Toyota Caldina NZ

[Petrolize]

Some may remember the thread with the Mitsubishi in New Zealand. Well I am back in the country again so let Jon and Stuno on the forum know, who got car hunting with a few suggestions. This time round I wanted an estate (wagon) and found this rather unusual Toyota sitting unwanted round the back of a nearby dealer, who had taken it in as a part exchange. It's a 1994 Toyota Caldina 4WD imported in 2000 from Japan, as many NZ cars are. Similar to other cars out here it is also an automatic and has covered perhaps quite high mileage by UK standards, around 250000 kms.

 

Price wise, it does help to know the market as cars are worth a lot more than in the UK but it wasnt a bad deal overall - the equivilant of £700 with a fairly recent WOF (equivilant of an MOT, although due every 6 months) and 3 months Rego, (road tax - no stupid rules meaning it can't be transferred between owners), plus a recent service, new radiator, new battery etc.

 

Hopefully I'll be able to update the thread as to where I travel and photos of other older cars as there are plenty interesting ones out here, often used daily - no salt on the roads and so on out here.

 

Anyway, some pictures of the car:

 

It's a lovely dark blue/green colour depending on the light

 

Can't get this the right way up

 

Shiney tyres

 

From the front

 

Very comfortable seats

[STUNO]

Good buying Mr Petrolize. I confess I put him on the track of a similarly priced BMW 318i, but he is smarter than I thought,and this is better to sleep in . You could have looked for months to find any reasonable manual car, 'cause we all drive auto's here.

[Ghosty]

Carina, Caldina...

 

Nice, that.

[Jon]

I think this will fit the bill very nicely. I guess it's a 2 litre? I drove a 2 litre auto Mazda 626 the other day of similar distance and although it was only a short distance it seemed pretty decent, so on that tenuous basis I reckon something similar from Toyota of the time should be pretty capable too.

 

Maybe it's time for another Southern Hemisphere Shiters' Meet?

[Petrolize]

Yes, it's a 2.0 litre engine so likely similar, not fast but nice and smooth. It was perhaps quite a high spec car of its day and unusual being the 4WD model.

It would be great to have a meet up at some point - won't be going south for sometime yet I don't think

[Parky]

Proper kiwi's car that!

[Spottedlaurel]

Carina, Caldina...

And Corona.

 

That looks like a tidy thing and I bet these are roomy inside too. That was the reason we bought a Carina E back in 2003 (which is still in the family).

 

Bonus points for it being 4wd, a cheaper alternative to a Legacy? I imagine the running gear is similar to the 4x4 Celica.

 

Wikipedia says there was a commercial version of the Caldina with a proper leaf-sprung back end......

[nacho man]

 

Looks like it's on a smaller version of these wheels.

[Jon]

Wikipedia says there was a commercial version of the Caldina with a proper leaf-sprung back end......

 

You're right! I've seen a few about (very noticeable by their white paint, black bumpers and crushingly purposeful povo-spec rear lights) but never noticed the rear leaf suspension. You can just see them jutting out in this picture:

 

[Petrolize]

Time for an update: I have been in the Art Deco town of Napier sometime now, working on a nearby vineyard.

 

 

The Toyota sneaked it's way into some photos.

 

 

 

Some other spots from wondering around town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Caldina alongside some rather more exotic cars:

 

 

On Christmas Eve we spent the night with a bonfire and camping on the beach.

 

 

For New Years went to a festival, here's the car park full of chod. Spot the handsome dark red Peugeot 405.

 

 

That's all for now, hoping to meet up with the others members on here out in NZ in the middle of the month, so looking forward to that

[mercrocker]

That red Mini shot looks like Southampton in the 1970s. Wonderful! And you can do NYE on the beach....Goddam.

[STUNO]

Rhythm & Vines Festival ? Last year that was the source of about a weeks worth of newsprint. It was a genuine punchfest with lots of alcohol. The car park does not seem as busy this time.

And where I live we have had 2 days of cool and wet so far this year, looking forward to a big gas bill for running the fire in the middle of summer !

[Jon]

I've just been down to Hastings and Napier yesterday/today for a quick overnight stay to see a relative and bagged a few spots but that red Mini remained elusive! I remember spotting it parked up all day in town in 2009 but was gone when I returned with my camera, so glad to see it's still knocking about. It did look a little tidier back then though, I must admit.

 

How do I remember seeing it in 2009? Was on my honeymoon at the time.....

[Petrolize]

It looked to be in good condition still, interesting to see just how tiny it was compared to the parking spaces / other cars. I saw it a few times parked up around the centre of Napier. The Mitsubishi was probably the worst condition with mismatched panels and was another car I kept seeing on more than one occasion.

[Petrolize]

Update!

 

My parents came to visit New Zealand at the beginning of the year and wanted a campervan to travel the country. Jon and Stuno helped out with suggestions, and advice on being self contained (a van with a toilet, fresh/waste water tanks on board enabling you to set up camp most places). Whilst still in Napier, I went to look at this. It was an ancient van, with many kilometers, and the outside had been hand painted! The elderly couple selling it were too old to use it, but sadly it was a bit overpriced, and they wouldn't budge at all, and it was decided to look for a cheaper, non self contained van.

 

 

At this point I sold my Toyota Caldina to a backpacker, and went up to Auckland in search of a campervan.

 

This is one of the last pictures I have of it, should never have sold it.

 

 

Alongside some other Japanese chod

 

Offroading:

 

In Auckland they have a car fair, quite why we don't have this in Britain I don't know, it's a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

 

Sadly there wasn't many good campervans, most had engine rebuilds, stank of travellers or looked like they were on their last legs.

 

Car fair (Ellerslie racecourse)

 

 

 

Luckily I bagged this Subaru estate for some friends at the car fair, so it wasn't in vein. It was being sold by a chap who's son ran a car dealership in town, but the Subaru was too old for their stock. It was in really good order and priced well - they actually went onto sell it for a profit.

 

 

I then sacked myself from looking at campervans, and brought a Ford Mondeo estate, as we figured it was too difficult to get a good quality van'. The new plan being to tour round in it with a tent, or buy a caravan, or until a good van was found.

 

Travelling around Northland with the Legacy and Mondeo.

 

At around this time I visited Stuno and Phil at a car show in Rotorua, but sadly didn't take any pictures.

 

Shortly after my parents arrived and we toured down the West coast of the North island, and onto Christchurch to visit a friend of the family and here I was to start my new job.

 

We also found a 1999 Toyota Regius camper van which fitted the bill nicely, and had recently been converted by the family who were selling it.

 

 

Most pictures I have of it have been taken from the back of side as its not the best looking van from the front.

 

My work was at a prestige car rental company based near the airport in Christchurch.

 

Here are a few pictures of the fleet':

 

 

Around this point I sold the Mondeo on as it was in some ways surplus to requirements and none of us particularly bonded with it. Here's a photo on it on its last day.

 

 

Instead of driving the 5 minutes to work, I should've used the bike I'd been lent by the friend I was staying with, but being lazy decided to buy a cheap car. Whilst it was indeed cheap for a car out here, it did have a habit of overheating after half an hour. Luckily I only used it for my short commute so this wasn't a problem.

 

On a dried up river bed not far from Christchurch:

 

Quite like this photo for some reason:

 

As well as valeting the hire vehicles, I got to clean some interesting cars from people who took their car to us for a full valet.

 

Can't remember what model Ford this is but it sounded nice. The lady who had it had owned it for over 10 years and recently declined an offer of $40,000 for it.

 

Nice Nissan Skyline recently imported from Japan:

 

 

Clean and original early MX-5:

 

 

In the end the work dried up at the rental car company as the summer season finished for them last month, so I travelled to visit Queenstown and saw this matching pair.

 

 

Then I headed back to the North island to work either picking or in a packhouse over the kiwi season but as Phil pointed out, I missed the boat for that by a couple months

[Spottedlaurel]

Interesting to read your update.

 

Never heard of a car fair as such here. The only similar thing I can think of was (still is?) somewhere in London where Australian tourists traded camper vans between themselves.

[Jon]

So you're back in the North Island, then? Local? We'll have to sort out a meet, if so.

[STUNO]

Good to hear from you ! I will take a guess you are in the Bay of Plenty area. As Jon says a meet-up somewhere would be great. At my place about the middle of this month would do, you could all help me shift furniture .

[Petrolize]

Yes, would be keen to sort out another meet up! Based near Tauranga for now

[philibusmo]

Make it a weekend so i can come and I'll be there. I'm also in Tauranga.

[Petrolize]

Thread update!

 

I've had a folder on my phone titled autoshite which I've been adding too over a period of time in order to update this thread at somepoint as hopefully some of the pictures may be of interest

 

Starting with this Alfa spotted in Wellington.

 

 

While in Christchurch spotted this stickerbombed Toyota

 

 

This chod was tucked away round the back of the garage the rental company I worked for used

 

I had to relocate a car of theirs from Queenstown to Christchurch and got this to drive back in - the vans have offensive slogans and were a talking point in NZ at the time - got a lot of nasty looks!

 

 

On the way I drove past this garage - I think previously photographed by Jon

 

 

Spotted these in Queenstown

 

 

And spotted this somewhere ?

 

 

After the summer season ended I finished up at the rental car company and moved upto the North island close to Jon, STUNO and Phil

 

I lent Phil my car as he needed an automatic temporarily and got use of his Metro! Sadly I didn't trust myself much with it and it sat in this parking space most of the time..but did enjoy one spirited drive to work

 

First meet we went to an amazing scrapyard called Horopito

 

More to come!

[Petrolize]

Not long after Horopito, Phil and I went to the pub and agreed to halves on this Honda on the basis of pop up headlights and it's red interiour.

 

 

Sat on the giffer owners driveway just before handover. Note the washing machine post box, only in New Zealand!

 

Standard collection photo with my Passat getting its fill aswell

 

Spotted around town:

[Petrolize]

Sadly I write this with less than 3 weeks left in New Zealand. Its been great and I'll be sad to leave, but booked a flight to New Delhi so will have two weeks or so to check out India before heading back to Scotland.

 

Finishing up with this rather stranded Renault 25 for now

 

[Petrolize]

Since July / August time things have been quite hectic car wise, so combining efforts of Phil and myself into one thread

 

http://autoshite.com/topic/27559-the-horrible-car-emporium-nz-est-2016/?do=findComment&comment=1189845

[Spottedlaurel]

Good to see your update, but a shame there won’t be any more from NZ.

 

By coincidence, just the other day I was reading a magazine from about 1994 and that had an article on a car fair in London. I think Auto Trader may have organized them, and the cost for sellers was something like £15.