The Issue

  • Collectibles are not just old cars
  • The law does not recognise this
  • Regulations presume ignorance
  • Collectors are the experts

The Story

25 years ago, motor vehicle collectors would scour the world for their marque, find it overseas, often in a barn, auction or through a club. They would import it in as-is condition, which except for a very few at the high end of the collectible market, meant restoration. Unlike buyers of transportable cars who expect a roadworthy and safe vehicle, collectors buy with their eyes open, knowing it will be them – or their wallet that makes it roadworthy.

But then, cowboy car dealers began to purchase flood-damaged, insurance-write-off Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) used cars, ship them to New Zealand and sell them as roadworthy. Within months they began to fail. NZTA and Parliament had to do something, so they wrote new rules for used-vehicle imports.

Unfortunately, collectible vehicles became collateral damage. VIRM Rule 3-4 is the worse, basically resulting in 99% of imported collectibles failing, thus facing repair certification that costs $10-15,000, requiring invasive damage.

Then when the collectible is registered, it must be get a WoF every 6 months even though most wear on a motor vehicle is by distance driven, not elapsed months. A new car or van will be driven an average of 45,000 km in its first three years, with no WoF. In contrast, the average collectible will be driven 1,800 km between its semi-annual WoF.

The issue is not how often inspections are done, it is who does them. When collectibles enter the country, the normal process is to begin restoration. Many collectors know how to restore, but at a minimum, they know how to do a chequebook restoration.  In other words, they may not know how to cut out rust and weld new metal, but they know – usually through their club – the best restoration shop to do the work.

Who is not qualified to do this? The very specialists NZTA licenses for repair certification and ordinary WoF. 

From 1901 to 1999, there are about 1,000 different makes and models of motor vehicles, where there may be ten people in NZ qualified to know what they do (and all will work for the few top restoration shops like Auto Restorations Ltd in Christchurch. However, there is a deep pool of experts in specific make/model collectibles and they will be found in the clubs – the collectors themselves and the specialist restoration shops they use. 

When one looks closely at the qualifications to become an inspector, it is shockingly low. Take an online correspondence course, then sit a 28 question multiple choice open-book test – meaning you don’t need to have knowledge, only how to look it up during the test. Even so the failure rate is shocking.

Law fails to recognise reality – collectors are the experts

Collectible vehicles aren’t just old cars.
They’re a different class of machine — owned by a different class of driver. Collectibles make up about 10% of New Zealand’s fleet, but unlike transportables — high-mileage, point-A-to-B vehicles — collectibles are sparingly driven, lovingly restored, and carefully maintained.

Yet the law doesn’t recognise this difference.
It treats collectibles as if they were just aging daily drivers. It treats owners like they’re indifferent motorists.

Regulations assume ignorance.
They apply a one-size-fits-all model built for high-use vehicles, not low-use heritage machines. That’s the core issue.

In reality, collectors are the experts.
They know their cars — what’s original, what’s rebuilt, what needs watching. And they operate inside tight-knit communities with a strong culture of safety. These vehicles aren’t neglected — they’re nurtured.

This is not a niche concern.
Collectibles represent a $16.5 billion microeconomy, and one of the few sectors that won’t be automated away.

The government needs to see this and to support the collectible microeconomy, change the rules to be fit for purpose.

At the heart of it, NZTA needs to examine its conflict of interest policies when it comes to determining who does the inspection. This promises to be a cultural change in the agency, which means it will be hard slog unless it comes from the Minister.

NZTA has publics its Conflict of Interest guidance for vehicle inspectors, inspecting organisations and specialist certifiers that reasonably sets out when the inspector would face a conflict of interest. All focus on pecuniary interest compromising the objectivity of the inspector. All are completely reasonable for transportables.