- Which Hillman is it
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Humber 80 = Hillman Minx. Sourced examples run from the Mark VIII era through Audax Series III, Series IIIB and Series V. Humber 90 = Hillman Super Minx, and on surviving registration data only Mark I and Mark II (model years 1962–64). Work out the Hillman series first, then order to that.
- What is actually different
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The badges and name scripts. And on the 80, a horizontal-bar grille. That is the complete list of documented differences. Everything else — shell, doors, glass, engine, gearbox, suspension, brakes, axle — is the Hillman.
- What we will not tell you
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Instruments, seats, upholstery, interior trim, engine tune, carburettor specification, axle ratio and paint colours are NOT documented in either direction. The absence of a recorded difference is weak evidence of sameness, not proof. Check those against your own car. Nor do we know whether these cars had their own chassis-number prefixes — that would settle everything and it does not appear to survive online.
- Why they exist
- New Zealand rationed imports by quota. A second model name meant a second allocation of import licences for CKD assembly kits — and it gave Humber dealers a small car to sell alongside the Hawk and Super Snipe.
- How rare
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87 Humber 80s and 27 Humber 90s are currently registered in New Zealand, the 80s spread across model years 1954–64 (peaking in 1959 and 1960) and 21 of the 27 Humber 90s from 1963 alone. Those are survivors on the road, not build totals — no production figure exists for either car.
- Do not confuse it with the Australian Humber Vogue
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Rootes Australia sold the Super Minx as a Super Minx, and badged the Singer Vogue as the Humber Vogue and Vogue Sports, 1963–66. That is a different car from a different donor in a different country. A claim that the Humber 90 was built at Port Melbourne is circulating and is wrong.
- Your car is a Todd Motors car
- Assembled at Petone, on the Hutt Road — not the General Motors plant on Bouverie Street, not the Austin plant on McKenzie Street across the road, and not Ford at Seaview. From 1939 upholstery could not be shipped in the CKD pack, so seats, headlining, trim, glass, paint, battery, tyres, wiring and bumpers were made here. UK mechanical parts usually fit; UK trim parts often do not.
- Not claimed
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Launch and end dates, production totals, what the numbers 80 and 90 denote, price positioning, and whether any estate, convertible or van was ever built (every sourced car is a saloon). One reference work also lists South Africa for the 90; no New Zealand source agrees and nothing corroborates it.
