Vehicle Standards Compliance Amendment (2025)
12 Month WoF & CoF

31 July 2025

 Annual WoFs for vintage vehicles is common sense

The NZ Federation of Motoring Clubs (FoMC) is celebrating the announcement from the Minister of Transport that vintage vehicles and motorcycles aged over 40 years will only need to obtain a Warrant of Fitness (WoF) once a year from Monday, 1st September 2025.
 
FoMC President Garry Jackson says “This is a common-sense decision that will benefit some 128,000 owners of 40 year and older vehicles. Vintage vehicles are well-maintained by enthusiast owners and do much lower annual mileages compared to newer vehicles built from 2000-on, but up until now required WoF’s every six months compared with those newer vehicles with annual tests. This was an anomaly that not only didn’t make sense to owners but also resulted in considerable increased costs and inconvenience.”

“The Federation has campaigned for this change for several years, and feedback from clubs and vintage vehicle owners shows this was the number one issue they wanted addressed,” Mr Jackson says.
 
Data on WoF inspections shows that vehicles aged over 40 years have the lowest WoF failure rate than any other decade, even lower than vehicles under 10 years of age. Crash statistics also show that very few vehicles aged over 40 are involved in serious crashes where vehicle condition is a contributing factor.

Ministry of Transport statistics shows that cars aged over 40 years travel just 2,852 km per annum on average compared to 10,136 km for vehicles already subject to an annual WoF.  An FoMC nationwide survey in 2024 showed that some classic vehicles travel just a few hundred kilometres between 6-monthly WoFs,” Mr Jackson added.

The government’s announcement also includes 12 month Certificate of Fitness (CoF) terms for privately owned heavy motorhomes, extended from 6-monthly currently.  This major initiative has long-been sought by Federation member "The NZ Motor Caravan Association (MCA)".
Mr Jackson says.  “Like vintage cars and motorcycles, but unlike rental campervans for example, private motorhomes also do low annual mileages. CoFs are more expensive and there are also fewer CoF testing stations so it can be quite time-consuming for owners to obtain them. This sensible change will save private motorhome owners a lot of time and several hundred dollars a year.”

The Federation of Motoring Clubs was founded in 1995 and comprises 151 clubs, including the Vintage Car Club of NZ, the NZ Hot Rod Association, and the NZ Motor Caravan Association. The total reach of the Federation is almost 300 clubs and branches, comprising 142,895 members and 126,095 vehicles. Further, and importantly, in 2024 the Federation published NZ’s first ever Historic and Classic Vehicle Research Survey which quantified the strength of the sector in terms of the number of owners and vehicles, and the headline grabbing figure of a total economic footprint of $16.5 Billion. President Garry Jackson adds …. “We have no doubt that today’s Government announcements in many ways recognise the strength that the sector represents in NZ”. 

ENDS 

Howdy all

Click on the Youtube video below to see the fun Steve Driver and I had on the Irishman Creek Rally 2025.

Steve Driver and I traveled from Auckland in the North Island to Christchurch in the South Island with a Ferry Crossing from Wellington to Picton. We had deliveries to friends in the South Island, a complete Model A diff for Garry, an overdrive for Ross, an overdrive for Dave and a ring and pinion. Steve needed a pick up wellside made by Glen, this went on the back of our newly named Jack Daniels Pickup ( Blackjack Delivery Co.) for the return trip home.
They say there was 207 vintage cars (older than 1931) entered in the Rally.There were many makes and models including Austin 7 sports, Dodges, Model T Fords, Chryslers, Rolls Royces etc. and 97 Model A Fords.
Steve and I were in the 1930 Model A pickup with the Jack Daniels signage on the door. Simon the photographer was traveling with Russell Sherwin in the Model A pickup with Sherwin Manor signage on the door, Russell loaned Edgar his Model A coupe, Edgar lost the radiator cap although that never stopped him completing the event, Edgar came up with heaps of excuses as you will see.
Going through a watercourse we picked up part of an old file causing a flat tyre, a quick wheel change fixed that, Steve blamed Andrew Mehrtens for throwing tools into the river - yeah right.
We were very lucky with three days of clear skies as it was forecast for a heavy polar blast from the South with heavy snow, this arrived after we had arrived back home with many roads closed and travellers being rescued.
Enough from me, check out the video and some photos I have taken in the attachment.
Cheers, Terry C

ACCCA encourages all members to take part in a very brief online survey being conducted by the NZTA as to the proposed 12 month WOF period for cars older than 40 years.
Note this survey closes on 4th April, so don't miss out on your chance to have your say.
Remember, there are not many owners of cars older than 40 years, so there aren't that many of us so it's going to take a number of responses to influence the decision.

Click on this link to read about the proposed changes: fomc.nz/12-month-wof-cof/

Click on this link to do the online survey: surveys.nzta.govt.nz/jfe/form/SV_232l6GMC4NCLLgi

Earlier this year, I had cause to import a number of parts from the US. All fairly cheap small items: wheel bearings, drive belt, air filter, spark plugs, belt tensioner, and finally, very rashly, a paint touch-up pen, 12 fl oz.
Mostly from Rockauto who are my goto guys, but I thought this was a chance to use Youshop again to consolidate down some shipments and save cost. What worked fine on previous occasions tuned into a major drama that would have cost more to do it that way then ship each part down separately on DHL/Fedex.
When all the parts had arrived at the USA Youshop warehouse, I then tried to consolidate them, but it would only let me consolidate 3 items. When queried, I was advised that the rules have changed and now only 3 are possible.
Then, I was told the paint pen couldn’t be shipped because it was dangerous goods. So I had to return that to the supplier for credit. It seems now that no US based supplier will ship anything with the word paint in it by any means.
Then, I was advised that two of the items were declared fragile and couldn’t be consolidated. Of course, I assumed it was the air filter, but you can imagine my surprise to find out that one of them was the drive belt. When I tried to explain to NZ Post that the drive belt is pretty much indestructible even if you set out to damage it, but they would not be budged even after trying twice to get them to ship it including giving them a written declaration that it was not fragile.

This was about when I began to suspect that NZ Post didn’t have much influence over what the USA warehouse was doing, and when I queried this with them I was told that they are just a contractor – explains a lot.
By this time I had to also return the oldest part that arrived first for credit as I was about to run past the 3 week deadline to ship them before the item is disposed of, and I certainly didn’t want to take the chance that whilst I was arguing it out with NZ Post, that their contractor at the US warehouse would do just that.
So then I was left 2 separate shipping charges amounting to over NZ$300 to ship the drive belt, air filter, and wheel bearings separately – all because I had already used up my 3 items for consolidation already and had at least those one shipped.

The shipping charges for both these items were in excess of NZ$100 each, when I queried it they loaded photos of the items on the Youshop page. The wheel bearings were in two tiny boxes about 70mm square, sitting in one bottom corner or a large box about the size of a box that you get 5 reams of A4 paper in. So mostly I was being charged for shipping air, because of course I could not consolidate the items now having used up the 3 item limit.
So I ended up returning everything else to the suppliers for a credit, re-ordering them all individually again and paying for Fedex shipping individually, and even including the return and restocking fees was still way cheaper than what NZ Post were trying to charge for the freight.
So, what ‘s the moral of this sad story? You have absolutely no control over having any of your parts unilaterally declared as being fragile by some wonk in the US warehouse, that neither NZ Post or you have any further influence over, and that it can’t be consolidated because of that, so ends up attracting additional shipping costs accordingly.
 
When I asked NZ Post for compensation for my additional costs due to their US warehouse's decisions, I was invited to submit this for consideration, so I totted up all the costs of having the parts returned including the return fee form NZ Post, the restocking fees where charged, and the original USA freight component, it came to about NZ$112, not unreasonable I thought.
Well, it was point-blank steadfastly refused because of some obscure GST complication that I still don’t understand how or even why that is relevant in a compensation case, and even after several attempts to argue the point, including that I would bring the matter to the attention of our many members to help prevent them from falling into the same traps, it was just water off a ducks back – so, here it is.....

Caveat Emptor when using NZ Post Youshop!

My suggestion? Use the new MyUS service instead as per the link below, I’ve already heard some good reports about their service.
https://www.myus.com/welcome/new-zealand/?aid=1008096&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign={campaign}&utm_content={adgroup}&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA88a5BhDPARIsAFj595gPNG61C9PB0gi6dhHyTCcCvcF6dp0c8_ZgJiU_mau8BySorqrXeM0aAhc2EALw_wcB
Or alternatively, if you can get the parts you need from Rockauto just have then ship them direct you, as their freight prices are good compared with most others, and you have the parts within a week.
I'll certainly never be using Youshop again under any circumstances.