New Year Quiz time courtesy of Dog & Lemon Guide – a great information source about all things automotive! 

CarJam wish you a Happy New Year with a $1,000 prize in the form of MTA gift vouchers for the lucky winner!

All you need to do to enter is:

• be a registered CarJam user
• “Like” CarJam on Facebook
• submit the correct answers to the questions below

MTA Vouchers can be used for fuel, services and store items at more than 4000 locations nationwide.

The quiz closes on the 31st March 2012 and the winner will be selected and announced on Facebook on April 1st 2012 – so they won’t be an April fool

Please read the terms and conditions of entry below the quiz.

Register for free here if you’re not already a Carjam registered user!

Cheers and Happy New Year!
- Team CarJam

By clicking Submit you confirm you have read and understand the following Terms and Conditions of this Quiz:

Terms and Conditions of the CarGym Workout Quiz

1. Competition entries must be submitted using your registered Carjam user email address and your Facebook name.
2. A single prize of $1,000 worth of MTA Vouchers, not exchangeable for any cash equivalent or other prize, will be awarded to a randomly selected submission which Carjam deem to qualify for the prize according to these terms and conditions.
3. The competition is not open to employees of “CarJam Online” or “Dog and Lemon”.
4. The winner must be a registered Carjam user and their personal Facebook user page must “like” Carjam’s Facebook page to qualify for the prize.
5. All 10 questions must be answered correctly and Carjam’s decision on the correctness of the answers is final and absolute.
6. The competition closes on the 31st March 2012 and the winning submission will be selected on the 1st April 2012.
7. Only one submission per registered CarJam user is permissible – multiple submissions will be disqualified.

What’s it for?

Registered users can upload their own photos of vehicles to show the world ….

• why I love my ride -  post pictures of the shiny bits, what’s under the hood (literally), what it looks like when its just polished or maybe covered in mud if you are in a 4 wheel drive club! When you are telling someone about your beast they can just “Carjam It” later.
• what it looks like for potential buyers if you are selling it privately on the road side - make it simple for people to see the details when they get home – just remember the rego and “Carjam It”
• just giving the virtual thumbs up to a motorized beauty you’ve seen and snapped cruising the highways of Aotearoa! Just “Carjam It”
• advertise your business for free by uploading a photo of your vehicle and add a caption with your contact details - people don’t need to scribble down your number as your vehicle goes by just remember the rego and “Carjam It”!
• lots of other reasons we haven’t thought of yet!

Like!

Your friends and club members can “like”  your pictures – see how many “likes” you can get!

Here’s something we like:

http://www.carjam.co.nz/car/?plate=shark2

Roadside Selling

From now on if you are selling a vehicle with an ad in its window you can just point the reader to Carjam with the rego. How much simpler is that than writing down all the info and trying to remember what it looked like when you get home!

Although there have been many changes that appeared to have erased that possibility, we have introduced some new features that will see an eventual return to free reports whenever we can do that, which are explained at the end of this email. Please read the following information carefully as all of these changes affect you, our valued customers.

Over the past five months the NZTA have introduced many new changes to the way in which Carjam can provide vehicle data. These changes have at times produced confusion and disruption to our Users, and we have decided to write this release to clarify exactly how these changes affect what you receive in your reports.

On January 1st 2011, the NZTA imposed a “User Pays” system to access vehicle data from the Motor Vehicle Register (MVR). This ‘public’ register is paid for through licensing, WOF and other vehicle fees. As you are aware this created significant outrage and together with our Users we created a petition which gathered more than 25,000 signatures and more than 5,000 personal emails to Minister Stephen Joyce. Although our voices were – quite incredibly – not heard, your support was overwhelming and humbling.

The result of these changes meant that Basic Facts data incurred a fee. To offset this, we decided that we would give our Users 3 free reports per month, for which we would absorb the cost as a sign of good faith and appreciation for all your support. We also introduced business accounts at a considerably reduced rate to ease the burden on our frequent users who were now faced with extra running costs for their businesses and were reliant on that information to survive.

On May 1st 2011, the NZTA introduced a new law, an amendment to the Land Transport Act, which would ‘significantly restrict access’ to ownership information. This new law means that full ownership information can only be given for the following purposes:

• enforcement of the law
• maintenance of the security of New Zealand
• collection of charges imposed or authorised by an enactment; and
• the administration and development of transport law and policy.

If you are registered under the Motor Vehicle Trade Register (MVTR) or the Financial Services Provider Register (FSPR), you can apply through us to have access to that information under terms and conditions set by the NZTA. You can now also find these in our Terms & Conditions.

What does this mean for the casual public user?

Under this new law, the public no longer has access to personal information. You can however use Carjam to “Confirm Ownership”. To do this, click on the link shown on our home page and you will be asked to enter: a) an owner’s surname, and b) their first name or date of birth, and you will receive confirmation of whether the ownership identity is correct. Company details will remain available.

On May 1st 2011, the NZTA also introduced additional fees for ”Outstanding Road User Charges and History (RUC)”, which has always been included in the Basic Facts reports.

All these changes forced us to rethink our pricing many times this year – as a result the following table outlines all the prices for report components from Carjam as of today:

This means our Registered Users will now be getting a comprehensive vehicle report for $9.97 – less than $10.00!

Despite having to charge for things that we don’t want to, our goal remains to provide the public with as much free vehicle data as we can.

Therefore, we have introduced some changes of our own!

Over many months, we have been ‘storing’ all the data from the reports our Users have queried. From now on, when you enter a number plate into our system, it will search this database, and if we have it – we will give it to you for free.

Many of our Users want static information – things that do not change over time, such as VIN and chassis numbers. These free reports will fulfil that function where we can provide them.

However, as this data is stored at the time it is queried, some ‘non-static’ data (such as license and WOF expiries) may be out of date. Please check the timestamp at the top of the report carefully to see how old it is. If you need an updated report, you can still purchase this or use a free lookup by clicking on ‘update’ in the report.

Our ‘Stolen Check’ information is automatically updated in both free and paid reports. There is no additional charge for this information.

Changes to our site: www.carjam.co.nz

You will have noticed changes to the way our site looks and operates. We understand that the integration of these new NZTA changes has at times produced frustration and we apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.

However we have taken your comments on board, and have now created what we hope is a more user friendly tool to access vehicle data.

Your feedback is important to us, so please continue to let us know how we can improve and serve you better.

Kind regards,

The Team at Carjam

Consumer Information Notice now includes a Fuel Economy Label. And it’s free with every  CIN which is free with every full CarJam Report.

As consumers and voters, we are horrified at this proposal. At present the basic information from the NZTA database is available through CarJam.

CarJam passes this information on as a public service for free. For example, you can currently find out if a car has been reported stolen or if the odometer has been tampered with at no charge (and lots more!).

This service will end under the NZTA’s announcement.

The NZTA claims that these proposed new charges are necessary for cost recovery. However, this information has already been paid for by the public in the form of licensing fees, registration fees, WOF and COF costs. It belongs to the motorists of New Zealand. We do not have to pay for it twice.

Crime and fraud statistics are high and this proposal will undoubtedly result in an increase in ordinary people getting ripped off.

Email the Minister (from the front page), sign a petition, place your comments below and continue to FB about it.

Please note this is an update to a previous announcement.

Stolen vehicle can now be checked for free

Previously only available for purchase this free information represents a breakthrough in crime prevention.

If you are purchasing a vehicle or worried about dodgy vehicles in your neighborhood then what could be more useful than quickly and freely determining if a vehicle is stolen as reported to the police. Only from CarJam!

Consumer Information Notice

Also available in this site upgrade when you purchase a Security Interest report a free Consumer Information Notice – mandatory if you are a dealer and very, very useful if you are selling privately to reassure your prospective buyers of the reliable facts about your car.

Odometer history and vehicle usage are now eye-candy

Odometer and usage graphs now show the basic history of a vehicle in an easy to understand visual format with any irregularities highlighted to avoid confusion.

In another market changing innovation from carjam.co.nz, the fastest growing automotive site in New Zealand, we are offering a special introductory promotional pricing of $6.85 for Account holders (excluding Dealers Guide module). This compares to our retail pricing of $12 per report and is the cheapest way to buy multiple complete reports for businesses available in the market place today.

Read more on our Accounts Program

Also in this site update:

• Increased promotional discounts for one off report purchases – $9.85 for registered users (excluding Dealers Guide module)
• Smart phone friendly layout for the mobile CarJammer on the move
• New CarJam page on Facebook where we’ll be making all our pre-release announcements first in the future and linked to our Twitter account if you prefer tweets. Become a fan today!
• Valuation report module turned on providing the most cost effective “Dealers Guide” vehicle valuation available to the public

For some types of vehicles the VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) , shown in our lowest priced Basic report, can be used as a guide and the 10th digit represents the “Model Year”. This however is not always entirely reliable either as different manufacturers in different regions can sometimes use a different encoding in the VIN including vehicles imported from Japan before 1999 for which the VIN usually begins “7A8″ as stamped by the LTSA at that time.

A physical inspection or pre-purchase will often determine the actual year of manufacture from additional build data in various places on a vehicle.

CARJAM (New Zealand’s number 1 source of vehicle reports) and the TSI group of companies (New Zealand’s number 1 provider of Dealer Management Software) are proud to bring to the public, for the very first time, access to the same information used by vehicle dealers nationwide to understand and assess the value of the vehicles they trade.

Ever wondered how dealers establish their pricing? Now you can find out exactly what a vehicle is worth in the eyes of the industry directly from CARJAM at http://carjam.co.nz, this is not a guess at the value from an uninformed source, the Dealers’ Guide is based on hard data sourced directly from within the automotive industry and compiled by TSI.

Not only is the data the most accurate guide to New Zealand trade pricing for the public, its the best value with an introductory price of just $5 when purchased as part of a standard CARJAM report.

Established in 1959, to provide Estimated and Actual pricing statistics for the Motor Industry, the Dealers’ Guide has grown to become one of New Zealands largest collections of Motor Vehicle Sales Statistics.

Click here : http://www.carjam.co.nz/cms/dealers-guide/ to learn more about the Dealers’ Guide and how it can help you assess the true value of any deal trade or private.

About CarJam: http://www.carjam.co.nz/cms/about/

About TSI Group: http://www.tsinz.co.nz/aboutus/

The Sunday Star Times ran the story “Car dealer conceals crash histories” on August 23rd 2009.

It includes the following advice to buyers in side panel of  the print version to check CarJam to look for any evidence in reports of vehicles being written off:

How to spot a car that’s been in a crash
Have the vehicles ownership history checked out by doing an AA LemonCheck or visiting carjam.co.nz. If it says anywhere on the history “registration has been cancelled”, that is a telltale sign the vehicle could have been written off by an insurance company.

Check how AA and CarJam prices compare.