It’s the end of an era. Or maybe just the beginning of a clean sale. Honda is closing its Nelson plant in New Zealand. A 46-year chapter finally shutting. But before they lock the gates and sell the building, they’re letting fans in on a secret.
They’ve cracked the Heritage Collection open. Nineteen classics. Headed to auction. The money goes to charity. You buy the car, they keep the goodwill. Smart play?
The Nelson site started by building British Leyland stuff. Triumphs. Jaguars. Rovers. Austins. Then, in 1980 things shifted. Honda retooled the place for its own metal. It was a bet on the future that paid off for two decades.
Assembly stopped in 1998. Why? Import tariffs vanished. Local production became financial suicide. The site survived as a distribution hub. Now it’s just real estate again.
But what about the cars stored there?
The museum grade pieces—the original NSX, the pristine S2000s, the holy grail Integra Type Rs—stuck around. They aren’t going anywhere. Those are the blue chips. The ones that define the brand. The rest though? The ones slightly less rare but still legendary? Those are leaving. Trade Me is running the hammer.
There are stars. The undisputed highlight is a 2001 Honda Civic Type R EK9 from Japan. White paint. Recaro buckets still in red. The B16B engine under the hood. It has 154,001 kilometers. Previous owners added an aftermarket exhaust. It’s ready.
Wait, did you say 19? There are track-only cars too. Two of them. A 2005 Civic and a 2022 Civic Type R. Plus a Honda Jazz RS with manual gears and Mugen mods. Enthusiasts drool.
Some people like untouched history.
Check the 1995 Accord LXi. Local build. Burgundy paint. Seven thousand six hundred kilometers on the odometer. That is incredibly low for a 13-year-old car. Five-speed manual. A time capsule.
Or look at the purple 1989 Accord. 33,001 km. Leather inside. Sunroof. Electric windows. It feels like new because it practically is. And there is a micro-car fan dream. A blue 1988 City. Repainted yes but only 24,010 kilometers. Tiny. Efficient. Fast enough for city traffic.
Scarcity plays its hand with a 1987 Aerodeck. It’s a three-door wagon that looks like a station wagon lost its way to the mall. Shooting brake styling before that word was cool. Then the 1987 local Civic GTi.
But the real shocker sits at the bottom of the list.
A 1992 fifth-gen Civic. Hatchback. Locally made. Single owner since new. The odometer reads 418,656 km. That’s more than the distance to the moon. It runs a small 1.3 liter engine. Still moves. Honda kept this car in the collection as proof. Not that they make fun cars, but that they build them to survive.
So which one do you grab?
The pristine museum piece is locked up tight. But these十九 nineteen cars are yours if the bid wins. The auction ends soon. The facility closes. The cars find new garages.
Will anyone keep the high-mileage Civic together for another hundred thousand miles? Probably.
They’re selling off the past to pay for the present. Classic cars have always been about preservation, but this feels like disposal with a smile. Good cars. Low prices hopefully. No strings attached other than the check clears.
Go look. While they are still there.
