Standards for light vehicles

Updated: 2 December 2009

Light vehicles include cars, motorcycles, mopeds, vans, people-movers, trailers including horse floats and caravans, and small buses. These vehicles can be particularly vulnerable in crashes with heavy vehicles. That's why vehicle manufacturers invest significantly in occupant protection systems. These include safety belts and frontal impact systems. New Zealand's vehicle standards for these and other vehicle features are designed to keep you and other road users safe when you're on the road.

Frontal impact standards

Frontal impact systems are one of the key safety features in today's vehicles because they can reduce the trauma and level of injury in crashes. The systems include:

advanced safety belts
airbags
crumple-zones at the front of the vehicle
head restraints.

Manufacturers submit prototype vehicles for crash-testing with instrumented crash-test dummies. Where 'injury' to the dummies proves acceptably low, the vehicle is certified as meeting the standard, and the manufacturer must apply the prototype design to all vehicles in the production run. Vehicles from that production run are then considered to meet a frontal impact standard.

All Class MA passenger vehicles entering New Zealand must have been manufactured to meet a frontal impact standard if they are to go on the road, unless they are more than 20 years old. You may be able to check whether your vehicle complies from our frontal impact lists. These lists include vehicles manufactured during 1994-1996 when frontal impact standards were still being developed. They therefore apply mainly to used imports.

Frontal impact standards are also required for Class MB and Class MC vehicles entering New Zealand if they were manufactured after 1 October 2003.

Find out how you can show your vehicle was manufactured to meet a frontal impact standard.

Learn more about other vehicle safety features.

Light vehicles and road safety

Any injuries or loss of life on New Zealand roads is unacceptable. Through road safety strategies, we're working to improve the safety of travelling on our roads. Strategies include interventions such as regulations, education and safety promotion - activities all aimed at getting New Zealand's road toll down.

You can improve your safety on the road by choosing vehicles that incorporate the latest engineering advances such as electronic stability control and intelligent braking systems. Such engineering advances are a component of the latest road safety strategy Road safety to 2020 (external link).

Learn more about making safe vehicle choices.

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