The good oil: Alfa part of VW's global plans

The Volkswagen Group wants to buy Italy's Alfa Romeo. Photo / Supplied

The Volkswagen Group wants to buy Italy's Alfa Romeo, another step in its plan to topple Toyota as the world's biggest car company. Reports in Germany say senior VW Group officials have admitted a deal to buy Alfa from owner Fiat could be on the cards. A "high ranking" VW executive was quoted as saying: "Alfa is a globally recognised brand with sporty genes and a great tradition. If such a treasure could be had, we must not hesitate ... too long." Fiat denies everything; VW is not commenting.

German's ever-expanding empire

The VW Group controls Porsche, Audi, Skoda, Bentley, Bugatti, truckmaker Scania, Spanish brand Seat and automotive design company Italdesign Giugiaro. It also has a stake in Suzuki and Lamborghini. Despite its many brands, VW Group reportedly sees adding Alfa Romeo as an ideal way to further enhance its economies of scale. Earlier this year, VW CEO Martin Winterkorn was reported as saying he admires Alfa Romeo. Two former Alfa Romeo executives are now working for VW: chief designer Walter de Silva and marketing boss Luca de Meo.

Who's being possessive now?

The possessive apostrophe is all over the place these days. A letter about the the driver fined $1.5 million for doing almost 300km/h in a Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG "Gullwing" talked about the "cars doors" and the "cars wheels". The writer either doesn't like apostrophes or doesn't know where to put them. It should have read the "car's doors" and the "car's wheels". A writer in Air New Zealand's Koru Club magazine light-heartedly describes himself as "one of the countries most travelled" people. He surely meant "country's" - as in New Zealand's.

It's just an opinion ...

Some people want the English language revised to exclude apostrophes altogether. The old rule about their use was to turn the sentence around and add the word "of". The singular apostrophe then goes after the final letter, in this case "r'." "Doors of the car" - "the car's doors". More than one car calls for a plural apostrophe. "Doors of the cars" becomes the "cars' doors". This rule pretty much works all the time. There are exceptions, mostly with plural nouns. "Women drivers" comes to mind. The incorrect use of apostrophes crops up everywhere, especially on internet blogs. Another rule: "The easier thing in the world to write well is your opinion; the hardest is someone else's."

Every right to be royally annoyed

Money doesn't talk much when you park illegally in London, something the Qatari royal family has learned. Having forked out $3.5 billion for Harrods, the royals obviously felt entitled to park an electric-blue Koenigsegg CCXR and matching Lamborghini Murcielago SuperVeloce outside the department store. Traffic wardens promptly put wheel clamps on the Swedish and Italian supercars' sizeable rims (the rims of the supercars). Now the cashed-up Qatari royals owe the local council $600 in fines, plus $350 for clamp removal.

We are the world

Eugene Palmer, 40, paused near the entrance to a bank in Georgia, pulled on a ski mask, grabbed a gun and lunged at the door. It was locked. Pedestrian Palmer had picked on a drive-through-only branch of the SunTrust bank chain.

Danny Spencer, 31, couldn't open the safe in the car parts store so he dragged it to the back door, hooked it up to the getaway car and drove off. The safe was still locked tight when police pulled him over.