Car sightings in New Zealand #2

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We test-drove this Mitsubishi van. I really liked the 5-in-the-tree, but my wife did not. Canada did not have stand-alone Mitsubishi dealers until the early 2000s. All Mitsus sold here until then we rebadged as Dodges or Plymouths. As Chrysler already had its own minivans, we didn't get these in Canada. I did see a very similar Mitsu van in the Minneapolis-St Paul area in '92 or '93 though, so I guess they were imported into the US.



Here's a beautiful '61 Impala in RH drive. The welded-chain steering wheel didn't do much for me though.





These Mitsu Delica Space Gear vans were very popular. I now see an occasional one here, but I sure thought they were strange-looking when I first spotted them in NZ. They look very unstable, and I did see a couple that had flipped over.





This is very similar to our '97 Mazda MPV. I love the rear spoiler, and am pleased to know that the van was "fostered robustly in the U.S.A."
smile.gif





Another odd duck (by Canadian standards). Most RX-3s were 2-door hatchbacks. I don't recall ever seeing a 4-door sedan here. This body style was available here as a Mazda 808, with a conventional piston engine.



Here's a rather staid Studebaker, apparently used as a daily driver.




These old LandCruisers sell for a fortune here in this condition. I don't think I've ever seen the pick-up truck version in Canada.




Here's a fairly ancient Valiant. This basic body style was used here for the '67 through '76 model years. I'd put this one at the early end of that.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Originally Posted By: 63Marauder
The shifter is "on the tree" not in the tree

Aieee! You're correct, per Wiki and various other sources:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/3-on-the-tree
I've always said 'three in the tree', along with all my peers. Regional variation here in the Great White North?

Was there ever a camper version of your MPV? I've seen a few Delica's with a popup roof and set up with a bit of a lift and AT tires, on their way across the country, at my regular gas station.
 
Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Was there ever a camper version of your MPV? I've seen a few Delica's with a popup roof and set up with a bit of a lift and AT tires, on their way across the country, at my regular gas station.

I'm almost certain there haven't been - although there have been a few homegrown MPV conversions on MPVclub.com.

Mazda did offer a camper version of their Bongo van - these are now starting to trickle into Canada. I'd probably buy one but for the RH drive. Here's the first hit that came up, which happens to be a UK site:

http://www.freespiritautos.co.uk/category/vehicles/campervans/mazda-bongo-campervans/

 
Thanks for the pics.
I wanted my sister to buy the Mazda van (as a '99 in the US).

An Aussie / New Z question: Of the "non native/UK/Japan" vehicles you've seen, how many have truly built in RHD vs. a hidden chain within the dash?
Express your answer as a percentage.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
Originally Posted By: 63Marauder
The shifter is "on the tree" not in the tree

Aieee! You're correct, per Wiki and various other sources:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/3-on-the-tree
I've always said 'three in the tree', along with all my peers. Regional variation here in the Great White North?

I've owned a three on the tree and a four on the tree (both in Winnipeg), so perhaps your regional variation was elsewhere.

Three on the tree is, most likely, a rhyming back formation of four on the floor, so "in the tree" would have limited usage. Yours is the first I've come across.

But four on the tree never did scan. What's needed is a rhyming word for four that means steering column. Impossible, so we're stuck with four (and five — another first for me) on the tree.
 
Originally Posted By: Uphill_Both_Ways
I've owned a three on the tree and a four on the tree (both in Winnipeg), so perhaps your regional variation was elsewhere.

Three on the tree is, most likely, a rhyming back formation of four on the floor, so "in the tree" would have limited usage. Yours is the first I've come across.

But four on the tree never did scan. What's needed is a rhyming word for four that means steering column. Impossible, so we're stuck with four (and five — another first for me) on the tree.

My 'three in the tree' days were in Edmonton and later Kamloops, so it could have been regional, or perhaps I just misheard and never saw the phrase in print. The Edmonton accent (back in the 70s) was an odd one, with the soft 'i' pronounced as a soft 'e' (as in "I drank too much melk and feel seck now") so I think I misheard/misunderstood a lot of things. We had moved there from Regina, where people sound a lot like Winnipeggers.

As a bonus, in NZ the column-mounted 5-speed shift lever was on the left-hand side of the column. OK for me as a lefty, but a bridge too far for my wife.
 
I thought manufacturers kissed standard-transmission column shifters goodbye in the '60s or early '70s. Was there something blocking a floor shifter? Or maybe it was a cosmic ray hitting the assembly line, causing a genetic throwback.

Where was fifth? Toward the dash and down?
 
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I bought a 1980 Nissan C-20 Van in NewZealand for 400NZ$ in 2000. It had 4 speed column shift. Took some getting used to. The tranny was real loud but I got one from a junkyard that was a lot quieter for about 80$ and the same for installation.

Drove that Van around the south Island 3 times over 3 months and then 6 months on the North Island, rarely paying for accommodation.
 
The L300 Sportpac was the first people mover, pretty plush for a van, and they were pretty popular. There is another L300 behind that MPV...and a VN Commodore wagon. I googled Sportpac and first up was this one http://rogergillmitsubishi.co.nz/l300.html I started there in 2007, and leave on thursday.

The L400 was easier to work on, a Delica 4x4 of any model not at all. Those Cruisers were very common, we had one as a shop hack on the Island, with a PTO winch on the front bumper, our recovery vehicle. That's a VG Valiant, early '70's - it has a Hemi badge, so it has the Aussie 245 or 265 6 cyl...not really a hemi, but it must've been good marketing at the time. Rotaries, blah. I worked at a Fiat/Mazda agent once...why would you think an RX3 was exciting when there were 124 Sport Coupes to work on ?

The vehicles with weird writing are used imports from Japan, they just love to adorn their cars with English words, doesn't matter what it says, it just looks good to them. Same as Japanese tattoos that some people get...oh man, they look so cool. Column change means 3 in the front, 5 on the tree is pretty normal.

Very, very few right hand drive conversions on the road - as I said in the other thread, our US vehicles came from Canada, either fully built or CKD...and some from Australia.
 
Originally Posted By: Uphill_Both_Ways
I thought manufacturers kissed standard-transmission column shifters goodbye in the '60s or early '70s. Was there something blocking a floor shifter? Or maybe it was a cosmic ray hitting the assembly line, causing a genetic throwback.

Where was fifth? Toward the dash and down?
I would guess the column shifter was to free up room for the middle person in the front bench seat.

With the move toward centre consoles and individual bucket seats, it's moot. And now the columns typically have stalks on both sides - lights and turn signals on the L/front and rear wipers on the R, making it almost mandatory that the shift lever be moved to the floor. (But I prefer your cosmic ray theory!)

With the 5-speed on the column, 1st was up and closest to the driver, 2nd was down and closest to the driver, 3rd was up and the 2nd (middle) position out, N was down from 3rd, 4th was straight down from N, 5th was up and farthest out, and R was down and farthest out (although one had to go back to N, not directly down from 5). Make sense? I was unable to find a diagram on line.
 
Originally Posted By: Silk
The L300 Sportpac was the first people mover, pretty plush for a van, and they were pretty popular. There is another L300 behind that MPV...and a VN Commodore wagon. I googled Sportpac and first up was this one http://rogergillmitsubishi.co.nz/l300.html I started there in 2007, and leave on thursday.

The L400 was easier to work on, a Delica 4x4 of any model not at all. Those Cruisers were very common, we had one as a shop hack on the Island, with a PTO winch on the front bumper, our recovery vehicle. That's a VG Valiant, early '70's - it has a Hemi badge, so it has the Aussie 245 or 265 6 cyl...not really a hemi, but it must've been good marketing at the time. Rotaries, blah. I worked at a Fiat/Mazda agent once...why would you think an RX3 was exciting when there were 124 Sport Coupes to work on ?

The vehicles with weird writing are used imports from Japan, they just love to adorn their cars with English words, doesn't matter what it says, it just looks good to them. Same as Japanese tattoos that some people get...oh man, they look so cool. Column change means 3 in the front, 5 on the tree is pretty normal.

Very, very few right hand drive conversions on the road - as I said in the other thread, our US vehicles came from Canada, either fully built or CKD...and some from Australia.
I really liked driving the Delica, and later a Toyota HiAce we rented for a day. We wound up with a '95 Mazda Bongo w/ 1998 cc SOHC carbureted engine w/ manual choke, and 5-speed on the floor. It was a good vehicle - we sold it to friends when we left, they drove it for a number of years, and said they still see it around Whangerei.




Agreed, fractured English on a car was proof of a JDM import rather than New Zealand new.
 
Originally Posted By: Number_35
The Edmonton accent (back in the 70s) was an odd one, with the soft 'i' pronounced as a soft 'e' (as in "I drank too much melk and feel seck now") so I think I misheard/misunderstood a lot of things. We had moved there from Regina, where people sound a lot like Winnipeggers.

At least I'm not the only person that thinks this!
 
Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: Number_35
The Edmonton accent (back in the 70s) was an odd one, with the soft 'i' pronounced as a soft 'e' (as in "I drank too much melk and feel seck now") so I think I misheard/misunderstood a lot of things. We had moved there from Regina, where people sound a lot like Winnipeggers.

At least I'm not the only person that thinks this!
Even now when I hear a flat accent like that I think 'Edmonton'.

We lived all over western Canada through my school years. I have great memories of Regina - Grades 4 through 7. We lived in three different houses in Lakeview. Our first year there the Riders won their first Grey Cup.
 
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