Auto Court is Dunedin’s leading Japanese imported vehicle retailer proudly serving the motoring community since 1963. Neil Cottle commenced business at C&C Motors with his father Syd soon after leaving school in 1954. In 1959 he went on to Civic Motors. In 1963 Neil established Auto Court in a new purpose-built showroom on Ardmore Drive. Staff included his brothers Mervyn in the service department and Barry in sales. Neil’s mother Mavis joined Auto Court in 1965 as Office Manager until her retirement in 2000 . Bob Woodford joined the Auto Court sales team in 1964 until his retirement 55 years later. Auto Court shifted to King Edward Street in 1969 when the Ardmore Drive site was required for the Southern Motorway. In the early days new cars were strictly controlled by import licencing. Waiting lists of two years were not uncommon for a new car and the buyer had to sign a covenant that they would offer the car back to the selling dealer if they sold it within two years of purchase. Because of this a second-hand car was often more expensive than a new one! In 1988 import licencing was abolished and Auto Court became involved as one of the pioneers directly importing vehicles from Japan. Neil’s oldest son Mark set up a network of contacts in Japan to source only genuine late model, low kilometre quality cars. The demand for these high spec vehicles soon became so great that it became essential to find larger premises to accommodate the extra vehicles and additional staff required to meet demand. In 1989 Neil sold the King Edward Street premises and moved to a large indoor/outdoor site on the corner of Andersons Bay Road and Crawford Street and his son Nelson joined the staff fulltime having previously worked at Auto Court part time during weekends and school holidays. After 24 years at the Andersons Bay site Auto Court moved to new 1500 square metre purpose-built showroom on the corner of Burns and Neville Streets, near the historic Carisbrook Rugby Ground.