The Press MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1954. More Car Imports

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27369, 7 June 1954, Page 8

The Press MONDAY, JUNE 7, 1954. More Car Imports

The Government’s decision to permit the importation of an additional 7000 cars this year is good news for the motorist, whether he wants to buy a car new or second-hand. It is not likely that this number will meet completely the banked-up demand for new cars; but it should substantially reduce the period that buyers have to leave their names on the waiting list. This, in turn, will reduce the willingness of those with the money to pay £lOO and more above the list price of a new £ 800 car for a second-hand one with a low mileage. This is a most unsatisfactory business condition that can be dealt with effectively only by putting more new cars on the market, as the Government intends. The price of cheaper second-hand cars will also fall in sympathy, perhaps to a greater relative extent, bringing more comfortable and economical motoring to persons on lower incomes. There are a good many cars on the road today that should be scrapped. Some are expensive to maintain, expensive not only to the owner but indirectly to the whole country because of the demand they make on skilled manpower. Some are probably unsafe because of the difficulty of maintaining them continuously in good order. Not all old cars are in either of these categories; but the average age of cars in use today is disturbingly high. The Transport Department reported in 1950 that the number of cars then licensed was equal to the total number of cars imported in the previous 21 years. When allowance is made for cars wrecked in accidents or scrapped during that period, it is obvious that many much older cars were on the road. Not much improvement in the situation has been made since then.- If it is accepted that 20 years is to be the life of a car, which is extraordinarily old by pre-war standards, roughly a twentieth of the cars in

use should be replaced every year. That alone would require more than 15,000 cars a year, making a big deduction from the 40,000 cars it is expected to import this year. But in practice cars are not being trapped at that rate. There are two reasons why so many old cars are still on the road. The first is that during the war and for the first five years afterwards imports fell far below replacement needs, quite apart from increases in demand in proportion to population increases. Importing practically stopped during the war; and between 1945 and 1950 the number of cars imported was only half the number, imported in the five years immediately preceding the war (including two depression years). The second reason is that more New Zealanders than ever are now prepared to spend their money on motoring. The number of cars licensed in 1939 was 212,000; and it fell to 194,000 in 1943. A recovery to 216,000 was made in 1948. Two years later the number was 233,000. In the next three years it soared to 305,000, and there has been a further substantial increase in the last year. The number of cars on the road has grown by nearly 50 per cent, since 1939, compared with a population growth of about 25 per cent. The distortion of the second-hand market has thus been inevitable. The buoyancy of New Zealand’s sterling funds suggests that the new programme can be easily financed. No doubt British manufacturers, who are meeting increasing competition even in soft-currency markets, will also be pleased by the New Zealand Government’s decision.