KEY POINTS:
For years it was the Sutich family "Chev" - big enough and tough enough to carry six children and a sack of west coast toheroa over the roughest country roads around Dargaville.
Annie and Joseph Sutich bought the 1938 Master Deluxe Chevrolet brand new from a Dargaville car dealer and proudly took it home to the Red Hill area, originally a large gum-digging camp on the Northern Wairoa.
Joseph, a Dalmatian, was a gumdigger and washer, and the car's price of £399 ($1100) represented a lot of hard toil and saving in times when an outdoor worker earned about £100 a year.
He did not like driving, so he encouraged his wife to get a licence.
By the time eldest son John started driving, it had done only about 10,000km.
The couple moved to Auckland in 1970 and the car was stored for 20 years until four years ago when John and his brother, George, began to restore it.
"They were a working man's car, not real flash, but sturdy and reliable," George Sutich, now 69, recalled as he showed the gleaming "good as new" Chevrolet.
"It cost nearly $60,000 to restore - panelbeating and painting being the most expensive items," said the retired Blockhouse Bay builder and joiner.
"Fortunately, a lot of parts can still be obtained from American restoration firms, which was a great help."
George and John and their sisters Virginia Reeves, Josephine O'Connell, Stephanie Bilich and Anne Gelb, all of Auckland, gathered recently to celebrate the restored car.
It is a memorial to their parents. Joseph died in 1971 and Annie was 87 when she passed away a decade ago.
"It was sentimental to all of us - it was Mum's car," said Anne. "She was one of the first Dalmatians born in New Zealand and my father came out when he was about 17."
George said that during World War II, two Army officers came to the Sutich home and tried to commandeer the car from his mother for Army use.
"She refused to give it to them and immediately wrote to the Prime Minister, Peter Fraser, saying she had six young children and needed a car as the nearest shop, in Te Kopuru, was 7km away and Dargaville, the nearest main centre, was 18km away.
"They let her keep it. It was used twice in an emergency: to rush two of my sisters to the Te Kopuru Hospital where they were operated on for acute peritonitis."
Anne - one the patients - recalled making long trips in the car - to the Waitangi Day celebrations in the Bay of Islands and to visit cousins from Croatia in Wellington.
Anne said she especially appreciated the big car when she started going to dances.
"John would drive my girlfriend and me in our starched petticoats and big full skirts. There was a huge amount of room in the back seat for you and your petticoats."
She also recalled trips to Ripiro Beach to dig for toheroa, the giant surf clam, in the days when public harvesting was allowed.
"We drove the car through the cuttings to the beach but we had to walk along the beach, because it wasn't good for the car to drive on the salty sand."
During the recent gathering, the family updated a black-and-white photograph of them and the car taken by their mother at Red Hill in 1947. "We are in the same positions as in the earlier photo," said George.
"Everyone who has seen the two photos is really amazed that we are all lucky enough to still be alive and still have the car."
