Caught red-handed

Ethel and Mildred were out driving in a large car. The two old dears could barely see over the dashboard. At the first intersection the light was red but they went right through. Ethel, in the passenger seat, thought: "I must be losing it. I could swear we just went through a red light."

At the next intersection the same thing happened. This time Ethel was almost certain the light had been red, but her eyesight wasn't the best. She was getting nervous and decided to pay very close attention. At the next intersection, sure enough, the light was red and they went through. Ethel snapped: "Mildred! Do you know we just went through three red lights in a row? You could have killed us." Mildred sat bolt upright and said: "Oh, my god - am I driving?"

Toyota tops list

New-vehicle sales in New Zealand in the first six months of 2000 were up nearly 7 per cent on 1999, says the Land Transport Safety Authority. Leading the way was Toyota with 6505 sales (17.9 per cent of the market), followed by Ford with 5354 (14.7), Holden 4698 (12.9), Nissan 3887 (10.7), Mitsubishi 3626 (10.0), Mazda 1539 (4.2), Hyundai 1482 (4.1) and Honda 1409 (3.9). Thirty per cent of overall sales of 64,888 vehicles were new - 70 per cent were used imports. But sales of used imports were down 4.5 per cent on the first six months of last year. New-vehicle sales in June continued the trend. Toyota sold 1122 cars and commercials for 18.1 per cent of the market, followed by Holden with 897 (14.5) and Ford with 847 (13.7). Toyota said its new small car, the Echo, had helped to extend its sales lead. The carmaker is on a roll. Yesterday it launched the large-car Avalon, people-mover Previa and lifestyle four-wheel-drive RAV-4.

Hot hatchback

The Renault Clio RS 2.0, the hottest hatchback on the European market, will go on sale in New Zealand in September. The French flyer will keep Renault sales bubbling along nicely in what has been a revitalised year in New Zealand. The car was expected here in May or June, but demand in Europe delayed right-hand-drive production. The high-performance Renault is in the mould of the lickety-split Clio Williams of a few years ago. Also new for Renault is an uprated version of its mini people-mover, the Scenic. But buyers wanting to try the 4WD Scenic will have to wait until later in the year.

Real scene-stealer

Talking of the Scenic, it's the bestselling compact people-mover in Germany, which is why Auto Motor and Sport puts it up against Audi's A2 in tonight's show on Triangle Television. So far, the Audi has held its own against Volkswagen's Golf and Mercedes-Benz A-Class. There's also a look at BMW's latest Z8 sportscar, the miniature world of model car accessories and the wacky designs of carmaker Rinspeed.

Spoiled for choice

The Land Rover Freelander will come with the choice of two new engines and a five-speed manual/automatic transmission when it goes on sale here this year. One of the engines will be a reworked version of the 2.5-litre petrol V6 which powers the Rover 75 sedan, and the other will be a new common-rail diesel offering improved performance over the current Freelander's 2.0-litre turbo-diesel. The Freelander is as desperate for an automatic V6 as the All Blacks are for a win against Australia tonight.