Motorists of New Zealand are under threat

oppose the NZTA proposal to remove free access to this public data

This is absurd. If you want more info you have to pay for it anyway.

this way at least you can get some minor info about the vehicle in question and proceed with a sale or not.

I think its stupid to stop the free data as its a great tool to see what your buying to see if its a legitimate sale, Whats the harm of NZTA leaving the system as it is. Being able to see if a Vehicle is stolen is really great and is a good crime prevention tool. I think NZTA should being looking at what people are saying as we the public have a right to be heard

We use the free service daily. A customer may ring up wanting a price on a repair, and may only have the rego number, and we may need the engine type or frame number. Carjam gives us instant access to this for free. If a charge was levied, then I would have to charge the customer further down the line.

Thanks anyway CARJAM. Great website

The government should be providing a public service. Thats what our taxes are for! This seems to miss the self serving public servants sitting on the front tit of the system.

The Govt should not be selling back to its citizens information that the citizens have paid for through their taxes. This is usery.

I am astonished to think that NZTA has so much time on their hands to stuff about with this site which is providing excellent information. What I would love to know is why. There is more to this than meets the eye. There is no privacy issue here so what is the reason for this crazy suggestion. I also can not see how they can legally stop this info from being made available. This is what they say they are about on their web site.

“Our job is to help New Zealanders travel reliably and safely and to grow the country’s economy by investing in moving people and freight. We plan and deliver national transport networks and support local networks; we work to make public transport and freight networks more effective; we’re improving road safety.It’s all about building a better transport system for New Zealanders”

So how does this revelation fit with what their objectives are.

Don’t jump the gun, read this:

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-law-changes.html

The law change only affects the release or personal information, meaning name and address of owner, not all the car details.

This is a separate issue NZTA is working on.

This is another example where NZTA justify their reputation for wrapping all their activities in red tape.
They would have to have the most convoluted and complicated methods of categorizing and licencing vehicles in the world with so many exceptions and ommissions that their own staff can’t work through it.
Their policies put their ‘customer service’ barely above the level of acceptable, however their staff deserve credit for trying.

we need you this is bullshit

It’s a shock to us that government can behave like this.

No free Carjam reports means it will make life easier for ‘dodgy’ people selling cars with questionable odometer readings. This is heading towards another government revenue-gathering exercise, like most of the roading policies already in place. It’s all about the money.

Yes, Stuart. Less safe environment for vehicle market that’s for sure. Less efficiencies in the vehicle industry — something NZTA should take care: safety and efficiency of the transport in NZ. The list is pretty long to fit in one small comment.

This is a real shame to hear. Would love a reference to the NZTA announcement.

Here’s what they said when they opened up their systems in 2008 (via ComputerWorld)

Making its data available for free was an “extremely big step” for the NZTA, says Hills. The organisation is just starting to come to grips with the model of not charging for data, she says.

“It is valuable information, but at the end of the day, our job is to get the information out to users as fast and as accurately as we can,” she says.

NZTA’s decision to make its data available for free was a forward-looking one, says Beattie. There is no real value for NZTA to hang on to the data, he says. But leveraging the skills of third-party developers, adding value to the data, is valuable to road users.

This service is needed by the general public if they are made to pay they wont bother doing these registration checks, needless to say there will be a rise in lower end vehicle fraud -example monies owing to finance houses and stolen vehicles being replated . Exemptions and further in depth information is still available at vtnz and post offices for a fee -we think the status quo should remain . Once again this retrograde step will only impact on the tax paying public.

I second what Stuart says another government revenue-gathering exercise in any case yor need to pay for more detailed information so what diffrence will taking away this free information do to the actual vehicle owner ??

Looks like this is the announcement, via MTA News:

Important Notice to all non-enforcement Motochek users

We run an automotive repair business and every day we rely on Carjam for car details
so that we can order the correct parts in. Not having access to this information would mean
that the mechanics have to spend much more time making manual inspections instead of being able
to leave it to me in the office.
What is the benefit of taking away this I wonder? Why shouldn’t this information be public?

This information should be public and under Law (we think) it ought to be public. It should be maintained through the registration fees we pay. NZTA is not doing anyone any good. Shame.

Basic information like vehicle and odometer history should remain freely available to all! Removing free access would be particularly detrimental to vulnerable consumers without the budget to purchase the information each time they assess a vehicle.

The information provided by Car Jam doesn’t infringe on anyone’s privacy, gives no personal details or even any idea of the region in which a vehicle resides.
The only possible reason for the government to put a stop to the free info is to gain more revenue. This government is a joke!

The proposed removal of this Free service is an idiotic idea.
As an ex-UK citizen this is the type of crap I would expect to happen in Britain where the population have had the fight knocked out of them and have been kicked into submission by successive petty minded, penny pinching, self obsessed governments who care more about funding their own expenses by tricks like this than caring for the well being of their constituents.
If you want a detailed report you have to pay anyway.
This free service has saved me burning gas to go and look at potential wrecks by pointed me away from quite a few advertised cars who’s Odometer readings have a very dubious gap or appear to have jumped back a few thousand kilometers, steered me away from cars that haven’t been WoF’d for a few years, cars that have been out of Reg for months etc.
The removal of this free service will play right into the hands of Dubious car sellers and will see more dangerous cars on our roads.
This is a small but most essential service that should be left alone to be available to everyone in New Zealand.
I strongly register my protest at any movement to change or remove this free service from use by the Voting public.

NZTA staff need to justified their big fat wage packet by being seen to do some thing.
They big fat ass is being notice now by a lot of the Public as Carjam has a lot of followers that legamently use Carjam.
I have give NZTA a lot of information about people and cars that charge hire for Transporting the General Public in Cars ect with no COFs which I check on Carjam 1st.
This maybe the reson they want to close Carjam as Complaints mean they have to do some real work.
NZTA needs to sop wasting public money trying to close Carjam and go and do the job they are ment to do which is keeping our roads safer.
Closeing Camjam will make New Zealand roads less safe.
Wake up NZTA

TSL holder

Have a look at this page http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-qa.html (Q&A on the law change)
They clearly state All details of a vehicle (make, model, colour, weight, engine capacity and fuel type, odometer reading, country of origin, whether imported used or new, vehicle inspection history, type of fuel, whether subject to a Warrant of Fitness or Certificate of Fitness, the number of owners, etc) will continue to be available.
They are only changing the law to prevent release of personal details.
If the devs of Carjam have been told different officially can they post the official word or link to it?

We pay one of the highest road user charge in the world… then they go and do this. Its not good enough. What can be done?

Amanda, they will continue to be available but for a charge. CarJam is doing 1.5 millions free requests a months. At 16c per query we cannot keep it free. Sorry. But we will continue to dialog with NZTA and government and hope that we can find some some forward thinking people within NZTA.

hi all,

I took a look over one of those links above – http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-qa.html – and so far as I can tell there appears no problem on this matter for carjam users. The law change is around misuse of relevant recorded vehicle data – such as mass mailings to names and addresses in the register – (this aint the same as legal owners, but it could get out to one helluvah nuisance). Personal info – face up now how would you like being taken for granted because some folks see a free ride into your life – is pretty straightforward. Then, don’t just take my word for this go browse the Q&A link where a lot of regular users’ stuff is covered. BTW: the Personal Property Securities Register (PPSR)is kept elsewhere and retains its present status, so finding collateral owner’s claim to a car via some loan is still on.

For me the big deal for carjam is that it helps keep others in the car business honest. Stay free, be free! Yet like they say on the D&L for a lot of their reviews: don’t say you haven’t been warned. Since when was ‘public’ free anyway.

Best thing to happen- Ive had a gutsful of lowlife getting info on where i live and wanting to know if i will sell my car.
Ever heard of the privacy act? If you bounce a cheque off me, the bank won’t tell me anything about you.
I don’t mind info on only the vehicle as long as no-one gets any other info on the individual.

I don’t want to or need to know who owns the car or where they live. What I want is, as I stated before, access to be able to see the Mileage, If it has always had a Reg (or if it has gone through several Reg changes) and if it has been WoF’d regularly.
I don’t want to bother to go and look at a car if the Reg and WoF dates aren’t consecutive, within reason, or if it appears the odometer has traveled backwards in time at some point.
Half the photos on TradeMe have the Reg plate either covered, removed or photo-shopped out so you can’t run them through CarJam… so what are they wanting to hide? I won’t even go to look at one in this state either.
The UK is full of Cut and Shut, re-plated stolen, cloned, repaired insurance write-offs because the government will only release the information to members of the motor trade and believe me, that’s like putting a goat in charge of a cabbage patch.
As a member of the public once you have parted with money for one of these possibly stolen, 2 cars welded into 1, repaired writ-offs or cloned death traps then the onus is on you, when it becomes obvious at it’s next MoT (WoF) that it is a ringer, it is impounded and usually crushed or if stolen, returned to it’s owner and you have NO come back, you loose the car and the cash you paid for it. I don’t want to see that happen here in NZ, you need access to this very small amount of data to make an informed decision on which cars are worth considering to actually go and look at, not keep shelling out $’s to see if the car you want to consider buying is going to be probably safe to take your family in. Removing this Free Service is having your rights as a consumer eroded…. it WILL be just the thin end of the wedge if they get away with it and start charging for it.

Sorry this has been a bit of a rant but I saw so many little, some may say trivial, things taken away from Joe Public over the years in the UK, and once they start the next thing they “Remove” will be that little bit more important, then the next… and the next…

Just as a matter of interest, why does it cost CarJam 16c if I check out a car reg?
The data has already been entered at some earlier point in time so it can be used if someone requires a full profile on a prospective purchase so I am a bit perplexed as to where this cost of 16c per query comes from?

Hi Gaz. NZTA is making CarJam pay 16c per query (what is free now) from 1st of January 2011.

CarJam is a great website, it gives you reliable information regarding the vehicle. It is not giving out details of where the car is, or details about the owner, so why stop it???? New Zealand Transport Agency get over it! Leave CarJam alone. They probaly want to set up their own website and make us PAY!!!!! Isnt it always about money?????

this is not wright and should be made public this system we live in is starving us of any chance of having a happy society an causing dramas an NZTA is laughing at us.

I think that NZTA already make more than enough money from motorists so what is their justification for wanting to impose this “Stealth Tax” then?

If they get away with this one, it will only be the beginning…
I’ve seen it all before.

NZ Transport Agency can *&% they steal enuff money. remember tick 10 or 11 (i is farm rego) and its $78 a year rego 1 way around them greedy monkeys

This is just another example of the ever growing Bureaucracy finding yet another way to justify their jobs and pays at the expense of joe public. Lets make some more red tape and charge for it, pat ourselves on the back for a job well stuffed up, and oh yes we need and deserve a pay increase. There’s no justification for this , just revenue collecting again.

As many others we use this service daily to price repairs from just a registration plate, without this great service it would be at a great cost to our customers. Just another thing for the govt to put there fingers in.
Great site CARJAM, keep it up, thanks

I thought we voted Labour out but national seems to be putting up the same red tape. We use car jam everyday it makes out life so easy.

I JUST WANT TO CHECK MLEAGE AND WOF AND REGO THINGS …..I DONT WANT ANY PERSONAL INFO ON WHUS NAME AND ADDRESS IT IS REGISTERED ……………IT WILL BE BAD IF THIS INFORMATION IS NO LONGER ACCESSIBLE FROM 1 JAN.

they made habbit of people checking car jam and its time to earn money ……………if they wan to do it paid thing …Then they have allow to some individual to make there own website to check all this things.

KANWAL, Carjam is not NZTA. CarJam wants to continue to provide information for free. We have offered various solutions to NZTA but to no avail.

We are a car dealership/workshop and every department here uses carjam to check vehicle details – for myself in parts this service is invaluable to make sure I have all the info I need to get the correct parts.

Having had personal experience of the cosy relationship between some of the big players in the motor industry, and Transport NZ, I am aware of the extent to which the decisions of their bloated bureaucracy have everything to do with covering their own butts and maintaining their own salaries, and very little to do with meeting the needs of the general public. There are some very dodgy corrupt goings-on within Transport NZ and between them and others with vested intersts in the industry, but they obstruct release of information under the Official Information Act by charging huge fees for releasing their own files – far more than most other government departments do. Is it any surprise that they are taking this current change in “policy”?

thanks anton…i didnt know abt that…thanks for updating me.

at last , day will come when government says that if u want to check ur emails, internet banking, facebook and all other community websites then we have to pay checking fees which they are now saying to access car jam.

1.5 million carjam checks a month are currently free

x 12 months x $0.16 each
from 1st jan = $2,880,000 a year

Looks like the NZTA just gave itself a big fat pat on the back!

Must be pleased with yourself for finding another way to scam dollars off the public, NZTA.

I’ll pay my road user charges, my ACC levies and everything else (all with extra GST now), but this is past the point of ridiculous.

All people want is the chance to check the basics so that we don’t waste time/money on a dodgy car. Like many other carjam free reports are my “filter” when searching for a car. If it looks good it gets shortlisted, and will pay for the full report before buying.

The extra costs this government keeps sneaking on us have got to stop!

I work in the parts department of an Isuzu Master Truck dealership. Our parts manuals are web based and require a chassis number to pick the correct manual. When Car Jam came along we were able to search for the correct chassis number from the rego number. This greatly improved the service we were able to offer our customers. It is a fantastic tool. I’m pleased to see that this function won’t be affected by the proposed changes. Keep it up Car Jam, you have a terrific site that is really helpful to us in the service side of the transport industry.

Hope you guys understand that CarJam is not NZTA. It’s also obvious there will no longer be 1.5 million checks as there will only be a handful of people using CarJam. And this is what our super-duper-commercial “competitor” want and already been spreading rumors CarJam is going to die.

Let me guess Anton?

The super d00per competitor is none other than the Motor Trade Association and their own “Motochek” site, who till now have been ripping their own members off for the same service that Carjam were giving the public for free?

Ohhh, the dinners and private box tickets to the Rugby that must have been made available to the public servants at Transport NZ in order to stitch up this nice cosy deal.

I stand corrected ….. “Motochek” is owned by Transport NZ themselves . Apologies to the MTA

It’s a quaint old site – typical of most efforts by quangos like Transport NZ to operate in the commercial arena. Even with the immediate advantage of being first in line to access the data, they still managed to make a mess of things.

How can a website up and running in the year 2010 still look like it is 1996?

The new law is good. I have already opted out. I suggest you do the same.

How will the new law fix these problems?

The NZTA will no longer be obliged to supply names and addresses on request.

Carjam are protecting their personal detail selling income. The new law will protect privacy, it says nothing about removing car makes models and all the other stuff from being available.

If NZTA are worried about privacy they will have to get the Company registry closed down as well because there you get or info like names and address then go to the phone directory and get their phone number.

Rob, it will continue to be available but the free information you get from CarJam today you will have to pay for from Jan 2011 for no obvious reason.

Bruce, you may have meant to say Motorweb

Concerned Citizen, we are not talking about ownership history (which CarJam protected anyway by no exposing full addresses) but about the free information CarJam provided now.

Paid the fee on carjam for the report,got my surname, looked up phonebook,confirmed suburb carjam said i lived in and then came round. Multiply this a few times and you can see why im not thrilled with carjam providing this info.
Like i said before, ive had a gutsful.

Wow NZTA needs a reality check, for car buyers etc, the basic information should be free, NZTA really need to realize this, it just kills all the good this site and others have done in preventing dodgy dealings.

I can understand NZTA’s viewpoint as well though, all these queries must make it a bit heavy on their backend, I’d sooner see casual use (by people that use it infrequently like car buyers etc) free, and the use which results in FINANCIAL BENEFIT for the querier (i.e. these mechanic shops etc) charged at a minimal rate.

If the NZTA can’t work how to implement such a system, then it should just be free!

Jim, understood. Firstly, ownership issue is a separate issue. Secondly, if you do not want to be found at an address and take privacy seriously. Maybe do not publish it in the phonebook? Thirdly, it’s going to change from 1st of April. Free data issue is a separate one. Thank you.

N J, a bit heavy? Well, CarJam can easily handle 10 times more load and we are doing 2 million pages a month. Our bottleneck is NZTA connection which is slow. They failed to upgrade the register systems (our registration fees go to it) and now are trying to restrict access so that they continue to not upgrade their infrastructure.

Thanks for clearing that up Anton. Don’t shoot me for it, but I think the only people who should be entitled to ownership history of a vehicle is the current owner – prospective buyers have the right to ask to view ownership papers if in doubt. I can understand Jim’s frustration on that point. However, on the matter of the free data on basic reports, maybe Carjam and all it’s users should start talking to their local MPs and stressing the good reasons why this info should be freely available…i.e.whether a vehicle is roadworthy (reg and wofs) has a bad odo history or is wanted by the police to keep these “dodgy” vehicles from being onsold.

car jam is the great tool for us as we use it every day for vehicle information when we buy or quote parts for customers in our workshop.if it need to pay to get the information,then the charge will pass to the customers.i think we have rights to access the public information free.that what the tax money paid for.nzta has no reason to stop this!!!!

I’d have no objection to paying a nominal fee for access to what is currently ‘free information’. If carjam are charged 16c, maybe carjam can charge 50c per enquiry? Maybe users could register and have an account like on trademe where you can add credit to your account(from credit card/bank account), deduct 50c everytime you make an enquiry, when you have no credit left there would be no access until your account has had more credit added.

This country will never progress, just another bandaid solution to fix a more than likely capacity issue with NZTA.

Instead of fixing the problem we will just make it go away by limiting who can use it.

Users can still get info if they are willing to pay, meanwhile we will make it harder for car buyers to verify geniune articles.

Privavcy?, Nah, Its all about the $$$

Go CARJAM

As for the info not being available in the UK, if you go to http://www.taxdisc.direct.gov.uk/EvlPortalApp/ and click on “Vehicle Enquiry” you can get similar information free, just like here. The only difference is you need the make of car as well as the number plate. (So you can’t use it to check what make an interesting car is by looking up the number!)

The UK one actually tells you absolutely nothing useful at all, it just has : -
Year of manufacture.
Date of first reg.
Engine size.
Fuel type.
All the above information apart from Date of 1st registration you would (or should) know if you were interested in buying a car of this type.
It has an entry labeled “Date of Liability” I have no idea what that means (insurance due date?).
And it it just says License not due.

There are no historical mileage figures that you can check.
No MoT (WoF) information at all that you can check to see if it’s been “off the road” (SORN) for any lenth of time in the past.
You have no idea if it’s MoT’d, no idea if it has 12 months tax or 1 day’s tax left to run.

It falls well short of the type of excellent free info obtainable from CarJam and there really is no comparison what so ever of the 2 systems, CarJam is far superior in every respect.

I have heard of some real num nut decisions but this one takes the cake

And I have just checked out 5 of my old cars on the DVLA’s UK version of CarJam that I sold before I emigrated to NZ three years ago…1 has the right details, 2 have the engine size wrongly stated, 1 there is NO record of what so ever and 1 that I officially scrapped is still on the database but it says it isn’t taxed and the liability(?) is 01-01-2008, what ever that means…
So what little data there is was wrong or just not there for 4 out of my 5 cars….

I rely on the access of free data checks when purchasing a vehicle and before serious enquiries are made into any vehicle they are all checked for dodgy mileage at Car jam.
I strongly oppose the move to make this now FREE service, chargeable, this would mean when purchasing a vehicle privately hundred$ could be spent just getting accurate information on the vehicles before the next step is taken.

If NZTA has the interests of the motoring public and the aid it gives the motor industry in general (ie chassis numbers, etc for parts and quotes on parts) they would provide these details free as is the case now on Car Jam.

I think that NZTA is trying to capture $30 a pop (on it’s MotoWeb site) from everyone who is just trying to buy a vehicle that is not dodgy……disgusting NZTA… Well I suppose they have to pay for the new name changes that happen every 2 years.
Keep Fighting CARJAM!!

Are our taxes not enough to cover dole expenditure anymore?

It is more than enough. We at CarJam even offered to run a mirror database of the Motor Vehicle Register. They refused.

Where is our free country gone…??? We need labour government

F**K NZTA WHAT ARE THEY THINKING! THIS IS THE MOST USEFUL WED SITE IVE FOUND SO FAR!

Keep carjam we need it, it is part of the democratic system, keep your hands off, leave carjam alone or else!!!!

The NZTA are shooting themselves in the foot over this – the information that is on Carjam is a godsend for anyone who has a car, or is looking for one.

I for one appreciate tha great service supplied by carjam, I have been looking at a particular vehicle only to find that at 15,000kms the odometer was replaced or near zeroed,however it is for sale at a reading 20,000kms less than what it should be,this is important when regarding service intervals-history (i am no longer interested),I may not have found this information if not for car jam,
i`m curoius at how the 16cent price figure was arrived at? and why nzta feel the need to start charging? and how much is carjam going to have to charge in order to cover the extra admistration costs if any?, as we pay for more detailed imformation anyway,yes i do understand and agree with the changes with regard to owner privacy, it is the vehicle i`m checking not the names,but the numbers of owners etc that is of interest.

CarJam… What do you need from us to go towards a petition or what ever means you decide use to fight this issue with?
What can we, as concerned citizens do to help you?

Gaz, Thanks. By Monday night we should have a plan for action. Ask all people you know to register on CarJam and/or become friends on FB and/or follow us on Twitter. We are going to contact everyone on email list (registered users and customers), FB friends and Twitter followers about what we are to do.

As a mechanic this we website is very helpful and enables me to get details to order parts quickly and easily, this will affect all my customers. I also feel that the website is very beneficial for people purchasing cars and feel that closing down the site will cause problems.

Thanks

Ben

Ben, CarJam will not close but NZTA will start charging us for free service which we will unfortunately have to pass on to the consumers.

This will be such a shame to loose this access to basic information when looking up on a vehicle, weather its to buy or just get parts for it, Let alone give the criminals more to hide behind. I say just leave it as its is and charge for personal information as you require it. I have used this site to purchase information on purchasing a couple of cars without even looking at them.

My father advised me to use this site when he found out I was looking for another car.

I am a single mum with limited cash and little knowledge of cars so having CARJAM volunteer free info is a GIFT for us and no doubt many others.

At least this way I can make a more informed decision regarding buying a used vehicle.
I just want to find a safe car using resources I can afford!!!!!

As my 16yr old daughter would say “CAR JAM ROCKS”

Mind turning a blind eye so i can scrape the db via your site?
Out of intrest, how many records are in it?

Hi David, No scraping is not allowed. Sorry. Every request will go to NZTA (and it’s already a bottleneck). This will effect other users. Thanks.

Keep the basic information free NZTA!

It makes it so much easier to spot irregularities in cars (odometers or unauthorised turbos).

It is also very helpful for finding out basic information about a car, which often even the owner isn’t sure of (e.g. engine size)

Also useful for finding out what type of parts are required for servicing and repairs.

READ THIS to save confusing yourself , the common thread info about vehicles will still be available, Carjam makes money from your more indepth inquirys, the cant do that from jan 1st 2011, so the revenue they require will come from your simple vehicle inquirys, why they could not have been clear about this at the outset is they would appear to be the villan here, simply put anyone can apply to release this data to the public and there is a cost, this could be offset by advertising on the site, but the revenue that carjam has been used to will dry up in Jan, and as a business, they would like to keep making the same money without the backlash, they will NOT being charged anymore for the information they currently get.

Thank you Steve but you are incorrect. The free information we show on CarJam is free for us at the moment. From Jan 2011, we are being charged 16c per every query. It’s $240/months for 1.5 million free searches we deliver to the public and industry today. No advertising can cover this. Get your facts right mate!

Hey Anton, aside from the rest of the comment the idea of advertising isn’t a bad one, I mean really how much CAN you actually get from it? It could all be industry related, big name car retailers and motor vehicle organisations etc…I’m sure you must have researched the possibility to dismiss it offhand – what do the figures look like?

Anton, that should be $24000, not $240.

oh and I forgot to say, someone commented earlier that you could run credit accounts like Trademe does – I would be happy to pay per enquiry. If we were all paying say 20c per enquiry then you would wind up in credit which could pay your admin for setting up the credit accounts.

What are they thinking of? I use this almost daily just to get the basic information. I find it hard to decipher my boss’s handwriting but as long as he writes the rego in correctly, I can go to carjam to look up what the vehicle is. No one wants names and addresses of vehicle owners do they?. All we want is info that does not breach any privacy laws

i think you need to go to target or fair go they will sort it out and get it public so every body knows how much nzta are ripping us off

Amanda, you can maybe get a max of $10/1,000 impressions if you are lucky. This means 1 request gets a funding of 1c. We need 16c

It’s $240,000, ie $240K

Yes, this is one of the solutions we are considering at the moment. Unfortunately, we will have to add up cost of credit card transactions etc but it will surely be competitive. Business users are already enjoying the benefits of this but at the moment one needs to top up $100.

Once again yet another govt dept seeing how much money they can make from us!!! Enough is enough!! Day light robbery as usual.

This is a great web site & Im very disappointed to hear changes are proposed. Keep trying as we love your site just as it is now with all this information in 1 simple place.

@Anton…. Consider it done.

Absolutely ridiculous NZTA are a bunch of WANKERS. Along with the NZ Government. You cannot get the vehicle owners details or address from the free part of carjam. Get a life and do something good for New Zealanders.

just the other day we were looking at a 93 truck on trademe then looked up carjam only to find out the user road was only paid up till 93.000 while the truck had done 140.000 just think the headaches this would have caused us to sort out we use this site alot to check these things out before buying catches out tricksters trying to hide things a fantastic site

they should leave as is i have used carjam for a car check and found it to be a spammer that didn’t own the car!!
only did i find this out by getting information from carjam.
another government stuffup made by people that think they know better than anybody else under public interest, back to front if you ask me.
then you can opt out and have your information hidden??
good for criminals!!!

Please update your post with a link to the official announcement from NZTA so we can see EXACTLY what they are proposing.

Thanks,
Glen

great site for wofs millage etc what the hell owner info is not given so whats the harm?

Once again, the rotten government declares itself an enemy of the people. No problem to the crooked fatcat politicians, in their taxpayer provided chauffered limo’s, on full pay for life after just ten years of stuffing their faces at Bellamy’s. Rat pigs.

Time to get into the hot car business. Should be much easier now!

Obviously, the new law just makes vulnerable people more vulnerable. Rich people do not really care this small amount of money if they want to purchase vehicles. But poor people do! $30 can mean a lot for a family on benefit.

You pay a nominal fee to get an idea of the owners name, sex and suburb and if you have an uncommon name or you are well known it doesnt take an orangutang to get the adress, then you really dont feel too confident in bed at night or away on holiday especially if you have a phase 3 locked in the garage.
As for Anton, yes, but it takes another year before the name is removed from the phone book and then theres the electoral roll.
By all means, keep vehicle details BUT LOSE OWNER DETAILS.

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-qa.html

Have a look at No. 15 in the list at the above webbsite. It is only the names of private owners that will be withheld. However, if Carjam (and the public) are to be charged for every bit of info from LTSA, then this is not unexpected under the Nats, but how much???? Are we fighting over $5.00 or $50.00??
The number of stolen cars, or cars with non matching numbers being sold is already bad enough, unfortunately there is no social concience in Government if there is a way of recovering costs from the end user.
I think that each WoF should include a full printout of the vehicle history, I’d be happy to pay an extra $5.00 per wof to have that data.

okay every body, hold your horses. have a read of this:
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-qa.html

“15. What about technical and physical details of vehicles?
All details of a vehicle (make, model, colour, weight, engine capacity and fuel type, odometer reading, country of origin, whether imported used or new, vehicle inspection history, type of fuel, whether subject to a Warrant of Fitness or Certificate of Fitness, the number of owners, etc) will continue to be available.”

now i don’t know if it will be available for free as it currently is. however, it suggests it will be free.

Paul, it will be available but not for free.

Im about to shell out $470 for certifing my mods on my car. Where the hell does that money go ? this is just another money grab from this asshole government department.

Legal people who bother to cert their cars usually put high quality safe mods in and are not the problem on our roads, we are the poor sods who line the pockets of those pricks at the LTSA.

I was sad to hear about this. I personally base each car I buy on its carjam an vinz report an its AA test. Not only is this utterly disappointing but it also allows the dodgey people to get away with tampering odometers an fake plates ect. I don’t agree with this at all, and I think with all the hikes in gst,tax,food costs,registration fees an the lower wages an less jobs this is honestly pathetic and it can’t cost much $ per head of driving population to maintain this register.AND frankly even if it is costing “to much” we are paying for this with our rego fees as it is! So much crap going on in NZ atm and its making AUSTRALIA look really good about now..

Sam

I enjoy using car jam, lot of useful information, sad to see it go

Got me beat why they’d get rid of something like this. Surely it makes it easier than making a written Official Information or Privacy Act request?

As both of these acts have provision for members of the public to check information and ask for it to be corrected if in error, Carjam makes it easy to do this without having to employ another civil servant to process it.

Earlier this month I found out, through this site, that one of my vehicles was listed as having had its CoF run out 3 months ago,even though it had passed its inspection well before the due date. Anyone buying a report would have seen that and figured I had a dodgy sticker (not to mention what the Police might have thought if they’d seen it). Thanks to the free look up available I was able to find this information and get it corrected before it did too much harm.

How is this site less expensive for NZTA than having the same number of written requests delivered to them?

People need to read Dan’s comments from 8 July –

“Don’t jump the gun, read this:

http://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-law-changes.html

The law change only affects the release of personal information, meaning name and address of owner, not all the car details.” Cheers Dan!

The law change is NOT (underline NOT!!!) removing the free info we have access to via the likes of CarJam; it offers vehicle owners an option to restrict public access to JUST (underline JUST) the names and addresses held on the Motor Vehicle Register. Currently, anyone paying the fee can get your name and address from your numberplate for whatever they want to do with it (ever wonder how mail spammers get their address lists???). Vehicle owners now have an option to opt out of the release of their name and address.

And, it’s not from 1 Jan 2011, but from 1 April 2011 that this new law will come into effect.

Scott, this is an entirely different matter. NZTA is closing free access from Jan 2011. NZTA has not published this on the site as it does not affect public directly. It only affects public through CarJam which they do not care about.

Just another example of REVENUE MAKING bullshit of New Zealand! The Government in particular. This decision will leave the consumer MORE VULNERABLE to rip-off sellers and exposed to more risks in purchasing a vehicle. NZTA can simply get %&$.

I can’t get to the link that was posted for the MTA site earlier where it shows each item that will now be charged for per query (http://www.mta.org.nz/n431,page=2071.html).
They’ve changed it so you need to log in to see the news article.

This is the closest thing posted there now:
http://www.mta.org.nz/n2099.html

but people who keep saying this is about privacy laws – this is definitely a seperate issue. one that i can’t say i’m worried about – if people want more privacy concerning their personal details that’s absolutely fair enough. these personal details include name/sex/address etc and are only available only in the full purchasable reports on ANY site as far as I know. i will in fact be making sure my own details are private when this option becomes possible.

HOWEVER, i remember viewing the MTA table outlining the changes to the costs – when the link still worked – and it is the free stuff such as:
when the WOF and rego are due
if the odometer jumps back
the VIN
if the vehicle’s been registered overseas in the past
if the vehicle has been re-registered/had multiple plates
plus more technical information those who deal with car servicing on here find useful.

THIS is what NZTA wants to charge for – actually information that is VERY reasonable for the public to expect to be available for free. it certainly helps people weed out dodgy or undesirable cars when they’re purchasing, and as many tradespeople have said, things which help them provide a more timely and accurate service to their customers.

This is a money grab by the NZTA (and our government) and is disgusting in my opinion. People just want a fair go in this country, and Carjam helps provide a fantastic free service to its users. Yes our country is having some money issues (as are many), but stop treating the public like cash cows!

Anton – it would help to have an official link or list of what EXACTLY the charges will be for to put the argument to rest that this issue you are looking for our support on is about the privacy changes. Plus we can see exactly what information we will be missing out on (for free) when this new law passes.

Cheers.

The charges will be 16c per query. We cannot sustain giving 16c/query away for free as we have 1.5 million of free ones a month which is $240,000. In order to cover 16c with online purchase we will have to charge at least a $1 which is pretty inconvenient. NZTA does not realise people are not going to do this. Crime will increase as a result, safety of vehicle transactions will drop. They will get less revenue from CarJam and our competitors and their story of “cost recovery” will come to them as a real cost. They are currently making over $200K+/months from the non-free data. Which is heaps to cover the operation. It does not have any logic. Yes, looks like MTA closed the article off. We have been emailed about the charges.

With the 16c charge per query it will cause fraud onto the car industry. buyers would be vulnerable to the threat of sellers and hence could cause problem.

Those greedy little bureaucrats just can’t help themselves. Who do those clowns think they are working for. I always had the impression they worked for the taxpayer. Once again, they use the people they are suppose to be representing as a source of revenue.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXhttp://www.nzta.govt.nz/vehicle/registration-licensing/information-qa.html (Q&A on the law change)
They clearly state All details of a vehicle (make, model, colour, weight, engine capacity and fuel type, odometer reading, country of origin, whether imported used or new, vehicle inspection history, type of fuel, whether subject to a Warrant of Fitness or Certificate of Fitness, the number of owners, etc) will continue to be available.
They are only changing the law to prevent release of personal details.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

GOVERMENT IS DOING IT TO PROTECT CONSUMER’S PERSONAL INFO, SUCH AS NAME AND ADDRESSES.

IMAGING A STALKER SEEING A PRETTY LADY DRIVING A CAR, CAME TO CARJAM AND FIND OUT HER ADDRESS ETC.. STARTING TO STALK HER. I THINK IT’S UNREASONABLE TO PUBLISH DRIVER’S ADDRESSES ETC..

Ownership information is a separate issue and will come to effect on 1st of April 2011.

Vehicle details will continue to be available but not for free from Jan 2011.

The LTSA charge every motorist anually, I dont know of any business that charges its customers to find out about the state of there account, we all need to start ringing there 0800 numbers to to find out our account balances, the cost of staff to answer our calls would far outway any cost recovery they think they are due

Those who claim the imposition of charges for obtaining the information presently free on carjam is not the case and who refer you to the NZTA website have been conned. The NZTA website material is about effectively stopping the availability of names of owners and other information which has now to be paid for on carjam. It cunningly says nothing about the introduction of a cost to use the currently free information carjam provides and I have no doubt that nzta fully intends to stop the free information. Clever though, isn’t it – use the privacy provisions to restrict information which is currently charged for and then make good the downturn in income by charging for what is now free. Shame on NZTA and the government and all the self-serving little bureaucrats whose salaries are paid by us, the taxpayer and everlastingly ripped off motorist. Don’t let them get away with it.

I don’t like to think how much this will affect my work. I work for a small automotive repair shop and I am in and out of car jam all day. Such a great sight for the Automotive Industry. Please don’t let this happen.

I thought we as New Zealanders were meant to live in a democracy where our voice counts. It seems as every day passes we are being dictated to more and more what we can or cannot do, this is not right. Car Jam does not give away personal details so I fail to see how any one can justify outlawing free, HARMLESS information. Don’t let this happen!!

CARJAM has saved me many times from being ripped off by dodgy buyers and sellers. Come on NZ Govt, something needs to be free for the honest, hardworking citizen.

we need carjam

It seems govt. depts are constantly trying to justify their existance by coming up with changes that seem unnecessary, e.g. RUC, Why not just tax diesol at source? Now extra charges lumped onto the public for exactly what? Registration and tax already should more than cover costs, if not, why not, Govt, depts can not keep on loading charges and expect the public to keep on paying, there are more than enough unregistered and uninsured vehicles on the road now, the public just cannot sustain constant increases just to keep some public servant employed in a nothing job.

NZTA ARE A PACK OF HUMMERS, THIS HELPS U FIND OUT IF SOMEONE HAS DONE DODGY STUFF TO A CAR SO U CAN FIGURE OUT IF U WANT IT OR NOT, SO WHAT THEY WANT US TO BUY CARS THAT ARE PIECES OF #$%@ ??? LEAVE IT ON!!!! AND FREE STOP TRYING TO MAKE MONEY!!! U GOT HEAPS ALREADY ALL THEY WANT IS TO PUT THERE WAGES UP FOR THEM SELVES

have been buying cars for years now and car jam has saved me a heap load headaches please dont take this asset away from us

protect personal information. any one can buy a pre pay phone card ring the 0900 55 007 number and get anyone’s name and address. from a rego number!!!! y get rid of CARJAM

As a transport operator with vehicles spread throughout the country from Christchurch to Kaitaia, I use carjam on a daily basis to check on the legality of my own vehicles. I should not have to pay to access my own data. If I wish to add to our fleet the information is used to check on the legality of new vehicles.

Land Transport is a public organisation, & all people I have spoken to from Land Transport keep saying…”We are here to help!”… to the point where it sounds like a rote saying for cult indoctrination. In actual fact, in my experience, Land Transport seems to employ people with the sole purpose of getting more money out of the public to justify their own jobs.

Charging us again for a public service we have already paid for, is another example of this.

The country is currently in a recession. The Government sector may be saying differently, but it is about time someone listened to the general public (the voters) who are saying…”NO MORE ADDITIONAL CHARGES!” The public just cannot afford to subsidize any more bureaucracy.

i find carjam very useful at work when i have a large vehicle. i can check the weight of the vehicle and decide if it is safe to put on our 2 tonne hoist. my boss sure wouldnt pay for this service.

I personaly have the use of an opposition website. However I find this to be obserb, The public should be able to access some information on cars they are purchasing.

Its bad enough the country is trying to climb out of a recession, without being ripped off on one of the publics largest investments.

CarJam talks about helping people against dodgy sellers, but really what they are doing iis making money selling (because they do charge for the detailed information) private information to any criminal or sicko stalker that comes along. This is wrong and they should be shut down, they are helping criminals and stalkers get information the would not get if they had to go to a post office and show ID and show they have a legitimate reason to get the info.

April changes in regards to ownership privacy are good ones. CarJam already hides full address so you cannot really “find” the guy if one wants to stay anonymous. NZ Post does a really bad job of taking IDs and they give out full address. Please get your facts right before accusing.

We should all bring a class action lawsuit against the NZTA if they do something that increases crime rates. Then again, nobody seems to be talking about the fact it’s only about the personal details that gets the charge raised and this this is not really about revenue gathering but about improving everyones privacy – I actually support this move since it throttles the privacy abuse, and improves privacy.

Tom,
1. You cannot sue government/crown — we have checked this
2. Ownership changes coming in April are good ones.
3. The petition and argument at the moment is about free information which does not have any privacy issues.

Seriously, Get Campbell Live on it! He loves this kind of stuff. Ring tv3 and get some media attention on it. Target, Fair Go!

This service is a must for anyone looking to buy a car. Whether it be checking the odometer readings, whether the car is legal or not etc.

People who are in the auto industry e.g mechanics etc can check chassis numbers to make sure they get the right parts ordered just by running the plate.

This free service helps a lot of people and it must stay free.

Thanks to Carjam it is now obvious that most vehicles going through a WOF check have had their odometers recorded wrong at least once in their lives. For instance my own vehicle had it’s odometer recorded at 940,000km on the NZTA system when it had only done 94,000km at its last WOF check. It’s about time some of these WOF issuers smartened up their act a bit and started recording odometers more accurately. Why aren’t the NZTA following up on all the inaccurate odometer readings???

Yes, Shaun. It’s about right. It’s easy to get this fixed though. In most cases a ring to NZTA fixed it. Alternatively a more official way

Hi Frank. Trust us we have tried all we could. Media like CL, Couse UP etc are not interested. FairGo was interested but they closed for holidays and when reopen it’s too late. The minister was asked questions in the parliament through Labour MP and some contradictory answers were given by the ill-informed minister of transport. Such a shame this government scam is happening in New Zealand.

Mnmnmn. At yet another autocratic nanny state law. Who is the government to decide to do this when the general voice of the people said otherwise on the matter? I thought we were supposed to be a democracy, our voices are supposed to count but little by little through silly little laws being passed it shows me how our freedoms are being usurped by a minority of politicians who know nothing of the real world. (When last did a politician need to use carjam?)

Carjam really assisted me to make the RIGHT choice when purchasing a vehicle.
I feel as motorists the government has already penalised us enough and harassed us with enough levies, fees, taxes, rises, etc all of which suddenly become magically “justifiable” to the government.

Ridiculous, willful and reckless passing of this law when we as motorists said no shows me that we are slowly turning into “The peoples Republic of New Zealand” with “Dear dictators”.