: be passed, and it's debatable if that's going to last

32
00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:41,839
Speaker 2: another year. Probably not, and the driver will be told,

33
00:01:41,920 --> 00:01:43,520
Speaker 2: you know, you need to get those tires done soon.

34
00:01:44,319 --> 00:01:46,600
Speaker 2: But now you'll be looking at that and connect last

35
00:01:46,600 --> 00:01:49,800
Speaker 2: another two years And the answer that is most definitely no.

36
00:01:50,000 --> 00:01:52,000
Speaker 2: So there is a safety concern in all this.

37
00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:56,040
Speaker 1: Okay, what proportion of cars at the moment fail on

38
00:01:56,160 --> 00:01:57,720
Speaker 1: the you know, on the first guy of or off.

39
00:01:59,000 --> 00:02:00,760
Speaker 2: Well, if you take out brand new cars that come

40
00:02:00,800 --> 00:02:02,840
Speaker 2: off the ship, because that's a little bit unfair to

41
00:02:02,880 --> 00:02:05,840
Speaker 2: include that. If you look at the general fleet, it's

42
00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:08,200
Speaker 2: in the low forties, but you approaching forty three percent

43
00:02:08,560 --> 00:02:14,320
Speaker 2: fail that that first inspection, and for those newer cars yes,

44
00:02:14,360 --> 00:02:17,440
Speaker 2: the fail rate is lower, of course, that's in between

45
00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,400
Speaker 2: twenty and thirty one percent, and those are the ones

46
00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,919
Speaker 2: that will be moving to two years, so the reasonable

47
00:02:24,120 --> 00:02:27,639
Speaker 2: reasonable fail rates. And even those brand new cars with

48
00:02:27,720 --> 00:02:30,200
Speaker 2: a three year warrants, once they go for their three

49
00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:32,279
Speaker 2: year checking, they're at about fourteen percent.

50
00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:37,280
Speaker 1: Fail Pretty bad, I would have thought, a pretty bad

51
00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:39,640
Speaker 1: failure rate. What are we failing on? Is it is?

52
00:02:39,720 --> 00:02:41,760
Speaker 1: You know, is it actually important stuff or is it

53
00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:42,960
Speaker 1: just little things?

54
00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,360
Speaker 2: I mean, obviously there's a lot to that, but it's

55
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,040
Speaker 2: it's sally all important if it's in the verm, but

56
00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,639
Speaker 2: it certainly tires breaks, those are the most common things. Lights,

57
00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:58,600
Speaker 2: you know, underbody to an extent, whether there's any rust

58
00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,640
Speaker 2: and so on. So, but it's those really safety critical

59
00:03:02,639 --> 00:03:05,120
Speaker 2: ones that are the big concern, you know, can they

60
00:03:05,120 --> 00:03:08,120
Speaker 2: be left two years? The other big main point of

61
00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:11,079
Speaker 2: all of this is that the review or the proposals

62
00:03:11,280 --> 00:03:13,760
Speaker 2: is pitched as a cost of living measure. You know,

63
00:03:13,800 --> 00:03:16,000
Speaker 2: it'll save you the time and the hassle and the

64
00:03:16,000 --> 00:03:18,200
Speaker 2: seventy bucks once a year to go get a warrant

65
00:03:18,200 --> 00:03:20,000
Speaker 2: of fitness, and we get it. We know that it's

66
00:03:20,000 --> 00:03:23,320
Speaker 2: a hassle, but the reality is when you let the

67
00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:26,960
Speaker 2: tires run down, it just causes exponential damage. So you

68
00:03:27,040 --> 00:03:30,239
Speaker 2: might save your seventy dollars, but come your next warrant,

69
00:03:30,360 --> 00:03:32,080
Speaker 2: you've got to do your tires, might have to do

70
00:03:32,120 --> 00:03:34,960
Speaker 2: all the tires this time, got to do your breaks. Potentially,

71
00:03:35,040 --> 00:03:37,240
Speaker 2: maybe there's damage to the roads. Suddenly it becomes a

72
00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:41,680
Speaker 2: very expensive exercise. So having these annual checks is a

73
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:43,560
Speaker 2: good way to sort of stay on top of that.

74
00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:45,880
Speaker 1: James, are you just saying all of this because you

75
00:03:45,960 --> 00:03:48,240
Speaker 1: work for the MTA, and the MTA's job is to

76
00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:50,720
Speaker 1: represent the businesses that are fixing all the cars and

77
00:03:50,760 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: selling the new ones you have still in the game.

78
00:03:55,480 --> 00:03:59,080
Speaker 2: It's actually sort of the opposite, isn't it, Because you know,

79
00:03:59,120 --> 00:04:01,720
Speaker 2: our one, our repairers have been saying to us, and

80
00:04:01,800 --> 00:04:05,000
Speaker 2: we do in terms of inspections, our members cover about

81
00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,760
Speaker 2: eighty percent of wolf inspections in New Zealand. But if

82
00:04:09,120 --> 00:04:12,120
Speaker 2: these warrants are pushed out, particularly if they go all

83
00:04:12,160 --> 00:04:14,360
Speaker 2: the way four to ten years, get a two year warrant.

84
00:04:15,120 --> 00:04:17,720
Speaker 2: Our repairs are saying to us, actually, you know, financially

85
00:04:17,800 --> 00:04:20,000
Speaker 2: be a good thing. Cars will come in with more

86
00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:22,640
Speaker 2: damage and have more repairs needed. And so it's actually

87
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:25,720
Speaker 2: not such a bad thing, you know. But first and

88
00:04:25,720 --> 00:04:29,600
Speaker 2: foremost have said to us, look safety as paramount. We

89
00:04:29,680 --> 00:04:32,479
Speaker 2: see these cars, we're on the front lines, and these

90
00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:34,600
Speaker 2: cars that come in for their twelve month warrant, and

91
00:04:34,640 --> 00:04:36,200
Speaker 2: we think she's imagine if that was on the road

92
00:04:36,240 --> 00:04:37,600
Speaker 2: for another twelve months.

93
00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:41,760
Speaker 1: James, appreciate your time this afternoon, James McDowell, who's with

94
00:04:41,839 --> 00:04:43,120
Speaker 1: the Motor Trade Association.

95
00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,040
Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive, listen live to

96
00:04:47,120 --> 00:04:50,159
Speaker 2: news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow

97
00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:51,920
Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.