New Zealand Motor Corporation
Recycled buildings of the assembly plant
The New Zealand Motor Corporation was a licence-holder and assembler of automobiles in New Zealand, building complete knock down kits of British Leyland and, from the mid-1970s, Honda models. It was succeeded by Honda New Zealand in the 1980s.
NZMC was formed by several New Zealand BLMC distributors in 1971. It comprised 3000 staff, 40 retail branches and four car assembly plants. BLMC had a good market share in New Zealand in the early 1970s; however, sales had dropped off dramatically by the 1980s. Combined with the increasing sales of newly available second-hand imports from Japan, all plants (except Nelson) had closed down by 1988.
The Honda Motor Co (Japan) began acquiring the Honda assets from NZMC in the mid-1980s, first acquiring a 25 per cent stake in 1985. Honda New Zealand Ltd was formed in 1988 and assembly of Honda passenger vehicles continued at the Nelson plant until August 1998.