2009 HONDA CITY is HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[SPQR]

These laws are there to protect our own local car industry I am lead to believe. Make sure we sell enough Fords and Holdens so that the aussies are employed. Sounds cynical but correct me if I'm wrong.

But that's my opinion based on what others have said, would love to hear it from someone from the industry.

Once up a time, before the "Button Plan", the Oz design rules, the import tariffs, the import parity and quota systems were designed to keep other cars out of Oz but now every man and his dog sells cars in Oz. Even the yanks think they can sell their horrible designs here because there are many young people here and now influenced by US culture. Our tariff rates have slowly come down and are supposed to reduce to 5% (they're at 10% at the moment).

Oz design rules are slowly being brought into line with more common world standards as a result of the free trade process; a cause for which Oz is a champion. Limits on what does come here are now more to do with the value of the Oz dollar or simply a "terms of trade" matter: Oz dollar goes down and so imports get expensive and vice versa.

I said they're lax by our standards. Our import laws are strict.

Could you expand on his insightful statement?

NZ laws aren't lax even by our standards. They are just designed for the realities of their small market; otherwise no one would bother selling new cars there. They don't miss out on safety equipment or other latest technology.

Insightful in it's simple perception of the market realities for Oz. Honda Australia models have carefully selected equipment levels designed to meet minimum standards, surpass some others that are not too costly and have a small 'wow' factor above market expectation just to ensure the right level of competitiveness for the given market. True in all markets even in Japan where one should go to buy a Japanese model designed for the Japanese market and its idiosyncrasies.