High-flyer heads off

Ford New Zealand boss Nigel Harris (pictured) is moving to South Africa as the new director of marketing and sales for Ford and Mazda. He will be based at Silverton, Pretoria, and will start work in about three weeks.

"I have enjoyed two very busy years as the managing director at Ford New Zealand, and South Africa presents me with new challenges that I am eager to experience," he said.

Harris started with Ford New Zealand in 1985. He was appointed head of Ford Greece in 1994 before moving to Britain in 1997 to look after development for small Ford vehicles worldwide. He returned to this country in 1999 as sales and marketing boss and became managing director in January 2000. His successor will be announced soon.

Highlands workout

The new Range Rover will be launched here in August. Those who had the opportunity to drive it at the press unveiling in Queenstown last month report that it is most impressive. On Monday night, Auto, Motor and Sport puts the third-generation Rangie through the hoops in the rugged terrain of the Scottish Highlands.

The Triangle Television show (8pm) also takes a look at a competition for budding car designers, a rare collection of Renault Alpine sports cars, and compares people-movers the Hyundai Trajet, Chrysler Voyager and Toyota Previa.

Prowler apprehended

The last Chrysler Prowler ever built - complete with unique Prowler accessories such as a colour-coded trailer and a time capsule that contains rare memorabilia including signed, original styling sketches - was auctioned at Christie's in Manhattan the other day for US$175,000 ($372,000). The DaimlerChrysler Corporation Fund, the company's philanthropic arm, donated the 2002 model year Prowler (pictured) to America's National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

We are the world

* Eight out of 10 Audi TT roadster buyers worldwide choose to have a silver car over the other TT colours of black and blue. It seems that silver is seen as a typically German prestige colour. It probably has something to do with the origin of the Silver Arrows racing cars of the 1930s.

These Daimler-Benz cars were first painted white. But the team's racing manager, Alfred Neubauer, in order to save precious weight in the 750kg class, ordered them to be sanded back to bare aluminium. This shed a kilo in weight and left the cars glowing silver in the sun, hence the name Silver Arrows.