Assembly:New Zealand Car Production1921-1998

Author: Mark Webster

Hardcover

New Zealand’s car assembly industry began with the Colonial Motor Company piecing together Ford Model Ts in the early 1920s, and the first true production line came in 1926 with General Motors.

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Summary

New Zealand’s car assembly industry began with the Colonial Motor Company piecing together Ford Model Ts in the early 1920s, and the first true production line came in 1926 with General Motors.

Description

New Zealand’s car assembly industry began with the Colonial Motor Company piecing together Ford Model Ts in the early 1920s, and the first true production line came in 1926 with General Motors. For the next 70 years, as governments imposed tariffs on importing completely built up cars, the assembly industry directly employed thousands of New Zealanders, and indirectly supported tens of thousands more.Factories assembling models from the Morris Minor to the Toyota Hilux became part of the social fabric of communities up and down the country.Car assembly provided employment, helped in the World War II effort, fostered a local supply industry, and even gave opportunities for NZ to export cars. But the reform of the 1980s and 1990s dealt blow after blow to the industry, and the removal of import tariffs on cars in 1998 was the death knell.Before records disappeared and key figures moved on, author Mark Webster scoured the country interviewing, delving into company archives and photographing. Assembly is his loving record of an industry that is long gone but not forgotten.A highly pictorial and well researched book that indirectly provided employment to nearly 8% of the New Zealand workforce at one point in our short history, including a full Epilogue of the effects of the closures over the last 23 years after the last closure.

About the Author

A confirmed car enthusiast, Mark Webster was deputy editor of NZ Classic Car magazine when he wrote Assembly in 2001. He lives in Auckland with his partner and two daughters.