The good oil: Toyota to develop low-price hybrid

Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone and his wife Slavica have ended their marriage and the division of Ecclestone's $7 billion fortune could make it the most expensive divorce in history. Former Armani model Slavica has hired top divorce lawyer Liz Vernon, who won the ex-Arsenal footballer Ray Parlour's wife a third of his future wages in a landmark ruling. Ecclestone and Slavica married in London in July 1985 and have two daughters Tamara, 24, and Petra, 19. They have a jet and a yacht named after their daughters.

* * *

The news flashed out of Japan: Nissan has built a station wagon version of the GT-R and will reveal it at the prestigious Nagoya Auto Trend show. From a distance it looked like the ultimate load-lugger. Up close it was a jazzed-up, domestic market Nissan Stagea ... with a GT-R-style front end. It's the work of Nagoya-based tuning outfit Kids Heart, which is well known in Japan as a specialist manufacturer of bespoke models for use in drifting championships. Kids Heart says it will build the car to order for around $45,000.

* * *

Fiat Group and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen have denied an Italian newspaper report that the two companies could merge. Fiat said it does not plan any merger with other carmakers other than its proposed alliance with Chrysler LLC, which will see the Italian company take a 35 per cent stake in Chrysler, possibly rising to 55 per cent. But Fiat said it is open to co-operating with other companies on projects that could create industrial synergies or open access to new markets. The newspaper said Italian investment bank Mediobanca has drawn up a report merging Fiat's automotive operations with those of PSA.

* * *

New-car sales in Germany have jumped 21 per cent since the Government introduced a $6000 bonus for scrapping cars older than nine years in favour of newer, more fuel-efficient models. More than 278,000 units were registered in Germany last month, the best February sales in a decade. Now the British Government is looking at a similar scheme, offering $6000 credits to new-car buyers who turn in their old cars. It is under pressure to prop up Britain's motoring industry, which supports tens of thousands of jobs.

* * *

President Barack Obama's automotive task force has hired hotshot New York bankruptcy lawyer Matthew Feldman to advise it on its options for rescuing General Motors, Chrysler LLC and parts suppliers. The task force toured GM and Chrysler facilities in Detroit this week, checking new technology and meeting with company executives. The panel faces a March 31 deadline to determine whether GM and Chrysler can be commercially viable and deserving of more government aid. The companies have received US$17.4 billion ($32 billion) so far and have asked for an extra US$22 billion.

* * *

Toyota plans to develop a new low-price hybrid car aimed at undercutting rival Honda's Insight, says a Japanese newspaper. The Nikkei Business Daily said the new petrol-electric car will go on sale in Japan in 2011, selling at below $40,000. The Insight went on sale there last month, where 18,000 were ordered - more than three times Honda's monthly sales target of 5000 units. The new Toyota is expected to use modified parts from the bigger Prius.

* * *

The Independent's Brian Viner, writing about a colleague who was caught short on a bus in London: "At Waterloo he scurried to the gents, locked himself in a cubicle, but in the unseemly haste to pull his trousers down, a load of coins and other metal objects fell out of his pockets and clattered on the stone floor, causing a right old racket followed by a resounding silence, which in turn was broken by an exceedingly posh voice issuing from the next cubicle. "Good heavens, man! What have you been eating?"