Cash injection for Daewoo

Daewoo's creditors - mostly Korea's Government-owned banks - have thrown the ailing carmaker a $1.4 billion lifeline as part of a restructuring plan. Daewoo was declared bankrupt last month, owing more than $25 billion. Its future depends on its 18,000 workers agreeing to job cuts. If they do, a Korean court will appoint a receiver to try to turn the company around. If they don't, the carmaker could be placed in liquidation. Daewoo New Zealand has welcomed the cash injection. Managing director Russell Burling says it is a positive step that will enable Daewoo to complete the appointment of a New Zealand-wide sales network early next year.

Dual-top Jeep

Jeep is calling it the equivalent of the reversible jacket. It's a hard-top for winter and a soft-top for summer, and it is available on the rough-and-tumble Wrangler. Until now Wrangler buyers could have one or the other. But Jeep has introduced the dual top as an option - in matching colours, too. The soft-top/hard-top is popular in parts of the United States where winters are freezing and summers boiling.

Look Mum, no keys!

Hi-tech German company Siemens says it will have fingerprint-recognition technology available in cars within two years. The system will enable a driver to enter and start a car without keys.

Thieving rampant

Thieves declared open season on everything not bolted down at the Sydney Motor Show. A convertible 3-Series BMW disappeared the day before the show opened when cars were being shuffled around and keys sometimes left in them. It was found in the suburbs the next day with 600km on the clock. Holden staff fingered one show-goer trying to unbolt a Chevrolet engine from a display case. Lexus people collared a couple of teenagers who slashed the leather upholstery in a GS300. A box of Mitsubishi Ralliart clothing went missing; so did countless gear-lever knobs, badges, ashtrays and T-shirts. A rare F40 Ferrari was taken from the Ferrari stand - but this was only after a display tower fell on it and damaged the bodywork.

Whack, whack!

Model carmaker Corgi's latest offering salutes a classic moment from the television series Fawlty Towers when Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) attacked his Austin 1300 Estate (as the British call them) with a tree branch. The Corgi package, on sale for $69.95, includes a red Austin, a plastic Basil with branch in hand, and realistic wing-mirrors that snap off when he whacks the car.

Hydrogen project

Korean carmakers Hyundai and Kai have joined forces with a high-tech California company to develop a hydrogen-powered version of Hyundai's four-wheel-drive Santa Fe. The wagon - the petrol version of which has just gone on sale in New Zealand - is being tested daily on the roads between San Francisco and Sacramento in a programme expected to last three-and-a-half years. Hyundai has already spent $37 million over the past six months on the fuel cell. It produces 75kW and pushes the Santa Fe from zero to 100 km/h in 13s and on to a top speed of 125 km/h. Distance is a problem at the moment - it can cover only 160km on a single charge.

We are the world

* Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr once drove a customised 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Coupe from New York to California for the television series Ringo Across America. The car ended up in Australia. Now it's going back to America - it was sold at the Sydney Motor Show auction the other day for $65,000. A 1953 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gull Wing was passed in at $560,000. Its reserve price was $600,000.

* A retired American policeman was charged with drink/driving after he was seen trying to withdraw money from a petrol pump he mistook for an ATM.

* Motorists in the British seaside town of Brighton are covering up the wing mirrors on their cars to prevent attacks from a pesky blackbird, which pecks the mirrors thinking its reflection is a rival.