H.P. on cars to stay

Press, 6 August 1981, Page 4

H.P. on cars to stay

Wellington

The Government has rejected an Automobile Association plea to abolish hire-purchase controls on all car buying.

The association's secretary, Mr R. W. Lithgow, said his organisation had received “a nil response”, from the Deputy Minister of Finance (Mr Templeton). The association had asked for the abolition of hirepurchase controls. It wanted financing arrangements for car buying to be left to assemblers, dealers, and the finance industry. Mr Lithgow said the Automobile Association felt the

hire-purchase regulations, which require a 60 per'cent. deposit and the balance within a year on new cars, forced people to retain older and less economic cars.

The regulations had also led to people financing cars by mortgages on houses and property. This was an expensive and untidy system. Mr Templeton had replied saying the growth in new car registrations this year indicated that hire-purchase regulations were not a constraint on people buying cars. The Government also believed it was inappropriate to change the regulations while the Industries Develop-

ment Commission was study-;: ing the motor assembly inr|t dustry. . “We will be making submissions to the development ’’ Commission, but we don’t know when.” Mr Lithgow . said. “We are waiting for the initial preliminary guidelines , from the commission.”

The Motor Vehicle Dealers’ Institute recently approached the. Minister of Trade and Industry (Mr Adams-Schneider) seeking a relaxation of the hire-pur-chase regulations. An institute spokesman said it had received a similar response to the Automobile Association.