The good oil: Getting right Kiwi sound

Volkswagen is looking at bringing back the Kombi. Photo / Supplied

Drivers using a TomTom sat-nav unit in New Zealand will be guided by the comforting tones of Auckland student Ben Harper, voted as the Voice of TomTom in a competition to find the best all-round Kiwi accent. The same competition in Britain isn't as simple - voters have to pick from all sorts of accents. The Geordie (Newcastle) accent is so far the most popular, followed by the Scottish and Welsh. Geordie was voted the most friendly and the most fun to listen to. Scottish voices are considered the sexiest, even though they're also the hardest to understand, and the lyrical Welsh accent is the most pleasing on the ear. The "Posh" accent is the most authoritative. The most disliked accents are Brummie (Birmingham) and Scouse (Liverpool). The winner will join the likes of John Cleese, Billy Connolly and Homer Simpson as an alternative to the standard computerised voice. Actor and competition judge Brian Blessed, whose booming instructions have also just been launched, said: "I'm pleased to see the Yorkshire accent was voted the most reassuring."

Kombi on comeback trail

The rumours persist, particularly in the United States: Volkswagen is looking at bringing back the Kombi. The carmaker isn't saying anything official but it fanned the flames when it asked its US followers on Facebook: "If you're interested in seeing the Microbus on this side of the pond, now would be a good time to let your voice be heard." VW is polling US fans on four names, including the "Hippie Bus" and the "Combie". It showed a concept Microbus at the Detroit motor show in 2001, aiming to build it for the US market from 2007. But the plan was shelved as the US dollar weakened. The Kombi was always sold in the US as the Microbus, from the 1950s through the flower-power days of the 1960s when it became synonymous with the hippie counter-culture.

Coke in drink-drive campaign

Designated drivers in Britain over Christmas will be offered a buy one, get one free deal on soft drinks in pubs as part of the government's anti-drink-drive campaign. The government's road safety campaign Think! has joined Coca-Cola to offer the drinks in more than 8000 participating pubs. British Road Safety Minister Mike Penning said: "Last year, 380 people were killed in accidents where the driver was over the limit. That is why our message is clear: don't drink and drive."

Cost of preventing deaths

Safety regulators in the United States want rear-view cameras installed on all vehicles by 2014 to prevent drivers from backing over pedestrians, a rule that may cost as much as US$2.7 billion ($3.6 billion). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said an average of 292 people died each year from back-over accidents, which primarily kill children and the elderly. To equip a new-vehicle fleet of 16.6 million units a year would cost from US$1.9 billion to US$2.7 billion, the agency said. It called the cost "substantial," but said the measure might reduce back-over deaths and injuries by almost half.

We are the world

* Sheriff's deputies in Florida found a stash of marijuana in the boot of a car they had pulled over. They searched further and turned up another stash. Driver Mark Fiasco was especially surprised by the second find. "I've been looking for that for seven years - I thought I'd lost it," he told the cops.

* The John Lawson Circus travels up and down Britain, a convoy of old trucks and cars and cages. Pickings are slim at the best of times, but now there is another problem: people who avoid circuses for fear of clowns. It is called "coulrophobia" and is reportedly Britain's third-leading phobia, after spiders and needles.