Good oil: Boss eyes Aston Martin

Aston Martin chief executive Ulrich Bez is lining up to buy the Ford-owned British carmaker, say European news reports. A German newspaper says Bez wants a management buyout of Aston Martin, backed by investors. The price for the carmaker is estimated at around US$1 billion ($1.5 billion). Bez said that whoever bought the marque, Ford would probably remain a shareholder with a stake of around 10 per cent. Aston Martin, movie superspy James Bond's car of choice, is expected to be sold before the end of the year. Bez made a brief appearance in New Zealand in the mid-1990s, as the vice-president of engineering for Korean carmaker Daewoo.

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Want to start a high-end car dealership serving Auckland's sprawling southeastern suburbs? Give DaimlerChrysler NZ managing director Ernie Ward a call. Ward is looking to have a new retail outlet up and running within 12 months selling and servicing Mercedes-Benz, Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge nameplates in one of the region's main growth areas.

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China is coming to grips with the downside of a rapidly growing car market: road deaths. A study by J.D. Power Asia Pacific shows safety is becoming the most important selling point. "As customer awareness of safety rises, so too will sales of safer cars," says the research specialist. Last year 98,738 people died on China's roads - that's 1899 deaths a week. America's road toll in 2005 last year was 43,443; New Zealand's was 404, the lowest in more than 40 years.

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Toyota plans to build 9.8 million vehicles by 2008, which would put it past General Motors as the world's largest carmaker next year. Toyota surpassed Ford as the world's second largest carmaker in annual global vehicle sales in 2003. Toyota said it sold 8.13 million vehicles worldwide in 2005, and expects to sell about 8.85 million vehicles this year, including sales from subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu. Toyota's profit also grew 39 per cent in the six months to June 30, to US$3.1 billion. Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe said: "We are aiming for steady growth through strengthening all our operations" He said Toyota would hire 8000 additional engineers worldwide by 2010.

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British supermarket chain Tesco is reminding customers who buy toilet cleaner to also clean their car's steering wheel. A survey by the company found that steering wheels carry more than twice as many germs as toilets.

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A man arrested at a traffic checkpoint in Missouri with 150kg of marijuana in his car told police not to hassle him, reports the St Louis Post-Dispatch. To do so, said Joseph Butts, would be a "hate crime" because he was a special courier transporting religious instruments between member monasteries of the Church of Cognizance, which uses marijuana as a sacrament. Butts is now in jail.