Honda vents anger at design rules

The differences between European and Australian design rules are costing Australian consumers money and new models. That's the view of Honda Australia's Senior Director and General Manager, Marketing, Lindsay Smalley, who has expressed his frustration at the inability for the Australian federal government to synchronize the Australian Design Rules with the equivalent European regulations.

Speaking at the launch of the new Honda Civic Si last week Smalley said the differences were responsible for the delay getting the British-built five-door hatch to the local market. There were a number of issues that required changes between the British and Australian versions of the car. Smalley says the cost of those modifications is picked-up by new car buyers.

The Civic Si will start at $38,990 -- a massive $16,000 difference over the Asian-sourced Civic sedan -- and there will only be 420 units available in Australia. Those two issues are in large part a result of the difficulty getting the car to meet ADR compliance.

"The industry is pushing very hard with the Australian government to harmonise all regulations with European regs," Smalley said. "I think Australia, as a government, signed up to an agreement to do this almost 50 years ago and we're almost there. The last 12 months there have been a bundle of small, inconsequential regulations that have been bundled together and pushed through but there are still some significant differences in European spec and Australian. We urge the government [and] the bureaucracy to work closely with the engineering departments in Europe and similar government bodies to agree on standards.

"What's happening is that cost for compliance specifically for ADR is passed on to consumers. Australian consumers are paying for it and whether the ADR is technically better than EU regs, I'm not an engineer I can't judge. But I'm sure the European community are just as focused on a safety outcome as our bureaucrats in Canberra."

Smalley added later that Honda, along with other unnamed car companies, were using the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries to push the cause with the government.

"The FCAI have a compliance group and they spend their lives lobbying Canberra and the bureaucrats. I don't think it's a political interference, I think it's a bureaucratic interference with the process," he said.

According to Smalley the most significant differences between the two regulations relate to the front three-quarter offset crash testing, child restraints and windscreen thickness. He said changes to bring the rules into line with one another could mean cheaper cars and better supply for Australia.