FCAI

The Federal Opposition has accused the Government of being "asleep at the wheel" following a voluntary emissions scheme announced by the car industry last month. Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy, Mark Butler, criticised the Government for its "inaction" for failing to implement emissions targets, which he says makes Australia an outlier among OECD nations.

The hail storm that lashed Canberra in late January has delivered a boom in new-car sales as the rest of the market hit the brakes. Official figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries for March show sales of new cars in the Australian Capital Territory increased by a staggering 77 per cent compared to the same month the previous year (from 1700 to almost 3000 vehicles) – as the overall market nationally fell by 18 per cent.

Toyota Australia has shut down the import and sale of fake Toyota-badged grilles, the company announced this week, as part of its long-running fight against counterfeit parts sales to service centres and the general public. The part and panel distributor had been selling aftermarket versions of Toyota grilles that the carmaker claims “can be far worse than people realise as there is zero testing, no legal regulation and very little recourse for consumers if the part is ineffective or unsafe."

Australia's recall of potentially deadly Takata airbag inflators is almost 80 per cent complete, new data from the Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has revealed. The latest ACCC figures show 3.2 million airbags (78.9 per cent) have been replaced during the Takata recall campaign, leaving 600,000 vehicles (14.8 per cent) on the road with Takata airbag inflators still fitted.

EXCLUSIVE The car industry plans to use a precedent set by tobacco distributors in 1997 in an attempt to stop state governments across Australia from imposing an additional stamp duty on luxury vehicles.