$1 million left hooker

Want a look at the $1 million Porsche Carrera GT? Get along to dealers Giltrap Prestige on Great North Rd, where the supercar is sitting in the window. It's Colin Giltrap's own car and is one of three bought by New Zealanders. It will be here for a few weeks before being flown to Britain where it will registered, owned and operated by Giltrap for 90 days or more, and re-imported later in the year. That way the left-hand-drive Carreracan be registered for road use in New Zealand. The premium six-speed Porsche is powered by a 5.7-litre V10 engine producing 450kW (612bhp) at 8000rpm and 590Nm of torque at 5750rpm. It has a top speed of 330km/h and sprints from zero to 100km/h in 3.9sec.

VW OUSTS MERCS

Volkswagen has edged out Mercedes-Benz as the most-trusted brand in Germany, a Readers Digest survey shows. The result is good news for VW, which has been criticised for neglecting its mass-market models in its bid to move upscale. But it's bad news for Mercedes-Benz, the leader since the survey began four years ago. The world's top-selling premium brand has been hit repeatedly by complaints about the quality of its vehicles. The magazine's survey is one of the biggest and most wide-ranging consumer polls in Europe, covering nearly 30,000 readers from its database of 4.5 million homes across 14 European countries. The most-trusted brand in Britain was Ford, followed by Vauxhall. In France it was Renault, then Peugeot and Citroen. The Italian market was excluded because the Readers Digest franchise-holder there decided not to participate.

OPEL EYE-OPENER

A three-dimensional poster is being used to market the new Opel Astra in Germany. The poster includes the slogan "Believe your eyes." Opel parent General Motors is counting on the Astra to help to end GM Europe's five years of losses. Opel has taken 60,000 advance orders for the new Astra since November.

BACKING OIL BURNERS

Hyundai has no doubts about the growth of diesel vehicles in Britain. The Korean company is the first carmaker to offer a model with no petrol options at all, such is its faith in the appeal of oil-burners. The Elantra line-up has been stripped to only one variant, which uses an 82kW (111bhp) 2-litre common-rail engine. The same engine is an option in the four-wheel-drive Trajet and Santa Fe in that market.

CLEVER LITTLE CAR

They're calling it the "ultimate urban vehicle." It's a metre-wide three-wheeler called the Clever, a cross between a motorbike and a micro-car. Scientists building the fully enclosed prototype at Bath University in Britain say it does 188mpg, or around 1.4litres/100km and is capable of carrying two people at 80km/h. "It will be much more popular with motorists than past novel city vehicles," said the university's Jos Darling. The prototype will be finished next year and cost £6500 ($17,500) if it goes into production.

WE ARE THE WORLD

A pick-up truck driver in Indiana probably wishes the load he was carrying hadn't obscured his vehicle's number plate, stuck to the cab's rear window. A state trooper pulled him over, gave him a ticket, and showed him that if he moved his load a little bit this way and that way he'd ... lordy, what do we have here? The truck was carrying more than 400kg of marijuana.