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This paper explains how data gathered by third year undergraduate automotive students revealed weaknesses in compliance issues within automotive businesses. Over a two year period, four cohorts of students examined a range of workshops - focusing on how these businesses conducted their activities in accordance with relevant New Zealand legislation. Supervision of students consisted of weekly meetings when they were reminded about the details of the main regulatory areas they needed to take into account when observing workshop practice. The supervisor also detailed the ethical procedures needed and stressed that they were not to inquire about economic aspects of the businesses, nor to report on it if they did receive such information. Data collection methods by students included New Zealand government websites, as well as visual observations and photographs, and interviews with key staff within garages.

Data used for meta-analysis by the supervisor was only from the top students' reports, in order to eliminate rogue data. This revealed that the numbers of compliance failures were appearing on such a regular basis that it became essential that these findings should be brought to the attention of the automotive industry and its regulators. The paper concludes with recommendations for compliance improvements.

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