The good oil: UK motorists chat to their cars

GM have signed a deal to sell Hummer to the Chinese. Photo / Supplied

GM may have signed a deal to sell Hummer to the Chinese, but it's business as usual in New Zealand, a Holden spokesman has told Good Oil. That could change down the track: "There will be many details to be worked through once the sale is confirmed and the New Zealand situation is one of many," the spokesman said. The new owner is the Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery Company Ltd, of Chengdu, China. GM says the buyer will "aggressively fund future Hummer product programmes" and will continue production in America, for now. Conspiracy theorists and hawks needn't get too upset about the preceding item. The deal doesn't include Hummer's military vehicles or technology. AM General of Indiana, which developed the military Humvee, runs that end of the business.

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Three-quarters of the UK's motorists admit chatting to their cars, according to a new poll. And following in the footsteps of Basil Fawlty and Knight Rider, a surprising 21 per cent of men admit to talking to their cars, at least sometimes. However, not all car talk is idle chatter. Some luxury models have a voice-activated command system giving drivers a reason to mutter to their motor. Meanwhile, another UK poll reveals a quarter of drivers admit to having a pet name for their car, including Pablo the Prius and Sexo the Saxo. Only 21 per cent said they gave their partner a term of endearment.

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Beetle has been a good, reliable seller for Volkswagen around the world. Complaints of cramped rear-seat room and poor interior packaging will be addressed in the next model, due in three years, according to the head of the Volkswagen Group of America. Addressing space issues doesn't necessarily mean that the next Beetle will be bigger, though. Few changes have been made to the current Beetle since it came out in 1998.

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Many of the concept cars shown at the world's motor shows are shuffled off and never seen again ... but not always. Audi has confirmed that the e-tron high-performance electric vehicle will be built and on sale in two or three years. The sleek two-seater was unveiled at the Frankfurt auto show last month, but at the time Audi wouldn't confirm it had a production future. The e-tron concept is powered by four electric motors, one on each wheel. Audi says it has a range of 250km using a lithium ion battery behind the passenger cabin. Audi is also developing hybrid vehicles. The first, on the Q5 crossover, is scheduled to appear in 2011.

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You know the recession is over when Rolls-Royce opens a new showroom in North America, which it has just done in Long Island. It's the 34th Roller showroom on the continent and among its services "offers vehicles under the Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Provenance programme for client acquisition". Good Oil reckons this means they also sell used cars, possibly to bankers unsure about the size of this year's bonuses.

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Holden has announced a CDX diesel automatic version for the ever-expanding Cruze SUV lineup. It'll be available early next year and boasts overall fuel consumption of an un-SUV-like 6.9 litres/100km.