Car given to Motat disappears

Carrick Brown gave the 1936 Airflow Chrysler to Motat in 1972. The car had been in his family almost 40 years. Picture / Brett Phibbs

An Auckland man says he should have been given the chance to buy his vintage Chrysler back from the Museum of Transport and Technology, which admits the car was probably sold.

Carrick Brown, of Epsom, gave the 1936 Airflow Chrysler - thought to be worth about $20,000 today - to Motat in 1972.

The car had been in his family almost 40 years. His parents bought it new and paid £500, expensive at the time. When the car was given to Motat "it wasn't derelict by any means", Mr Brown said.

He had wondered over the years what had happened to the car after keeping an eye out for it on visits to Motat with his grandchildren.

Asked whether the car had been sold, Motat director Jeremy Hubbard said: "Yes, I think it probably was."

"The museum had difficulties many years ago and I think that was one of those times," he said.

"I can only apologise for what has happened and tell [Mr Brown] what we know." Mr Brown said he might have bought the car back, given the chance.

"I don't want to cause the museum any problems but they have been a bit off-hand and it makes you feel you would never donate anything again."

Vintage Car Club secretary Rodger Ball said rumours had circulated over the years of cars disappearing from the museum.

"If I was an older person who donated a vehicle to a museum, I would be very disgruntled to find it wasn't there," he said.

One theory about disappearing Motat artefacts was that those not displayed were stored at an old Mt Wellington Army base but were sold when the museum could not pay the storage bill.

Motat has apologised to Mr Brown for the car's "removal from the collection" and said attempts to track it down had failed.

"We're trying to test people's memories but it's 20-odd years ago," said Mr Hubbard.

It would be different now.

"These sorts of issues, as you can imagine, are very sensitive. The first place we would go with artefacts now would be back to the donor," he said.

Stan Bellamore, manager of the Southward Car Museum at Paraparaumu, said a 1936 Chrysler was "pretty collectable". His museum had an Airflow model and that was valued at $20,000.