Spot-check!

AUSTRALIAN car manufacturers have welcomed moves to make vehicle identification marking quicker and more integrated but have refused to commit to its widespread implementation, despite forthcoming laws in New Zealand that will make microdots mandatory.

Coming on the back of news that DataDot Technology was moving ahead with a robotic vehicle identification applicator, which will reduce the application time from seven minutes to 40 seconds per vehicle, Mitsubishi Australia spokesman Kevin Taylor said the company was interested in anything that sped up the process.

Currently, Mitsubishi only uses microdot marking on its low-volume high-performance Evo Lancer. To offer it on its 380 range would require the use of a high-speed integrated system on the factory floor.

"It’s a matter of being able to do it easily, cheaply and conveniently in the build process," said Mr Taylor. "To get volumes from OEMs on a 380 or even a Commodore is a different issue." Mitsubishi would look at any vehicle identification system if it was viable, he said.

Toyota, Holden and Ford were also aware of the technology but all told GoAuto this week that it was too early to comment on a likely outcome of the use of the robotic machinery.

DataDot Technology hopes its robotic system can be integrated on the production line at a point before the engine and transmission is fitted into a car. Currently the application is usually done off-line as a manual process, making high-volume usage largely impossible.

However, Subaru manages to place microdots on all its 36,000-odd vehicles at various locations around Australia each year and has done so since 2003.

Subaru Australia spokesman David Rowley said there was no doubt the system worked. When Subaru first offered the system on its high-performance WRX models, as well as a keypad immobiliser, thefts of the popular joy-riding machine in the first year went from 130 to just five.

Holden uses the system on its HSV models and Ford on its FPV cars, while Toyota reserves it for its Lexus range.

Toyota Australia spokesman Peter Griffin said there were no current plans to introduce it across the Toyota range.

"We are aware of the grant to DataDot Technology," he said.

Another issue Australian car-makers must factor in is a decision by the New Zealand Government to make vehicle identification marking mandatory on new and used vehicles up to 15 years old by 2007.

Mr Griffin said Toyota was looking at the proposed NZ situation "to clearly understand what it means for us".

The National Theft Reduction Council and insurance companies are actively campaigning for the broader adoption of vehicle marking to help prevent theft and car re-birthing by criminal gangs.

Australia has one of the highest car theft rates in the western world, with a car stolen every six minutes, amounting to about 85,000 thefts annually. The cost to the community is about $1 billion in legal and insurance fees.