Press Release from Toyota New Zealand.

2013 was another record year for Toyota New Zealand, with its new car sales up 8.9 per cent on 2012.

Amid an extremely buoyant car market thanks to increasing consumer and rural spend,  Toyota New Zealand sold 24,262 Toyota and Lexus vehicles in 2013 – and was by far the most popular car brand in New Zealand with five vehicles in the top 10 sellers.

Toyota New Zealand General Manager of Sales Steve Prangnell says it’s been a stand-out year.

“So again we must thank New Zealand for its continued faith in our vehicles. 26 years at number one is a fantastic endorsement of Toyota by New Zealand.

“That’s supported by Corolla maintaining it’s top selling status with 5995 sold and Hilux coming in not far behind at number two.  Other Toyota vehicles in the New Zealand top ten were the RAV 4 (2728 sales), Yaris (2398 sales) and Hiace (2268 sales). Using our provisional figures, Toyota sold more of the top 10 vehicles than the four other manufacturers combined total.”

Andrew Board from the Nelson Weekly takes a photo for the paper of Ned & Mina (owners of Proper Crisps), Steve Phipps and Tony Bowater (CEO Bowater Toyota).

In the last week of November a casual stroll around the Richmond Mall whilst his wife shopped has certainly been a propertunity worth it's weight in crisps for local man Steve Phipps of Richmond.

Steve correctly guessed the number of Proper Crisp packets packed perfectly into the brand new Toyota Prado. And by correctly he guessed the actual number, 736.

Many came within 5 bags, and given the thousands of entries we had over the week it was fantastic to have a clear and absolute winner!. A Proper winner if you will.

For Steve's trouble he has won a month's supply of Proper Crisps, and a couple of car grooms from the team at Bowater Toyota to get all those crisp crumbs out of the back seats once the grandkids have been in the car munching on Proper Crisps over the holidays.

Every once in a while you get the opportunity to consider how much your safety is worth.

Once of the great benefits of the rapid pace of technology is the development and deployment of speciality testing equipment. Bowater Toyota have been very lucky to be able to install in our central Nelson workshop some of this latest technology - the Safe-T-Stop diagnostic equipment.

It basically works like a drive on weigh bridge type system of very finely tuned and incredibly accurate sensors. It can quickly detect how multiple safety systems in your vehicle perform under normal and emergency situations. And then it gives you an accurate and detailed report that will enable you to take the necessary actions in the event an imbalance is just starting or overwhelmingly compromising the safety of your vehicle, and in turn your self and your family.