NZ has different vehicles available to other countries. This was about 15 years ago or so. And a family of 6 plus several dogs and luggage capability.
I'm sure they could have maybe picked a smaller vehicle as well but economics also come into it - it was a secondhand Japanese import (NZ gets a lot of those, in fact when I was a kid we found yen coins still hidden underneath the seats) so it was gotten on the cheap as well.
