Driving an electric vehicle helps a Dunedin car enthusiast run his painstakingly restored 1949 Ford Bonus, which took part in a parade of classic cars over the weekend.
Ford enthusiast Maurice Boyles, of Dunedin, took part in Saturday’s parade of about 100 classic and contemporary Fords, which travelled in order of age, oldest first along Victoria Rd, the Esplanade, Forbury Rd, Bay View Rd and Andersons Bay Rd to celebrate the centenary of Dunedin City Motors.
He bought the truck from a farmer in Adams Flat for the princely sum of $200 and drove it home.
Now the classic car has been up and running for the past decade and is worth about $40,000 as a result of "many, many hours" of work by Mr Boyles, a former welder and boilermaker.
The biggest challenge he had faced had been finding garages high enough to take it.
While he bought it as a flat deck, he had put wellsides on and had done quite a bit of work on the mechanical aspects, making it more drivable and economical to run.
Although it was originally dark blue, he had painted the Bonus a stand-out canary yellow, which was a very similar shade to the classic Ford Cream, inspired by a trip he had made to America.
"It catches a lot of attention," Mr Boyles said.
He even wore a matching badge of the car to Saturday’s parade, although the colour similarity was a fluke.
Though he appreciated other vehicles, he mainly liked Fords — especially the company’s pick-up trucks — and had enjoyed them since his school days.
For the past five years he had enjoyed driving an all-electric Nissan Leaf on most occasions, which was a good around-town vehicle.
"What I save on that, I spend on the truck," Mr Boyles said.
However, the Ford Bonus still came in handy when he needed to carry things.
While he would love to have more classic Fords, he was limited by the amount of space he had, Mr Boyles said.
