The good oil: Audi to start building its Mini rival

The Audi A1 is set to rival BMW's Mini. Photo / Supplied

Germany's Audi will start building its A1 Mini rival at its Brussels plant in October, roughly a month after it unveils the car at the Frankfurt motor show. So says a report from the Belgium capital, where Volkswagen builds its Polo and Audi its A3. The A1 will offer a range of petrol and diesel engines, just like BMW's Mini line-up. There will also be a go-fast S1 version to challenge the hottest Mini - the John Cooper Works edition.

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Writes Richard, in response to letters about the indiscriminate use of foglights: "I was stopped by police soon after driving out of fog and fined $150 for having my foglights on. I thought they were driving lights. I was also told I should check out the police website at least once a month for any changes to the road code. A letter from the police later arrived with the fine. It said, in part ... 'It is an offence to drive with foglights on in conditions other than fog, but in the interests of safety it's okay.' At the bottom of the letter it says: 'As safety is the overriding concern for road policing, it has been decided that in this circumstance the notice will be cancelled.' I keep this letter in my car just in case I get stopped by that kind officer again. There is a god."

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Ken on the same topic: "Idiots who always use foglights think the extra light must be good for seeing stuff. Wrong! They don't realise that brightly lighting up the road directly in front of them causes the pupils of their eyes to contract, which then limits (or totally removes) their ability to see further ahead into the darkness, where dangers may lie. As for Doug, who says he uses his rear foglights against tailgaters, I suggest that if he didn't drive like a nana he wouldn't be tailgated in the first place. A courteous driver would pull over and let following traffic pass by."

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This column recently said how Europe and the United States are upgrading rail networks, "because rail generates between four and 40 times less CO2 a passenger than other modes of transport and uses two to three times less energy than journeys by road," surveys say. It also said "natural gas suppliers in Australia are upgrading distribution networks so that trucking companies can make more use of the cleaner-burning fuel. What do we do in New Zealand? We allow governments and road transport lobbyists to dumb down rail and boost the load-capacity of big diesel trucks."

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John, from Mangawhai Heads, responds: "New Zealand rail can't ever hope to run along the same lines as Europe or the United States. It's the rail here that lobbies Government for subsidies to cart logs and upgrade and so on. Road transport never lobbies the Government for money - only for a fair playing field and ways to improve efficiency. Increasing gross weight will make trucks more efficient and have little effect on the roads and reduce the kilometres travelled per tonne. We bought the rail from Toll and what did they do with the money? Invest in road transport. I have read reports about the inefficiency of rail under distances of 500km. You still need a truck to pick up and deliver during working hours. This increases urban traffic at peak times. Rail should work in this country but after years of buying, selling, subsidies, re-inventions, even years of laws preventing direct competition, it is still failing."

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Wanted bank robber Markeith Webb was angry that police in Easton, Pennsylvania, had released his photograph to the media. So he phoned the cops, leaving a string of indignant messages, each one saying that he would make sure the police would never catch him. They did, at the wheel of his car, six days after his last phone message.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz