The price of indolence

J.G. Vassallo's opinion piece (November 1) makes interesting reading. He is quite rightly worried about the disastrous state of a number of public transport vehicles and the many thousands of obsolete junks that pollute the air we breathe. Although he has made a number of valid observations, we believe some of his comments merit a reply.

We think it is fundamentally wrong, not to say unscientific, to lump together all the issues mentioned by Mr Vassallo, so let us try to unravel the problem into its component parts.

Regarding old buses, quite apart from the question of when, or how, to replace our bus fleet, it is incorrect to attribute air pollution to old buses only. The real culprits are mainly the thousands of (relatively) modern cars that are being retro-fitted in Malta with second-hand Japanese diesel engines.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with fitting a diesel engine to a car, but what is happening locally is that engines are being fitted without their anti-pollution ancillaries, because many owners naively think this can enhance performance and because most mechanics do not know (or care) about all the extra pipework involved to make a diesel engine run more or less smoke-free.

Moreover, the situation is worsened when diesel injector pumps and/or turbo wastegates are tampered with. The results are there for all to see - thousands of cars belching out thick black smoke.

Regarding the VRT, here Mr Vassallo is basically stating that what is needed is a credible VRT. He has a point. However, we do not agree that roadworthiness and vehicle-age are necessarily linked as he seems to be implying.

If a vehicle is correctly maintained, roadworthy and passes a serious VRT, then it doesn't matter how old it is. On the other hand, a two-year-old poorly-maintained vehicle can be a polluting death-trap.

Our sorest point must be with what he wrote about the 'cost to the nation' of spare parts and insurance for old vehicles. It is simply not true that high insurance and spare parts costs and availability are necessarily linked to vehicle age.

Older classic vehicles are catered for by dedicated clubs, marque specialists, parts suppliers and enthusiasts based abroad, whose prices are reasonable.

Just compare and contrast the prices of these classic vehicle parts, with the hundreds of Maltese liri one must pay for, say, just one headlamp for some modern German or Japanese cars. The repair bill for a moderate front-end crash involving a modern vehicle, where a couple of headlamps, a grille, a front panel, a bumper and a couple of badges are replaced, can run into thousands of liri.

We have every admiration for modern cars and motorcycles because they are often fine examples of safety, performance, comfort and economy, with jewel-like engineering. However, what we oppose is having their high parts and insurance costs camouflaged by shifting the blame on to older classic vehicles and their easier-to-target owners.

Mr Vassallo also seems to link car theft and cannibalisation for parts with older vehicles. Does he think that modern Porsches, BMWs, Mercedes, Alfas and others don't get stolen for parts too? Just ask the insurers!

The FMVA (Federazzjoni Maltija Vetturi Antiki) was set up in 1998 and comprises the Historic Motorcycle Club, the Military Vehicles Collectors Club and the Old Motors Club. Since its inception the federation has been lobbying the authorities to introduce better conditions for classic vehicle owners and fairer first registration and road licence costs.

Our federation is concerned about the creeping mentality that all our traffic, insurance and environmental problems seem to arise from old vehicles.

Incidentally, we are also very concerned that increasing personal and national affluence has slowly given rise to a 'throwaway culture' where future priceless classics are just fed into a crusher with no thought to preserving some of our heritage.

The FMVA supports articles like Mr Vassallo's - so long as their main thrust is against the real offenders (perhaps the subject of another article of an altogether more political nature).

We too would like to breathe a cleaner environment and drive on safer roads. We too would like to see more true junks disappear, but not at the expense of bona fide classic vehicle enthusiasts who do so much to preserve and enrich our historic motoring culture and who try so hard to promote another facet of so-called 'special interest' tourism.

Mr Zerafa is public relations officer, Federazzjoni Maltija Vetturi Antiki, FMVA.