Hyundai has a field day

Hyundai's Tom Ruddenklau says Fieldays is one of the few shows where attendees come to buy. Photo / Supplied

Lunchtime in the Hyundai New Zealand marquee at Fieldays and the rattle of crockery is overruled by the resonant tone of a single bell-strike. Later, over coffee, another. And another.

Every strike of the bell marks the sale of a car. It's an idiosyncratic idea picked up from one of the brand's provincial dealers, but one that's also become a tradition for Hyundai at the annual Waikato show.

Fieldays might be the largest agricultural show in Asia-Pacific, but in some respects it's also become New Zealand's default motor show. Big Boys Toys and Speedshow give the glamour, but if you want to get up close to a huge range of mainstream metal then it's a pretty good place to start.

Hyundai is a strategic partner with Fieldays and its show centre is a two-story marquee tent that's bigger than anything I've seen at an international motor show. For the Kiwi-owned Korean-brand distributor, this year's show marked the first public appearance of the new all-Elantra sedan.

Other makers are infinitely more modest in their presentation but there are still plenty of new cars. Ford New Zealand has the Wildtrack version of its all-new Ranger ute - a model that won't be on the road until its launch in early-2012. Mazda has the next-generation BT-50 ute, due for release in the fourth quarter, SsangYong its latest Korando. Under cover at the Nissan stand are a trio of rare-in-NZ vehicles: the revised GT-R sports car, the forthcoming Juke compact-crossover and the all-electric Leaf.

It's easy to see the attraction for car companies. Even though numbers were down slightly this year, 117,495 people still came through the gates to the 2011 show. Many come not just to look, but to buy. Some come in helicopters. There's serious money here.

"It's the only show we really do and we take it pretty seriously," says Hyundai New Zealand chief operating officer Tom Ruddenklau. "It's also the only show where people bring their chequebooks. We figured that out a few years ago, we found a formula and we've kept tweaking it. Last year we did over 100 cars in four days; that's just amazing."

In case you've missed it, Hyundai is all about the agricultural sector in New Zealand. The company sponsors Country Calendar and expends a lot of effort on rural fleet sales. Grey suits and gumboots are the uniform for Hyundai people at Fieldays.

According to company people on site during our visit, Hyundai sold 25 cars on the first day (including five new Elantras) and another 40 by early afternoon on the second day.

End result? Hyundai New Zealand has since declined to specify the total vehicles sold during Fieldays 2011. Ruddenklau offered only this: the brand experienced "growth in vehicle sales compared with last year".

However, we understand the final figure was very close to 140, a marked step up from last year's 104.

Ruddenklau would also not comment on what kind of financial investment the brand makes in Fieldays each year, nor on what kind of discount a chequebook-brandishing farmer could expect at the marquee. But I'd expect both to be substantial.

Still, that's the business when you want to be a big player. The car industry is all about building a brand and shifting metal, and Hyundai New Zealand is achieving plenty of both at Fieldays.