‘A car is for life’ could have been a fitting maxim at the turn of the millennium, when Malta’s car fleet had an average age of 24 years.
Morris Marinas and Ford Escorts were still a common sight on the roads in 2001, when Fabrizio Faniello was singing Another Summer Night at the Eurovision song contest.
The odd specimen can still be seen driving in our roads today but figures obtained from Transport Malta show the average age of the car fleet has more than halved.
Statistics show that last year the average age of the car fleet stood at 14 years. Motorcycles also saw their average age drop to 14 years last year from a whopping 28 years in 2001.
Tonio Darmanin, who hosts the TV motor show Paqpaq, attributed the rejuvenation process to the various car scrappage schemes rolled out over the years.
But despite the improvement, he was not impressed by the average age achieved so far.
“The schemes that encouraged motorists to replace their old cars with new ones helped get rid of the ancient cars on our roads but 14 years is still very bad compared to the rest of Europe,” Mr Darmanin said.
The schemes that encouraged motorists to replace their old cars with new ones helped get rid of the ancient cars on our roads
A study conducted by the European Environment Agency in 2009 found that the average age of passenger cars across the EU stood at eight years while that of motorcycles stood at 13 years.
The lowest average age for 2009 was observed in Luxembourg (four years) while fellow Mediterranean countries Greece and Cyprus registered an average of 15 years.
Car fleet growing young
The figures indicate that more has to be done to improve the average age of the car fleet, according to Mr Darmanin.
“A permanent and enhanced car scrappage scheme is an option but the high registration tax on new cars would still act as a barrier,” he said.
The current system encourages people to opt for second-hand vehicles imported from the UK and Japan because the newer, more efficient and cleaner versions are more expensive, he added.
“By their very nature second-hand cars are already aged by a few years so what has to be done is a reduction in the registration tax of new cars to encourage a continuous rejuvenation of the car fleet,” Mr Darmanin said.
He insisted such a move would not have a negative impact on the government’s tax-take because the government will be collecting a lower percentage of tax on cars of a higher value rather than a higher percentage on cars of a lower value.
kurt.sansone@timesofmalta.com