Good oil: Upfront support for Ford employer

Model wearing a Ford t-shirt.

Female workers at Ford's headquarters in Detroit are snapping up faded T-shirtswith the words "My boyfriend bought me a Ford" to show their loyalty to the carmaker, which is cutting back production in the face of competition from imported brands. But "Buy American" supporters should not look too closely at the T-shirts - they are made in Guatemala.

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Ten per cent of Australian men love their car more than their spouse, and 22 per cent say they love their car more than their spouse "sometimes". But the Aussie blokes have a softer side than British respondents, 20 per cent of whom flatout favoured their car over their wives/girlfriends/partners. The survey, by online site duttondirect.com, also asked whether respondents were comfortable with their spouse driving their vehicle. While 83 per cent said they were, 16 per cent said they were not, either because their partner was a bad driver or their car was "too precious".

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Hyundai has put an end to speculation that it might bid on Ford's troubled luxury brand Jaguar. "Hyundai Motor Co is not considering acquiring Jaguar or any of its assets," the Korean carmaker said.

Speculation about such a deal has grown since Ford hired an investment banker to study its assets, including the money-losing British brand. Hyundai was viewed as a possible buyer because it has expressed interest in selling luxury cars.

"At one point we did conduct an internal review to acquire a luxury nameplate like Jaguar but that option was dropped," Hyundai said. "With the obligations we have undertaken to expand overseas production, plus the huge sums we are investing in alternative power plant technologies such as hybrids and fuel cells, we really have enough on our hands."

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Those who call for more police on New Zealand roads might like to take a look at what's happened to highway patrol numbers in New South Wales. Twenty-odd years ago, says a Sydney newspaper, about 1300 highway patrol officers policed 3 million drivers throughout NSW. Today, around 900 highway patrol officers police 4 million drivers across the state. Police patrols are being replaced by speed cameras everywhere. But the cameras can't monitor dopey driving.

The Good Oil sat parked for about 15 minutes near a busy intersection in the city, controlled by two stop signs. One hundred and sixty-one cars out of the 176 that drove up to the stop sign didn't stop. Put another way, 15 drivers out of 176 obeyed the road rules.