Australian Japanese Import Law Changes ~ Will It Become Easier On The Pocket?

[Nzguzzi]

With the closure of the Australian car production plants, you Aussies must be in for a significant increase in Japanese car imports?

In New Zealand , car imports has been a great opportunity for new, modern, cheap cars.

Australian import laws ATM seem quite cumbersome, so I figured the Australian government will be streamlining the whole process as the demand for cars increases.

What's in the pipeline?

Will Australian car prices be compatible to the current lower priced NZ market?

Will it become easier/cheaper for the average Aussie punter to score a deal on the Japanese auction houses?

[Anfanee]

In theory we should end up the same price if not cheaper than NZ. Though i doubt it.

[Nzguzzi]

In theory we should end up the same price if not cheaper than NZ. Though i doubt it.

ATM the Aussie price is through the roof.

I spotted some Axis models for $23K+ in Aud, same car in New Zealand was $13K Nzd and a solo importer could land one for $9K nzd here in New Zealand.

So how can the Australian price be $10K more expensive?

[Anfanee]

It's because of our import laws. Because we made cars here they jacked the prices of importing up to try to keep our manufacturing alive. Pity it didn't work. We will find out in 2017

[scotty nm35]

We won't see any discounts from the government, the main aim of compliancing is to enable imported cars to meet our stupid Australian Design rules, like the Japanese don't know how to design cars properly...

[Duncan]

Actually there was already a review of Import laws underway prior to the election and the 3 manufacturers pulling out which received a bunch of submissions from manufacturer/official importers, aftermarket importers and personal users.

The initial findings are here:

http://www.pc.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0006/132981/automotive-position.pdf?utm_source=Prestige+Motorsport+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=9fa3cbbeff-Cars+of+the+Day+--+13+June+2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_56b53b869f-9fa3cbbeff-23360817

This was Geoff from Prestige's summary;

This report is encouraging in terms of Australia moving towards accepting international safety standards rather than having our own set of ADR's and for import restrictions such as SEVS to be lessened or removed. At the same time, the Paper recommends ceasing assistance for car manufacturers to produce cars in Australia.

It is certainly a step in the right direction to opening up choice and reducing the price of vehicles in Australia closer to those in the UK, US and NZ, allowing us overall to drive newer, safer and more efficient vehicles for the same money. It will be interesting to see what develops over coming years, and what the result is of the information requests below, the last one in particular.

DRAFT FINDING 3.2

The policy rationale for prohibiting the large-scale importation of second-hand vehicles into Australia is weak. However, appropriate regulatory measures are required to ensure that consumer protection, community safety, and environmental performance standards are maintained before the restrictions are removed. These concerns are best dealt with directly, through regulatory standards applicable to all vehicles sold in Australia.

INFORMATION REQUEST 3.2

The Commission is seeking further information on the benefits and costs of removing restrictions on the large-scale importation of second-hand vehicles. In particular:

• what are the potential costs of removing these restrictions and who bears these costs?

• how could compliance with Australian safety and environmental standards be most efficiently ensured?

• if the benefits are expected to exceed the costs, how should restrictions be removed and over what timeframe?

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Frankly I think the initial findings were positive too, and since the manufacturers pulled out it looks even better for getting better cars, cheaper. A lot of people may have forgotten how much freer the system was until RAWS were introduced and the 15yo rule was killed about 2004, which was in response to big lobbying from Toyota etc who did not want to have to compete with their own products...