Don’t bar old roadworthy vehicles

I REFER to plans to introduce a policy to limit the life span of road vehicles. The end of life policy for vehicles in developed countries does not entail the automatic disqualification of old vehicles. Other criteria like emissions testing and safe operability are applied.

There is also a need to distinguish between commercial vehicles and private cars. The former requires stringent checks as the mode of use being profit-oriented will result in a tendency for operators to cut corners in maintenance and to push their vehicles to their limits.

Commercial vehicles require a different mode of certification and inspection. Passenger cars are a different category of use. Car owners use their vehicles to ferry family members and for their own errands. Retirees also cannot afford to take up car loans to buy new cars even if they can obtain them and this includes young workers, students and rural folk as well as small businesses.

Deregistering old cars will require loan debts to be taken where people may not be able to afford it as their disposable income may have to be directed towards home ownership, daily expenses and savings.

The cost of living should not be made higher by banning older cars, which are assets, and will become worthless if such a drastic policy is implemented as this may contravene Article 13 of the Federal Constitution, which protects the property of individuals from deprivation without adequate compensation.

There is no need to ban older cars unless they are proved to be unroadworthy as not only are they well looked after in the most cases but many are classics and a part of our motoring heritage for which there are many people employed in workshops who maintain and service them.

These mechanics may lose their jobs in a shrinking car maintenance and service market that could be brought about by this strict policy proposal. Spare parts bought by dealers and suppliers and stocked for millions of ringgit will also become unmarketable and this will generate business losses.

Older cars also generate road tax revenue for the government and insurance premiums for the private sector and their forcible removal does not mean that a new car will be bought to replace them.

I propose adopting the UK and EU system for the treatment of end of life cars, which aims to recycle older cars and depollute them.

V. Vishnu Kumar Petaling Jaya