The Star: July 07, 2022

The Star Thursday July 7 2022
18
NEWS
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
‘The public will blame us, not the
USED CAR dealers say some
customers expecting a clean car
rebate are getting hit with a fee
instead – because official data is
changing even as the vehicle is
being sold.
The Clean Car Discount
scheme is having to alter wrong
or missing emissions or safetyrating
data as it goes along.
Christchurch car dealer Peter
Cullen has a dozen virtually
identical Mazdas Azelas on his
lot at Value Cars Warehouse,
which he had marked up as
having rebates.
But last week, when he
went to print out a window
sticker for the latest Azela, the
official Rightcar site produced
something else.
“It’s actually a fee now, it’s
changed midstream.
“Then I’ve subsequently gone
and checked all the previous
models.
“We’ve already marked them
up as rebates, which they were,
and now it appears they’re all
fees.”
The fee is $470 and the rebate
about $500.
Because Cullen is convinced
the new data is wrong and the
cars should get a rebate, he is
reluctant to change the window
stickers – even though that
might force him to pay the
difference for the customer.
CONCERNED: Christchurch car dealers Martin Harcourt (left) and Peter Cullen. Cullen is
convinced some of the Clean Car Discount scheme data is wrong.
PHOTO: RNZ
“I know it’s not a fee car. But
how we prove that? I don’t know.
The public will blame us, not the
government.”
He also had cars with chassis
numbers one car apart, where
one had no fee, and the other a
fee.
The agency’s response was
“fluffy”, simply saying the data
had changed, he said.
“The government is forcing us
to mislead the public,” he said.
Several other dealers said they
had problems with a popular
Honda hatchback where the
safety rating was shifting: some
at three stars got a rebate, others
at two stars did not, they said.
Documents released under the
Official Information Act show
transport authorities knew they
had poor data for determining a
rebate or a fee heading into the
scheme’s launch in April.
A Ministry of Transport report
about CO2 emissions data for
used cars, the way emissions are
tested, and fuel consumption
says: “Nothing reliable for used
vehicles until June 2019 – high
non-compliance since then
as well.”
Waka Kotahi New Zealand
Transport Agency said it ran
regular updates from January to
April to clean up this data, and
that has carried on since.
Internal emails released in
30 files under the OIA say
the agency is dealing with
“incorrect” motor vehicle
registration data that requires a
“workaround”.
These show major Japanese
car importer Nichibo called the
system “a minefield”.
“Work continues to correct,
with a cycle of 2-3 data updates
each week, to continually
improve the underlying data,”
Waka Kotahi’s programme
director emailed on April 8,
seven days after launch.
During just one such update,
on April 6, the records for more
298 vehicles were fixed and 830
were rejected.
Waka Kotahi insisted the
responsibility for providing
accurate data sits with the vehicle
importer.
Its service was “not the only, or
even the preferred data source”,
it said. Waka Kotahi and the
Ministry of Transport had
worked since 2019 to improve
the rules on data, it said.
The OIA emails show about
30 dealers asking the agency
to urgently fix data in the week
after the launch.
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