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Turners’ classic success

18 October, 2016

Turners Cars has been successfully holding classic-car auctions at its Christchurch branch for many years. They’ve been good for classic-car enthusiasts on the east coast of the mainland, but haven’t been an easy option for those wanting to sell or buy around the rest of the country.

Recently its first nationwide classic-car auction was held, which created an opportunity for the whole country. It used the power of an online auction format, with its whole network of 11 branches spread across New Zealand in which car owners could display their treasures, and it proved a big hit with sellers and buyers alike. Even those for whom moving their car was problematic could be involved, as photos were taken where the car was based, and posted online.

The auction was a success, with buyers spread right across New Zealand. The standout car was the legendary low-mileage 1958 Studebaker which was sold in Palmerston North for $56,000. It proved quite a talking piece, and had many visitors to the Turners Palmerston North branch while it was on display.

There were some other great examples sold, including a ’57 Ford Custom,  a 1960 MkII Zephyr, a great 1959 Morris 1000 and more, through to ‘modern’ classics such as a 1980 Ford Cortina and a 1984 Holden Commodore. The oldest car sold was a 1948 Vauxhall 12, which reached $4520.


1959Morris1000.jpg

Due to the success of the online auction Turners Cars will run another exclusively on turners.co.nz. Turners Cars is calling for entries now — visit turners.co.nz/classic. The auction will run from November 25 to December 5, with cars available to view throughout November.

Judging by the interest generated from the online auction in July, over 100 cars are expected to be put up for sale — which should make for plenty of opportunity to find the vehicle you’ve been looking for, or perhaps a great project to start?

Design accord

28 March, 2025

You can’t get much more of an art deco car than a Cord — so much so that new owners, Paul McCarthy and his wife, Sarah Selwood, went ahead and took their Beverly 812 to Napier’s Art Deco Festival this year, even though the festival itself had been cancelled.
“We took delivery of the vehicle 12 days before heading off to Napier. We still drove it all around at the festival,” says Paul.
The utterly distinctive chrome grille wrapping around the Cord’s famous coffin-shaped nose, and the pure, clean lines of the front wing wheel arches, thanks to its retractable headlamps, are the essence of deco. This model, the Beverly, has the finishing touch of the bustle boot that is missing from the Westchester saloon.

Motorman: When New Zealand built the Model T Ford

21 March, 2025

History has a way of surrounding us, hidden in plain sight. I was one of a group who had been working for years in an editorial office in Augustus Terrace in the Auckland city fringe suburb of Parnell who had no idea that motoring history had been made right around the corner. Our premises actually backed onto a century-old brick building in adjacent Fox Street that had seen the wonder of the age, brand-new Model T Fords, rolling out the front door seven decades earlier.
Today, the building is an award-winning two-level office building, comprehensively refurbished in 2012. Happily, 6 Fox Street honours its one time claim to motoring fame. Next door are eight upmarket loft apartments, also on the site where the Fords were completed. Elsewhere, at 89 Courtenay Place, Wellington, and Sophia Street, Timaru, semi-knocked-down Model Ts were also being put together, completing a motor vehicle that would later become known as the Car of the Century.