The average age of New Zealand cars is 14 years. This is older than in most other western countries. The main reason for our older cars is Japanese imports – we imported 125,000 used cars from Japan last year and most of these were already 8 years old or older. Importers pay very little for an 8-year old car in Japan, it costs them $3,000 to ship it to New Zealand and they sell it for $5,000 to $6,000. New car dealers of course do not like this and would like a law to stop importers bringing in such old cars. They say New Zealand is solving Japan’s waste disposal problem. However, it is probably true that cars these days are better made and last longer. The average age of cars sent to the junk yard in New Zealand is 18 years.
About half the cars on our roads are new. The price of new cars has become cheaper with the high kiwi dollar. However, new cars depreciate very quickly because second hand cars are now so cheap.
New Zealanders have a high rate of car ownership. We own 700 cars for every 1,000 people in our country. The average distance travelled is 12,000 km a year.
Although we think there are too many trucks on our highways, in fact cars make up 77% of the traffic on our roads; light commercial (for example an electrician’s van) is 15% and buses, trucks and motorbikes make up the other 8%.
Vocabulary
• solve (v) solution (n) – find the answer to a problem
• waste disposal – getting rid of waste, cost of throwing away old cars
• depreciate – lose value each year
• ownership (n) – owning a car
• highway – a major road, for 100 kph travel
Note the use of make up e.g. Maori make up about 15% of our population