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Toyota has unleashed a novel guerrilla marketing campaign on Italian drivers to publicise the launch of its new iQ minicar later this year: it stuck magnetic adverts on the sides of parked cars to show just how short the iQ is. The new Toyota minicar is the shortest car available in Europe that seats more than two adults. Just 2980mm long, Toyota claims the iQ can still comfortably carry three adults and a child. Toyota chose Italy to highlight the iQ because it is Europe's largest market for minicars. Magnets are being attached to the sides of any rival models parked on the streets and a small leaflet - made of recycled paper - is tied to the car's side mirror. It reads: "4 seats in 298cm. And the safety of a tank." The magnet says: "298cm. The iQ ends here."
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The Austin Allegro has been voted Britain's worst-ever car. The British Leyland sedan - often referred to as the "All-aggro" - beat the Morris Ital (successor to the Marina) and Talbot Sunbeam to the top spot in a survey by internet magazine iMotormag. The Allegro was launched in 1973 and by the end of the decade was Britain's fifth best-selling car. The top 10 worst cars: Austin Allegro (24 per cent), Morris Ital (16), Talbot Sunbeam (11.4), Austin Princess (10.7), Hillman Imp (10.6), Rover 200 (5.7), Triumph Acclaim (4.4), Rover 800 (3.8), Morris 1800 (2.6), Triumph TR7 (2).
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Sam Durkin figured he knew all there was to know about cars, especially Land Rovers. Grew up surrounded by them at the family garage in Scotland, he did. "The jungle-gym in our garden was a Series 1 Land Rover, seriously," he says. "I can tell you pretty much all you need to know about any particular car." That's why has has never bought from a car yard. Never saw the need - until the other day. The Auckland advertising executive took the 1999 Range Rover he bought privately last year to a dealer, "just to see what he would give me for it as a trade." But 30 seconds into the once-over the dealer spotted a problem. The Rangie had colour-coded door handles - and fair-dinkum Range Rovers don't come with colour-coded door handles. Turned out the car had been damaged and rebuilt. Says Burkin: "I'm not the expert I thought I was."
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Both Labour and National-led governments have ignored appeals for many years from the tyre industry and safety bodies to stop used imported vehicles from Japan being sold with knobbly snow tyres. They are downright dangerous, especially on sealed surfaces in the wet. Had both political parties put in place a tyre standard from the start, five New Zealanders might still be alive. Palmerston North woman Sandra Raemaki was the latest victim of sloppy border administration. She died when the car she was driving slid into the path of an oncoming car in bad weather near Shannon last year. The coroner the other day blamed Ms Raemaki's death on her used import car's rubber - conventional tyres on the front and snow tyres on the rear. The Government ambulance has been parked at the bottom of the cliff for too long.
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This is how Salt Lake City police recorded the incident: The man who tried to rob a cafe in the city told the woman behind the counter to "fill" the bag he was holding. But when the woman reached over and started to "feel" the bag, the robber said, "You've gotta be kidding me" and ran out of the shop to a waiting car.
alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz
