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Press

Spotto, for journalists.

Spotto is a free New Zealand car-spotting app that grades every car by how many are still registered here. Everything for a story is on this page: the numbers, how they're counted, images you can use, and a person to talk to.

Download the press kit zip, 2.4 MB Read the fact sheet

The story

The register spells the MX-5 twenty-one ways.

NZTA's Motor Vehicle Register lists 7,179 Mazda MX-5s. Only 1,037 are recorded as an "MX-5". The rest are Roadster, Eunos, MX5, Eunos Roadster, and sixteen one-offs, down to a single "MX5 RODSTER".

It's how each car was entered at registration, not a fault in the register: a car imported as a Eunos Roadster is registered as one. But it means that counting cars takes some untangling first, for every car, and that's what Spotto does.

Bar chart: every Mazda MX-5 on New Zealand's register by how its make and model were typed. Mazda Roadster 2,737; Mazda Eunos 1,667; Mazda MX5 1,079; Mazda MX-5 1,037, highlighted, about one in seven; Eunos Roadster 629; sixteen more spellings with 30 cars between them.
Only 1 in 7 is recorded as an "MX-5". Free to publish, credited to Spotto and the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi. Chart, PNG 1920 × 1680 · The counts, CSV

Fact sheet

Spotto in brief.

Figures from the register of 31 August 2026.

What it is
A free car-spotting app for New Zealand. Spot a car, log it in a few seconds, and see how rare it is here.
The grades
Common (8,000 or more registered), Uncommon (1,200 to 7,999), Scarce (175 to 1,199), Rare (25 to 174), Super rare (5 to 24) and Unicorn (fewer than 5), nationally and for each region.
Where the numbers come from
The Motor Vehicle Register, published by NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi as open data (CC BY 4.0). Recounted every month.
The scale
4.67 million cars, vans and utes, whose make and model the register writes 27,174 ways. Spotto sorts 97.4% of them into 3,044 cars you'd recognise, and nearly 5,500 cars and motorcycles in all, counted down to generation, badge and engine.
The MX-5
7,179 registered, under 21 spellings; 1,037 recorded as "MX-5". NA 3,225, NB 1,380, NC 1,721, ND 850.
A few more
An R34 Skyline is easier to find than a 90s Mustang: 1,062 against 563. 3,177 R32 Skylines. 27 Trekkas. 3 Anziel Novas.
Privacy
No plate lookups and no owner details, ever. Shared spots show a region, never an exact place. No advertising code, and no analytics in the Android app. Spotto in a web browser counts daily totals, never what any one person did.
Cost
Free to spot, log, and collect, always.
Where it's at
On Google Play in New Zealand: Spotto on Google Play. On the web now at app.spotto.kiwi, with a free account. iPhone to come.
Made by
Rylee Sheridan, in Christchurch. Made in New Zealand.

Images

Images you can use.

Free to use in coverage of Spotto. Please credit figures to the NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi's Motor Vehicle Register. Every one is in the press kit.

The app

  • Spotto on three phones: a collection, the Mazda MX-5's page split by generation, and the home screen with the daily challenge.

    Three screens PNG

  • The Mazda MX-5's page: 7,179 registered, Uncommon, with its count by generation.

    A car's page PNG

  • Logging an MX-5: the 'Which one?' sheet, with each generation's count.

    Logging one PNG

  • A collection: a Trekka, Holden Monaro, Torana and Kingswood, a Jaguar E-Type and a Datsun 240Z, each with its grade.

    A collection PNG

  • The shareable count card: Mazda MX-5, 7,179 still registered in NZ, Uncommon.

    The count card PNG

  • The home screen: today's three challenges, a streak and points.

    Home PNG

The MX-5 story

  • The spellings chart.

    The chart PNG

  • One car, 21 spellings: every way the register types the MX-5.

    21 spellings PNG

  • The count for each spelling, adding up to 7,179.

    The count PNG

  • The MX-5 by generation: NA 3,225, NB 1,380, NC 1,721, ND 850.

    By generation PNG

Logos

Please don't recolour, stretch or retype the logo.

Method

How the numbers are counted.

Spellings are put back together. A name that can only mean one car, like Roadster or MX5, joins that car. A name that could mean several is sorted by chassis code: "Mazda Eunos" is only an MX-5 when the chassis says so, and 110 of them are other cars, like the Presso and the Cosmo.

Then split properly. Each car keeps its generations, badges and engines, each with its own count. Where Spotto infers one, it's checked first: an MX-5's generation comes from its year, which agrees with the chassis code on 99.7% of the cars that have one.

Recounted every month. NZTA publishes a new register each month and every car is counted again. A grade only moves when two months in a row agree.

Independent. Spotto isn't affiliated with Waka Kotahi, any vehicle manufacturer, or any marque it counts. The data is theirs; the cleaning up is ours.

Who's behind it

Rylee Sheridan

A passionate car nerd with a love for all things weird, quirky and unusual. I built Spotto to connect the car community and create a space for everyone's rare spots, and ensure they have accurate data about how rare their spots really are!

Questions

What people ask first.

Isn't car spotting a privacy problem?
Spotto has no plate lookups and no owner details. Shared spots show a region, never an exact place, and without an account the Android app keeps everything on the phone. The privacy policy has the detail.
Is the register wrong?
No. It records each car as it was entered when it was registered. The spellings only matter when you try to count a car, which is the work Spotto does.
How does it make money?
It doesn't. Spotting, logging and collecting are free, and always will be.
Can I use it on an iPhone?
On the web, now, at app.spotto.kiwi. An iPhone app is to come.

Look up your own car.

The quickest way to understand it is to try it.

Try it on the web

The web version takes a free account. See what else Spotto does.