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Kōrero: Wellington places

Todd Motors

Todd Motors

Newly assembled Mitsubishi vehicles line the Todd Motors car yard in 1982. In 1975 Todd Motors moved from its Hutt Valley site to a bigger plant in Porirua. It was the city’s largest factory and employed around 1,200 workers. In the late 1980s the government reduced tariff barriers on car imports, making the New Zealand car assembly industry unprofitable. The plant closed in 1998 and has since been converted into a shopping centre.

Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi

Alexander Turnbull Library, Dominion Post Collection (PA-Group-00685)

Reference: EP/1982/3364/19

by John Nicholson

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

Ngā whakaahua me ngā rauemi katoa o tēnei kōrero

Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Chris Maclean, Wellington places – Porirua, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/13499/todd-motors (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Chris Maclean, i tāngia i te 3 March 2009, updated 1 March 2016.

Comments

Yvette McDonald
10 January 2012
The Plant has not been converted into a shopping center Mitsubishi Motors and the Parts department still lease space out of the Plant and the Administration building.....and the bulk of the admin building is now the Maori School The Factory workers carpark is now Bunnings.........Where the Swimming pool was is now Target Furniture, Where trucks were once stored is now Document destruction..part of the land where cars were once stored is now Harvey Normans storeroom...The Administration workers carpark up the top is now selfstorage.....and the factory is now all sorts of things