BUILD, BUY, OR IMPORT

HE’SDONETHEBOATTHING,MAYBETHEHOLDENOR FALCONV8THING,BUTWANTSTOGETBACKTOHIS RODDINGROOTSORHAVETHECARHE’SNEVERHAD

built is often a returning rodder who has established a family or a business and wants to make up for lost time. He’s done the boat thing, maybe the Holden or Falcon V8 thing, but wants to get back to his rodding roots or have the car he’s never had. There’s also the other guy, who wants one of these hot rod things, but is not sure of what year, what style, or what anything but “Can you build it?”. Then there’s the guy who is content with buying a car on the local market and either driving it as is or maybe adding a different set of wheels or changing the paint around to personalize it a bit. The more recent aspect to this is importing a car. “It’s cheaper,” they say. “It won awards at events in the USA,” they say. “It drives really nice in the USA so it’s a good car,” they say. Sure, over the past five years, some incredible hot rods and custom cars have been imported into New Zealand from the United States — some really good, well-built, and well-known cars, in fact — but a lot more horror stories have been imported into the country. While these cars seem cheaper than buying or building a car in New Zealand, is it really as good as it all sounds? The United States doesn’t have anything like New Zealand’s Low Volume Vehicle Certification process, so there’s no common ground in vehicle standards between the USA and New Zealand. While a small number of well-built hot rods and custom cars have been imported from the States, and certified and complied requiring only a small number of alterations, for plenty of cars it hasn’t been that simple. It’s heartbreaking to see someone spend a large chunk of their money thinking they are doing all the right things only to find that the car they thought would be a cheaper option requires a complete teardown to bring it up to New Zealand standards. In some cases they are good-looking cars, too, but unfortunately not enough homework has been done prior to purchase. Interestingly, other countries have looked to New Zealand for modified vehicle standards so that’s something we should be somewhat proud of. The point of this is: whether you decide to build your own car or consider getting one built, or you are looking to purchase locally or import from overseas, be sure to do your homework. There’s so much more to this hobby than meets the eye — from the complex and sometimes daunting certification and compliance system to sticking to the style or genre of your build so it doesn’t look like a confused mismatch of parts and ideas or a compromise of budget. Ask questions and shop around — not on price but on knowledge and quality. If the car is overseas, consider viewing it yourself or getting someone more technical to do so. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous but a lot more knowledge can be calculating, resulting in a smart move being made. That old saying, “If it’s too good to be true then it probably is,” comes to mind.