hey, Dougal, wise us up: what kind of vehicles does a guy commonly see in New Zealand? I mean like cool trucks or cars that aren't found elsewhere? Holdens? Are there many swappers or hotrodders?
We get a decent range.
By far the majority are japanese vans, utes (pickups) and sedans. Just like the Russians we have a habit of buying used vehicles out of japan, shipping them over here and driving them till the wheels fall off.
Out of japan comes a whole slew of high performance cars that the average ricer would kill for. Nissan skylines are a dime a dozen, as are Subaru WRX's, Suburu RS cars (twin turbo) even Mazda and mitsubishi have pumped out turbocharged cars for years.
We get the aussie tanks too, Holden (GM) and Ford with their large cars for some strange reason dominate the new car sales. I suspect the police force and other fleet buyers are solely responsible for this.
The commerical and light industrial range is all japanese. Biggest selling ute is the Toyota Hilux (Toyota pickup in the US), biggest selling van is the Toyota Hiace. Both of these are much smaller than the average US pickup or van.
Our roads here are full of corners so the US vehicles don't fare so well. We see the occasional US vehicle, jeep would have the biggest presence with a few Dodge Rams, PT Cruisers and 300C's rounding out the mix.
The offroad scene is pretty much Toyota, Nissan and landrover (rangerover). All offered with a slew of diesel engines that the US doesn't get.
European cars have always had a big presence here, secondary to the japanese and Australian but well ahead of the US vehicles. The euro's are only now offering their diesels in decent numbers with good takeup (>50% in volkswagon golf). Our diesel only became low sulphur a couple of years ago.
