Waggs History

Waggs was first established in 1891 by Thomas Wagg. It was originally a successful horse drawn cart manufacturer that exported to South Africa and South Australia.

The first vehicles sold by the company were Cadillacs and later Buicks. In the early days, one of the conditions of a sale was to teach the customer to drive!

In 1926 General Motors opened their Petone plant and Waggs became one of the Wairarapa’s Chevrolet distributors.

It was not until 1955 that the Holden brand was introduced to New Zealand and Waggs became one of the first Holden dealerships.

Over the next 65 years Waggs gave everything a go, from converting trucks into suitable transport vehicles for the armed forces during the war, to building and selling caravans, selling boats, and having our own panel, paint, and upholstery shop.

Waggs has been a Mazda and Suzuki dealer and, through it all, a General Motors Holden dealer right through to 2020.

That brings us to the present. In February 2020 General Motors decided that they would discontinue the manufacture of right-hand drive vehicles for the Australasian market. This meant the demise of the beloved Holden brand in our country. After 65 strong years as a dealer, we finally said goodbye to the sale of new Holdens!

We have been lucky enough to be able to take on three new franchises this year and continue to build the Waggs business and add to the forever growing history.

As of September 2020, Waggs Masterton are now the Wairarapa’s Hyundai and Renault Dealership along with being an authorized Holden Service Centre and an ARB 4x4 Accessory stockist. Waggs Pahiatua is the Tararua district’s Isuzu dealership.

Waggs Masterton and Pahiatua are both locally owned and operated by Pat and Julie Long.