KEY POINTS:
Ford's advertising campaign for its new Focus range is based around an orchestra playing instruments made from car parts. There's the clutch guitar, rear suspension spike fiddle, fender bass, hatchback kick drum, door harp, handheld gear tambourine, and the transmission case cello-dulcimer.
The ad is the work of two Americans: Hollywood film composer Craig Richey and New York sound designer Bill Milbrodt. They took apart a Ford Focus five-door hatchback that had just come off the production line and eventually fashioned 31 instruments from it.
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More examples of why the give-way-to-traffic-turning-right rule in New Zealand is the dopiest in the developed world. Fellow turning left at an intersection in the city stops to give way to a car at a stop sign on his right. Woman driving down Remuera Rd stops suddenly to give way to a car emerging from a side street on her right.
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The boot has gone into the small car's success story, the SX4, and maker Suzuki couldn't be happier. The arrival of a sedan 48 hours ago completes the high-flying SX4 family and provides Suzuki NZ with a replacement for the Liana four-door. The sedan LTD uses a 107kW/184Nm 2-litre engine coupled to either a five-speed manual gearbox ($24,599) or a four-speed automatic ($25,990). Boot capacity is a generous 515 litres. Suzuki has also lowered the entry price to Swift ownership, with a 75kW 1.5-litre XE budget model. Touted as a used import alternative, it's at $16,990 in manual and $18,500 as an auto.
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Mate bought a 2.3-litre Saab 9-5 in 2003 for $63,000. It was a 2002 demo model with 1900km on the clock. Then things started to go wrong. On a good day, it could be driven to the Saab garage. On a bad day, it would need towing. Saab tried to patch things up by inviting him to a swank drinkies walkaround of new models. A couple of the hostesses accused him of being a hanger-on and asked him to leave. The other day the 9-5 clocked 100,000km. Saab rang our man to talk trade-in. "Know what they offered me? He said "$5000." Reckons he's going to run it into the ground now.
* alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz
