June

Usually, the worst thing about buying an imported American car is the placement of the steering wheel on the passenger’s side. It may not seem like too much of a hassle until you have to overtake a truck or get in or out of a barrier controlled car park on your own. But this 1993 Chevrolet Corvette 40th Anniversary edition has been properly converted to right hand drive, and that makes all the difference.

We’ve all heard about ’land banking’ where investors buy real estate and sit on it, unoccupied, waiting for prices to go up. So what about car banking? Land banking may be frowned on with there being such a shortage of housing in Auckland, but with car banking there’s no problem. Take this very tidy 1989 Commodore – it’s worth stuff-all now but the future could be quite rosy.

If you live in the North Island then you may have never used chains but at this time of the year it’s something you need to know about if you plan on a skiing trip or a South Island jaunt. Probably best to bone up on this before you’re in a blizzard.

Being winter we’ve got to talk about tyres – those rubber things that connect your heavy car to the road that we take for granted. It’s probably happened to many of us; we see an ad for cheap tyres, usually screamed at us through the TV by a guy with an energy drink addiction, only to find that when we go to buy some we are given more expensive options to consider. Is it really worth spending more when buying tyres?

For much of the country, including where I live, winter hasn’t exactly got going yet. But that hasn’t stopped it killing my wiper blades (see this previous story) and now it’s taken my battery. This is all really inconvenient because I was just on my way to an important meeting (is there ever a convenient time to find your car won’t start?). So before you are faced with a cold Monday morning disaster here’s something to consider.

Usually the front end of a 1959 Austin Healey 3000 is a thing of beauty, but a coming together with something very solid has disfigured this poor old car terribly. However, being a rare and incredibly desirable car I’m sure we’ll see this one as good as new after some corrective surgery. Will you be the next owner to put the smile back on its face?