Life with Cars: New Zealanders’ motoring memories 1950s-1980s

Life with Cars is a like a national family photo album, albeit one with its focus on cars. It brims with evocative imagery of cars and automotive adventures from the 1950s to the 1980s, with the words of the contributors as told to the author. Their stories reflect New Zealanders’ creation and uptake of car culture - telling of breakdowns in the middle of nowhere, holidays at the beach, evading the law, Sunday drives and of course posing on, beside or in the much-loved four-wheeled family members. Underpinning these stories are relationships - primarily between owners and their cars, but also between parents and children, partners in life, and young people and their peers - all during a time when cars had character, there was less congestion on the roads and petrol was cheap. These stories will resonate with a wide audience, from those who owned cars then to those that love their cars as much today.