Another mystery vehicle - In New Zealand.

[nzcarnerd]

The plates are 1937-38, and gives a good impression of the New Zealand car fleet in the 1930s. Mostly American with a few British cars. The traffic is presumably waiting for the road to be cleared. There is an Automobile Association Road Patrol 1935 Ford coupe in there. The British Bedford truck is delivering the NZ Herald newspapers, so this is somewhere in the northern half of the North Island. Note the Chrysler Airflow in the background, something that was rare in NZ. The question is - what is the bumper-less truck in the middle of the photo?

 

 

 

 

[Craig Gillingham]

It's a mid-thirties Morris Commercial. I would have expected there to be more British vehicles in this photo.

 

Whoops hit the wrong button again. See a bit further down. NZ

[Leif Holmberg]

Here is a 1935 Morris, looks right.

 

Leif in Sweden.

 

[nzcarnerd]

1 hour ago, Craig Gillingham said:

It's a mid-thirties Morris Commercial. I would have expected there to be more British vehicles in this photo.

 

Whoops hit the wrong button again. See a bit further down.

 

American cars were very dominant here - until 1938 when the country had some sort of balance of payments crisis and a whole raft of import restrictions were imposed. I am not sure just when the graduated tariff system, that favoured Commonwealth producers,  was introduced but that certainly changed the whole scene to a majority of British cars after WW2. There were only small numbers of American cars imported post WW2, but many late '30s Americans remained in use right into the 1960s, and even later. Nowadays we have one of the most diverse fleets in the world.

[Craig Gillingham]

I see, that makes sense.