The Good Oil: Fair dinkum duty

An Australian couple brought their Mazda MX-5 with them when they came to work in Auckland a couple of years ago. Now they and their sportscar are heading back to Melbourne. They thought about buying another car here to take with them - until Australian customs said duty on privately importing a car bought overseas into Melbourne or any other port in Australia, mate, is 45.36 per cent.

Facts and figures

A reader querying the Good Oil's reference to Britain having the lowest road toll in the developed world wants some figures. As best as we can gather, just over 3700 people were killed on Britain's roads last year. Its population is about 65 million and its road toll works out at roughly one death for every 18,000 people. In Germany the road death rate is one in every 15,000 people, and Sweden is similar. America is one in 11,000. Portugal and Greece are danger zones, with one road death for every 6500 people. New Zealand's road toll works out at about one death for every 7000 people. If we had Britain's population, more than 10,000 people would die on our roads each year. That's 200 deaths a week, or 30 a day ...

Danger money

The Land Transport Safety Authority says that more than 200 of the 509 deaths on our roads last year were alcohol-related. It spends millions of dollars warning against the dangers of drinking and driving, but what is it doing about the other 300 people who died? Many of those deaths were blamed on driver error. How much money is spent on the dangers of not learning to drive properly? Let's see what comes out of the Automobile Association driver education conference in Wellington next week.

Cat on a tough track

Jaguar picked a tough racetrack on which to make its Formula One debut on Sunday. The Australian Grand Prix circuit at Melbourne's Albert Park is hard on cars and drivers, said Jaguar's main driver, Eddie Irvine, last year's winner for Ferrari. "It is quite a tricky circuit. You have to get the car right because you always lose the rear on entry and obviously mid-corner. There's a couple of good sections, like the fast chicane at the back and the last corner. From the point of view of the car, it is a rough track. It is very difficult to set the car up and it's hard on the brakes." The Grand Prix covers 308.3km - or 58 laps of the 5.3km circuit.

Step up to beaut ute

A handy item to allow easier access to the flatbed of a Holden or Ford ute has just gone on sale in Australia. Called the Tailgate Mate, it is a fold-down safety step made from steel tubing and it attaches to the top of the hinged tray. It can also sit above the tray as a "pigeonhole" to secure timber or pipe lengths. It's made by Bushranger Autogear. Another item earning praise from Aussies who want a hot cuppa on the road or in a boat is the outdoor Hot2gO outdoor kettle, which uses its own disposable butane gas supply.

We are the world

* Police in Japan are to introduce patrols to check for unstable truck loads on motorways after a port-a-loo fell on to the road and caused traffic havoc.