Popular Post SunnyCoupe Posted November 26, 2016 Popular Post Share Posted November 26, 2016 So last Sunday morning saw an early start after a big night, catching a plane to Auckland to pick up a new purchase. Had a lovely skate in the sun from the airport to Mangere with a pleasant tailwind and a couple of nice downhills along the way to dull the hangover. I have told myself multiple times I would never buy a car sight unseen again, but this time it was worth it – a few nice surprises making this a nice little peek back into the era of car production in New Zealand. With my interest in Valiants and the Todd Motors story generally, my only real knowledge of the Sigma was that it basically killed big Chrysler demand and production both here and in Australia once Chrysler/Todd Motors decided to make and market them. In Australia, perhaps there was more of an emphasis on them as a Valiant replacement, with the first of them were marketed as Chrysler Sigmas. For new car buyers, the modern, more economical and better appointed Sigma probably seemed the more sensible option over the “new” CM Valiant parked on the other side of the lot – with an engine that dated back to 1969 and most of the sheet metal back to 1971. I can understand the mind-set of the 1981 new-car buyer, but it still rips my undies a bit that for the purchase price of $15,000 you could have probably negotiated and got two Valiants for the price at run-out special prices. Or, ya know, they could headed over to the Nissan dealership and actually got something cool. On paper, this should be cool – Japanese, RWD, manual 5 speed, rev counter even, and easily some of the best looking steel wheels ever made, behind the charger/pacer steel rim. I’m not a huge fan of the styling, for me it’s just interesting - the history and how it has managed to survive. Looking at the paperwork, it was bought new and at some point passed along to the original owner’s son, making it a 2 owner/1 family car. I bought it as part of a deceased estate so just dealt with the lawyer, never met the family unfortunately. Super high KMs but looks like they never dropped the ball when it came to maintenance – service stickers all up to date and even has a VTNZ WoF. Excellent modern repco-special hubcaps to bring the car into the 21st century. So much awesome NZDM-ness, including all-original NZ-standard security etched glass and original dealer sticker and badge intact and in place. The old LPG gear is still sitting under the bonnet, as well as the redundant primer switch under the dash. Has the sticker confirming internal Tectyl saturation, so just the tiniest amount of rust and no sign of any old repairs. Most exciting bit for me is the original bill of sale – listing all the options. Bonnet ornament? $65. Go fast side stripes? $70. The radio didn’t come cheap. In polytech when I was researching Chargers for a video doco, I did a bit of reading on NZ’s heavy trade restictions before imports, so buying a new car was a true luxury, with wait lists for locally produced vehicles or having to deal with purchasing car “parts” using overseas funds to jump the queue. Probably the only time the ol’fulla was gunna get his hands on a new car, so he made it count, even splashing out for metallic paint which has lost its lustre somewhat. $15,000 comes to over $60,000 today running the numbers through the inflation calculator. Compare that with $25,000ish today for the equivalent lancer/camry it’s easy to see how local production rapidly became unsustainable up into the 90s. Handling wise it’s a total boat – a real similar feel to a Valiant actually, except there’s a certain majesty to captaining a big car with an auto box and effortless low down torque as it ambles through and just eats up the hills. For the Sigma you have to employ the small engine manual techniques of high revs and clicking back and forwards between third and fourth. With a small car and a stiff rear end this can be quite fun, but when you can’t feel the rear wheels at all there’s simply no warning before it gets into a tail-happy oversteer party. Cruised alright but was a ten-hour mission in the end, only found one hitchhiker who got a lift with me from Bulls to Sanson. Lucky that because he was a real champion, it sounds like a sharn but he had no shoes, one eye, no voice (coming off a 3 day bender apparently) and bent the air with the alcohol fumes emanating from his person. Had a T-Shirt with a picture of a swastika and George Bush with one of those “same shit different person” type slogans, and apparently had been kicked out of his car back to Dannevirke because he’d got into a drunk fight with his mate in the back seat. I had grave fears for the box of DoBros in the back seat as he didn’t look like he was slowing down, and no amount of self-defence training can match straight up superhuman-meth-strength. And that's my story. Bonus extreme patina shot 20 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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