The antiSEVS

To:  Australian Dept of Transport and Regional Services

Petition Against the Australian ‘Specialist
and Enthusiast Vehicle Scheme’ Importation Legislation

The Minister of Transport for the Australian Government approved and is now
applying the new SEVS importation rules, effective May 2003 on all Automobile
Imports into the country. This legislation replaces the old but working guidelines
that have served the Enthusiast Automobile market in Australia for many years.

Australia has a very limited consumer market compared to most other countries,
combined with the high setup costs of importing cars here in full volume, all
manufacturers limit the models that are sold here. The differences in models
sold here from those sold in home markets range from different engines (turbocharged
monsters to ultra-fuel efficient direct injection or hybrid), different chassis
(coupe, convertible or wagon variations of the usual sedan) and classy extras
(from air suspension to electric everything and onboard TV).

The Personal Import laws gave Aussie enthusiasts access to many of these innovations
by authorising car models not sold here in full volume to be imported, complied
to Australian standards and registered. SEVS has replaced this system and placed
severe limitations on many aspects of importing a vehicle which defy the purpose
of the process! These include (but are not limited to):

• Every imported car must be complied in its native factory form. No
  modifications are allowed. The whole point of a Specialist Import is to allow
  access to such specialist cars!
• Each Registered Automotive Workshop can only comply 100 cars in each
  model class each year. There are few model classes and most imports
  fall into the same class. This restricts RAWs to 100 popular imports a year
  and hence massively limits the number of imports into Australia each year.
  It also gives the Department of Transport and Regional Services (DOTRS) too
  much control over the number of imports, rather than leaving it to supply,
  demand and competition from full volume importers.
• Each RAW must make separate applications for each model of car they wish
  to apply, including applications for each engine variant of each model.
  At a cost of $5,000 to $10,000 per application the scheme is overly complex
  and prohibitive. It will also end many genuinely competitive small businesses
  struggling to outlay such huge start-up costs.
• The DOTRS has openly admitted that they have instituted the changes to
  the import scheme just to restrict the number of imported vehicles. They
  admitted that this was their sole intention, nothing to do with vehicle
  safety standards, quality, operation of the current scheme, or any other legitimate
  reason. This is anti-competitive and is the precise opposite of a free
  capitalist market. SEVS cars are not sold in Australia in any capacity. If
  there is a market for SEVS style automobiles the manufacturers/distributors
  can apply for full volume importation and satisfy that market. The government
  is obviously bowing to manufacturer’s whims.
• The DOTRS has stated that SEVS will be reviewed in 12 to 24 months without
  setting parameters on how compliance quotas may be adjusted. This gives
  them free reign to decrease quotas at any time, severely increasing the cost
  of imports and putting small competitive workshops out of business.
• Vehicles must be inspected by the RAW for damage or corrosion once they
  are imported. If any damage or corrosion found exceeds the criteria set
  out in SEVS the car must be exported or destroyed. This means that
  while your vehicle could be in perfect condition when it left Japan, if it
  were significantly damaged in transit by a careless shipping or trucking company
  your car may have to be destroyed or exported, despite the fact that
  Australian delivered vehicles with much worse damage are repaired and put
  back on our roads every day. The official line on this is “If we allowed
  damaged vehicles to be repaired then a RAW would simply become a wrecking
  yard.” Huh?
• The RAW must apply for the Import Approval, not an individual and maintain
  complete responsibility (including costs) for any safety recalls that the
  manufacturer initiates. All defective items must be rectified
  at the cost of the RAW, including any items since the manufacture of the vehicle,
  not just the date it was imported. This dramatically increases the risk
  the RAWs undertake for each imported car. Interestingly national advertising
  has been suggested by DOTRS as a reasonable way to contact previous buyers.
• Compliancing costs are going to increase. Because of many of the
  above issues, compliancing costs for the cheap performance imports that are
  so popular are going to rise. On a $13,000 import, with compliancing costing
  upwards of $4,000 and potentially to $6,000 you’re looking at 30 –
  45% of the cost of the car on compliancing. This takes some of the most popular
  imports out of the budgets of the most common importers.

There is no doubt that SEVS is a scheme designed to kill the import industry
by degrees, as slowly and as quietly as possible. With very little coordinated
public resistance, it is currently progressing very well towards its intended
goal. The sad result is reduced choice and increased prices for specialist vehicles.

Please sign this petition to show your support
for a freer import market!

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The The antiSEVS Petition to Australian Dept of Transport and Regional Services was created by and written by Dominic.  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no express or implied endorsement of this petition by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. The petition scripts are created by Mike Wheeler at Artifice, Inc.  For Technical Support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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