The Volkswagen Type 3 (1500) was introduced in 1961 and would have been a fancy vehicle to have in your New Zealand driveway- IF you had overseas funds! To protect the local car assembly industry, most car buyers could only purchase a locally made model (and would face a long waiting list). BUT- if you held money overseas and could afford the import tariffs you could import a fully assembled car through a dealer much more quickly. You often got an exotic model which was not common locally.

If you had lots of money overseas (such as a farmer who sold wool in the UK) then you could import a car, sell it for more than you paid for it and then buy another! Little wonder that when John Clarke's comic creation Fred Dagg did a spoof of 'God Save The Queen' he added 'long live our overseas funds'. By the time those words were sung the requirements for importing a car had loosened somewhat, but overseas funds were still an advantage.

Birds Garage was established by Mister H. Bird in 1940 and by the time this slide was made it was owned by N.H Bird. They were among the first Volkswagen dealers in the country. By 1981 the firm had sold Toyotas for some years. 

This humorous slide would have been shown during cinema intermission in Foxton. The design may have been a generic one used by many garages (the farmer's language seems more American than local) but the message was loud and clear! 

This slide is in a similar style to another Foxton slide, O'Leary and Sons plumbers. Both feature eye  - catching cartoons which show the social embarrassment of not calling 'an expert' to do the job.

MAVtech cannot find any record of when Evans & Cooper were operating. However, by the looks of the car the 1950s would be a good estimate. 

Every cinema advertising slide has a story to tell- and the story behind this one has changed a few times! Local businesses loved cinema advertising as it was reasonably priced and could be targeted towards local audiences- this slide would have only screened in Foxton.

However, a few of the words on this slide have been edited out with tape. Foxton Motors still does panel beating, welding and engineering but the option of 'Duco Spraying' has been edited out and the breakdown crane service is not longer 'at all hours'. Another stickers shows that the business changed hands to a Mister/Misses 'Woodcock'. Did the new owner get sick of pulling cars out of ditches at 2am in the morning?

The Foxton Historical Society shows a garage on Clyde Street as early as c.1909 and a garage is still on the street today. Due to the lack of images on this slide it is hard to date just when it was made.