More buyers

March, the last month of the financial year, looks like being a good month for new car sales. A Toyota dealer said he was getting 40 per cent more private buyers than at this time last year. "The price of cars and the level of standard equipment in them has never been better," he said. "Interest rates are so low that people are using savings or borrowing to buy a new car. Doesn't matter if the car is a high-end model or modest one, private buyers say they want to spoil themselves."

Other dealers agree. Honda Broadway, for example, is also off to a good month with strong sales of new HR-V and Logo models.

Competition up a gear

The Holden/Ford rivalry will soon step up a gear. In June, Holden will equip its facelifted Series II Commodore VT with more powerful American-made 5.7-litre V8s, thereby ending 30 years of Australian production of V8 engines. And later in the year, Ford and its special vehicles partner, Tickford, will retaliate by slotting a highly modified 220kW version of the 5-litre Mustang V8 into the Falcon "T" series.

Bug in the Beetle plans

It appears that spoilt-for-choice European car buyers are not taking up Volkswagen's New Beetle. VW had hoped that the success the reborn Bug had in the United States would rub off in Europe. Americans have been buying the new Beetle at the rate of about 7000 cars a month for the past 11 months. But Europeans, critical of the car's price, bought 1600 last month. VW has now shelved plans to build the New Beetle at its Wolfsburg headquarters in Germany. Right-hand-drive models are due in New Zealand later this year. The importers are hoping the dollar continues to firm against the deutschmark.

In Grand Prix garages...

Ferrari driver and Melbourne Grand Prix winner Eddie Irvine has a highly collectible Ferrari GTO among his stable of cars at home. Among the two and four-wheel vehicles in other Formula One drivers' garages:

Michael Schumacher: Fiat 500 (in which he learned to drive), Ferrari Maranello.

David Coulthard: Ducati Monster, Mercedes-Benz 280SL.

Heinz-Harald Frentzen: Mercedes-Benz diesel four-wheel-drive, motor scooter.

Alez Zanardi: Honda CR-V and (soon) the first "Zanardi Special Edition" Honda NSX.

Jacques Villeneuve:" Chevrolet Comaro and couple of pick-ups.

Marc Gene: 1999 rookie has Peugeot 306 turbo-diesel and Ford Escort XR3.

We are the world

Seems everybody in Britain these days wants the courts to decide who is to blame in car crashes. Claims now top $12 billion. One motorist, sued by a woman with whom he collided, took exception to her claiming 20 years' maintenance for the child she conceived while recuperating from the accident at home.