Anyone that knows me know that I like all things mechanical, especially motor vehicles. If it has an engine and I can smell exhaust fumes, I'm happy. :)

I'll put a little info about my van here and also a link to my album of vehicles images. I took a lot of pictures of vehicles I thought were cool, most of which we cannot get in the USA.

My home for 3+ weeks, a Hyundai H100 minivan. It had a 5-speed manual tranny and a 4-cylinder diesel engine and right-hand drive of course..

It was an older vehicle with some quirks. First, I was asked to check the engine oil daily, as it used some oil. Not a problem, but other more serious issues I discovered were a loose gearbox, sloppy really, a clutch that would slip in 1st and 2nd gear on inclines and the most important thing was NO CUP HOLDER! How the F can I drive with hot coffee without a cup holder? <sigh> These issues not withstanding, it was still a good vehicle for my time and the bed was super comfy. I spent several evenings when I had nasty weather curled up in that bed watching BTVS or playing on my laptop. Overall, I'd rent it again.

The vehicle fleet in NZ is very diverse. This is anecdotal, but I think the most common make was Toyota, followed by Nissan, then Renault and Honda. As far as American makes go, the most numerous was Ford. I saw a lot of Fords and nearly every one I saw was not a model sold in the USA, they were all smaller, inexpensive, fuel efficient vehicles. Too bad they can't do that here. There were some Jeeps, a few Chevy's here and there, and I saw one Dodge the whole time.

I took a lot of vehicle photos and that album is here for the other gearheads out there like me.

These Landcruisers are eye candy, I wish they sold them this way here. Dammit...