The good oil: Limited-edition Mercedes-Benz CLK repossessed

A limited-edition Mercedes-Benz CLK. Photo / Supplied

Parked among the Smart cars at Daimler in Mt Wellington is a monster victim of the credit crisis - a repossessed Mercedes-Benz with an impressive race pedigree. It's a limited-edition CLK, one of 100 street-legal examples of the car that romped away with the German touring car series in 2003. The car pictured is a right-hooker, one of only 13. It cost upwards of $500,000 when it arrived in December 2005. It uses a supercharged 5.5-litre V8 engine that delivers 435kW of power and 790Nm of torque and drives the rear wheels via a five-speed sequential gearbox. Top speed is around 320km/h and it features race harnesses for the driver and front passenger.

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Reader John reckons Auckland City Council has been applying Government policy on "bus or special vehicle lanes" unlawfully. John said every Auckland motorist fined $150 for driving in a bus lane before April 23 should apply for a refund. He said the section of the Land Transport (Road User) Rule 2004 covering the use of bus lanes permitted "an unauthorised vehicle to use the lane to the minimum necessary in order to complete his or her manoeuvre". The ACC transport sub-committee decided on a maximum travelling distance of 50m and the resolution was adopted on April 23. But before then a motorist could drive in special vehicle lanes "the minimum necessary in order to complete his or her manoeuvre", which could have been 5m, or 105m, John said.

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Another John writes: "I am somewhat perplexed why police are exempt from the new law banning the use of mobile phones while driving. They regularly flout the road rules with impunity anyway. In the last week alone my wife and I have witnessed a patrol car ignoring the phasing lights at the Khyber Pass on-ramp; a patrol car driving through a red light to get on to the Waipuna Bridge; a patrol car in lane three on the south side of the harbour bridge turning on its emergency lights so it could create a gap to get over to the Fanshawe St exit. In all cases the patrol cars were in no emergency call-out situation. They are already obviously above the law - after all who will challenge them?"

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Studies show motorists who send or receive a text message tend to take their eyes off the road for five seconds to do so. That is enough time for their car to travel more than the length of a rugby field at motorway speeds. American state Utah has just passed America's toughest law on texting behind the wheel. Offenders now face up to 15 years in prison. The new law penalises a texting driver who causes a fatality as harshly as a drunk driver who kills someone.

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Carmakers could be forced to install technology into new European cars by 2014 that would automatically call emergency services in the event of a crash. The eCall system can save the lives of people who are unconscious or confused about their location after an accident, but has failed to take off due to worries about costs. Although 15 countries have given it their support, Denmark, France, Ireland, Latvia, Malta and Britain are not ready to commit, the European Commission said. It is estimated the system could save 2500 lives a year.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz