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MAZDA ASSEMBLY AT SOCKBURN

(By our motoring editor) AUCKLAND, October 3. The popular Japanese Mazda 808 saloon is expected to be assembled in the Christchurch plant of Steels Motor Assemblies, Ltd, from next February, the chairman of Mazda Motors of N.Z., Ltd (Sir Rochford Hughes), announced today.

Steels have assembled: Toyota cars for several j years, and will continue to do so. The planned production of Mazdas during the first year is about 10 cars a day.

Sir Rochford Hughes said that the move was being made because his company badly needed extra assembly space, especially for the 1300 cu. cm. 808, for which demand greatly exceeded supply. At present the cars are assembled in Auckland. Plans to build a new assembly plant had been shelved because of the Government’s wish to see consolidation in the New Zealand motor industry. A new piston-engined, Auckland-assembled Mazda, which would take Mazda into a new sector of the New Zealand market, would be announced in a few days, Sir Rochford said. Another new model, with a more economical version of the rotary engine, was expected to come to New Zealand next year. He criticised the Government’s decision to impose a sales tax rating on Mazda based on doubling the actual capacity of the present rotary engines. This decision, which had not been explained, was inequitable and arbitrary, he said, and was parallelled in only one other country in the world. It struck at an engine which had the potential to be developed into a unit both sparing of fuel and clean in use, he said.

His company would continue to press for a review [of the decision, and in the meantime was concentrating on the production and sale of models with conventional engines. Sir Rochford Hughes predicted big changes in the New Zealand new car market next year. His company believed that New Zealand sales of new cars, which were about 100,000 in 1973 but are likely to be down 25 per cent this year, would be down again to about 60,000 next year. Big cars would suffer

most, he said, and vehicles! up to 1300 cu. cm would take about 40 per cent of the market, medium-sized cars another 40 per cent. Nearly all would be New Zealand-assembled cars, he said. It was unlikely that New Zealand car sales would be permitted to fall much below 60,000, because this would cause unemployment in the assembly industry and in the many factories run by New Zealand components suppliers, Sir Rochford said. With the 808 and the company’s other models, plus the new car, his company expected to increase its share of the New Zealand new car market next year, Sir Rochford said. The company’s graphs show a rise of about onethird in Mazda sales this year, compared with last year.

Mazda sold about 500 cars in New Zealand in 1972. This year the total figure is expected to approach 4000. Commercial sales in 1972 were about 1000, and this year will be more than twice that.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19751004.2.8

Bibliographic details

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 1

Word Count
503

MAZDA ASSEMBLY AT SOCKBURN Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 1

MAZDA ASSEMBLY AT SOCKBURN Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33965, 4 October 1975, Page 1