Car-less Day stickers

[Hitcher]

Here's a question for the older members of this community.

Remember the ill-fated Car-less Day scheme of the late 1970s?

Who can remember what colour each of the stickers were?

I know that Thursday was a funny purple shade, but what colour was each of the other six?

I am prepared to pay for high-quality examples of this collateral, if people have some lying around in their Glory Boxes.

This is a serious question, by the way. I may explain later what I'm up to...

[Edbear]

That's a very long time ago, Hitch! I vaguely recall Monday was kinda red, I think, though I could be wrong...

[JimO]

my bosses statesman was exempt as it was a work vehicle but a girlfriends parents had 2 cars and both were on tuesday,i couldnt believe it i had a trailbike so it didnt affect me

[Krusti]

Was tuesday orange? I have a sneaking suspicion I know when you need this for. Remember thinking...I remember those!

[scumdog]

Can't remember the colours but had 'exempt' on my Triumph Herald AND my '55 F100 - had the stickers on my F100 until only a few years ago when a 'helpful' mate scraped them off.

T'was a pain in the arse wot with gas stations shutting on a Friday at 7pm and not opening until Monday 7am,

Try running 7+ litres (429cid) on a 45 litre (10 gallon) fuel tank - and on Labour weekend 1979 the gas station were shut for THREE days!! (Had to run around with bulk 4 gallon tins of gas)

[Krusti]

The exemption was a white cross, that I know....

[Mom]

Thats a mean thing to ask us to remember Hitcher, it is one thing remembering the whole carless days debacle but the colours????? We had Sundays as our carless day, had a bike shop to run and needed the ute for work days. Had a bike too so no real problems with getting about. I wonder if Sunday was yellow?

[Pussy]

I can remember some Auckland university students had some printed up with "Yesterday" on them

[peasea]

Carlos Daze? Wasn't he a Mexican guitarist?

[Hitcher]

Colours please people, I need the colours. And I know about that Google search picture.

[Krusti]

Ungrateful bugger..:spanking:


:lol:

[Laava]

My mate had his low down on the right side of the screen so he could hang his arm out the window and casually put his hand over it!

[crashe]

There was a green sticker, not sure what day it was thou.
There was also a blue sticker.


Hitcher - What about going to a old wreckers yard......
They will have some old cars still laying about.


There must be somewhere on record in some government department with what the colour's were and on what days as well.

[Pussy]

The green sticker with a white cross was the "exempt". I had one because I started work before 0730. Wednesday was my carless day, can't for the life of me remember what colour it was

[peasea]

Hitcher - What about going to a old wreckers yard......




......and stay there

[ynot slow]

Thursday was brown i think,we had a falcon and prefect so had different days,the falcon was thursday as we used the car to tow horses to races and thursday and sundays were not race days,sunday was blue?

[Hitcher]

What about going to a old wreckers yard......
They will have some old cars still laying about.

It's like nearly 30 years ago since Car-less Days.

National Archives, Alexander Turnbull's ephemera collection and LTNZ have all turned up blanks. Tomorrow, Southwards!

[nadroj]

A friend had a bus business so we just mounted a bus fuel tank in the boot & went wherever with overload springs on the rear.

[Madness]

It's like nearly 30 years ago since Car-less Days.

National Archives, Alexander Turnbull's ephemera collection and LTNZ have all turned up blanks. Tomorrow, Southwards!

What about TVNZ archives & M.O.T.A.T?

[Hitcher]

What about TVNZ archives & M.O.T.A.T?

Hadn't thought of TVNZ, thanks. Did they have colour TV back then?

And we're already onto MOTAT.

[crashe]

Hadn't thought of TVNZ, thanks. Did they have colour TV back then?

And we're already onto MOTAT.

Yep TVNZ did some news items on it...

They still have TV footage of it....... as it was only recently within the last year or so that they did a wee clip on it.... when the price of fuel kept going up.
As they thought the price may reach the $2 a litre for fuel and they joked about doing the carless day again. They showed old footage.

So they do have it there, maybe out in the backrooms in the arch-hives.

[Krusti]

And I asked my mother in law, she didn't know. Would have thought she would, she knows everything else! :yes:

[MSTRS]

Hadn't thought of TVNZ, thanks. Did they have colour TV back then?



Sure did. If memory serves, colour was around circa 1973. Carless days and no weekend petrol were in force when my eldest was born - 1980

[scumdog]

Hadn't thought of TVNZ, thanks. Did they have colour TV back then?.

Only the rich bastards!

Had a look at a lot of my hot-rod pics and magazines - I can see the colours but so far none of the pics I looked at were close enpough to see what day of the week they have on them. Will keep looking.

[Beemer]

I'll ask Andy when he gets home - he is great on odd bits of information like this! My dad was a sales rep and needed the car during the week, so we had to be carless on Sundays... Mind you, in those days, supermarkets, etc weren't open all hours so it's not like you did much on the weekends anyway! I can't remember the colour though.

[vifferman]

Croiky! (Golly!) [Gosh] This brings back memories, of one of the most eventful weeks of my life.

I don't remember much at all about "The Oil Crisis" and all that, but I do remember I went on a skiiiing holiday in the Souf Oilund during Carlos Daze, and when my mate met us in Picton he goes, "Ahh... what's the story with this carless days thing? I guess I shouldn't be driving on Thursdays, right? I wasn't sure, so I just keep to the back roads on Thursdays..."
A quick beer at the pub (during which we were charged an extra $5 by the barman coz my mate knocked over his empty glass), and we hit the road.

This was the weekend, and so the gas stations were closed. We'd just arrived after 14 hours of (sleepless) bus and ferry travel, and I distinctly remember driving the Kingswood wagon at 70 km/h to save petrol, on some boring road (I think north of Twizel), trying to stay awake while the vifferbabe and my mate were snoring.

Thursday found us in Dunedin, where we drove regardless (we were on a ski/touring holiday, right?!? and we HAD to go the movies), but just sneaked around back roads. Cops were few and far between then, so it was no biggie.

[A fortnight or so of lots of eventful stuff, skiing, drinking, seeing the sights, etc... on our first trip to the Souf Oilund :niceone:]

The return trip was on a Friday, so we left Haast at some ungodly hour, well before dawn, and alternated driving like the clappers (75 mph or more) with trying to squeeze in the odd tourist stop, all the while keeping in mind we had to get to Picton before the gas stations closed, so he could fill the Kingswood (and several leaky cans) up with gas. (At times during our trip we'd had to drive with the windows down, due to the aforementioned cans, so we didn't expire or explode from the petrol fumes. :shit: )

We made it in time (just) and It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. Apparently, the ferries and airports had been closed for a while, coz of extremely shit weather, and we (luckily) caught the first ferry to sail. It was a dreadful trip, and apparently, after we'd set off, the captain had decided it was a mistake, but pressed on regardless. There was much crashing and bashing, crockery smashing in the cafeteria, and much spewing by the passengers (but not us - we were shagged, so just slept fitfully on couches).

We arrived in Wellington at some ungodly hour (it was a very slow crossing), and had no idea where to go next, so we flagged down a taxi, who drove us around for ages, looking for some cheapish accommodation (we were uni students) that was open. Luckily, his meter broke, so he charged us only what was on the meter, just a few shekels. We found a cheap private hotel at about 2:30 AM, and gratefully hit the sack.

At 6:45 AM, I was wide awake again, and after a cooked breakfast we headed to the airport. Strangely, despite the airports having been closed (and like the ferries, backlogged), and us attempting to fly standby (and being told we'd have no show), we got on the first plane to Rotorua.

When we arrived in Rotorua, on the morning of August 25th 1979, my younger sister's birthday, I rang home for someone to pick us up, and found out my father had died at 6:45AM.... :shit:

[Angusdog]

I think Tuesdays were blue. I tell you what, I'll check when I get home as my Commer van still has one.

[Hitcher]

A real bugger is that 30 years ago, newspapers were printed in black and white. Recreating artwork is a doddle, but the colours of these things is proving highly elusive, thanks to people's fast-fading memories 30 years on!

So far the only one we can validate is Thursday. We need six more colours (for the other days of the week) and also the colour for the exempt sticker.

What we probably need is the New Zealand equivalent of Jeremy Clarkson with an encyclopaedic knowledge of automotive ephemera like this.

Where are the train spotters when you really need one?

[Krusti]

Just a thought, have you thought about taking a wander through a few wreckers yards?

[T.W.R]

I remember the red & blue pastel coloured stickers from then, the old man had them on his work cars (he was self employed running a driving school).

Colour TV came in in 1974 for the common wealth games :yes: We were the 1st on our street with it and had half the residents there to see the opening ceremony of the games :shutup:

[Pussy]

A real bugger is that 30 years ago, newspapers were printed in black and white. Recreating artwork is a doddle, but the colours of these things is proving highly elusive, thanks to people's fast-fading memories 30 years on!

So far the only one we can validate is Thursday. We need six more colours (for the other days of the week) and also the colour for the exempt sticker.

What we probably need is the New Zealand equivalent of Jeremy Clarkson with an encyclopaedic knowledge of automotive ephemera like this.

Where are the train spotters when you really need one?
I'm certain the exempt sticker was green, with either a white cross or circle

[scumdog]

Just a thought, have you thought about taking a wander through a few wreckers yards?

Hmm, except fo say Horopito type yards most won't have cars of that age any more.
I've got the guy at the local Museum looking for me but sheesh, who woulda thunk it would be so hard to find out this stuff eh?

[Hitcher]

I'm certain the exempt sticker was green, with either a white cross or circle

I can validate that the exempt sticker had a white cross. But I don't know its colour.

[Ocean1]

Lived in Europe then, am I excused?

For what it's worth: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Antiques-collectables/Other/auction-106401650.htm

Have you talked to Govt Print?

Court records for infringment records? (Was anyone ever pinged?).

Any glaziers in business then might remember...

PS: they faded very quickly, "pink" might originally have been red (ish).