The new Minister for Transport, Steven Joyce, says vehicles with modified exhausts will not be required to pass an objective noise test.
Six months after the introduction of tougher laws for noisy cars, one Dunedin resident says he is still woken by boy racers' modified exhaust systems.
Police question whether the problem is still as prevalent but say adjustable exhaust systems are being used to flout the law.
Vehicle Testing New Zealand (VTNZ) Dunedin manager Graeme Lewis says decibelmeasuring equipment would make the test more objective.
But Mr Joyce says the cost would be prohibitive.
On June 1, the government introduced more stringent requirements which reduced the noise limit to 90 decibels for vehicles manufactured after January 1, 1985, and for all vehicles with modified exhausts.
‘‘So why are they still on the road?'' asked an angry St Kilda resident who did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals by the boy racers who he said regularly drove down his street.
‘‘It's been six months since the law change, so they should have all had a Warrant of Fitness test by now,'' he said.
‘‘They should all be off the road.''
Police strategic traffic unit Constable Andrew Norton said drivers flouting the noise law could be fined $150 for having an exhaust system that was continuously excessively noisy or could be fined $50 and given 25 demerit points for driving a car in an excessively noisy manner.
Police in the Dunedin area have issued 92 notices in relation to noisy and defective vehicles since June 1.
Of those, 73 were issued in the first three months after the law changes. ‘‘I think it is having an impact,'' Const Norton said. ‘‘But we can't be everywhere at once.
‘‘We urge the public to continue to call us when there are problems.''
Const Norton said some vehicles had adjustable exhaust systems with silencers which could be easily removed after the vehicle had passed a Warrant of Fitness test.
Mr Lewis had seen vehicles with adjustable exhausts but said VTNZ branches did not warrant such vehicles.
But subjective noise tests meant that, in practice, different standards were applied despite the law change, he said.
‘‘There can be a lot of variance around town,'' Mr Lewis said. ‘‘It comes down to the inspector on the day.''
He favoured a law change to make decibel meters a requirement for testing.
In response, Mr Joyce said the Ministry of Transport was not looking at requiring Warrant of Fitness and Certificate of Fitness inspectors to have full decibel-measuring equipment.
‘‘Requiring specialist decibel-measuring equipment for every testing agent would be prohibitively costly and would require specialist training,'' he said.
