Kylie backs topless Ka

Singer Kylie Minogue, who reportedly turned down $4 million to bare all for Playboy magazine the other day, is jumping into bed with Ford of Europe to promote its new topless version of the Ka, called StreetKa. Minogue will tickle the fancy of prospective buyers between the car's unveiling at the Paris motor show in October and its public launch next year. In return Ford will sponsor Minogue's European Fever tour, which begins this month. Earl Hesterberg, Ford of Europe's marketing vice-president, said Minogue was universally popular, especially with young single people who were resistant to more traditional avenues of marketing communication.

Mini frenzy

The launch of the new Mini in America has created a frenzy never before seen for a British car. Customers at Mini Palm Beach in California queued from 4.30am to get a test drive. Up the road in Sacramento they slept outside the dealership. More than 300 people turned up at Mini Manhattan to try out the car. Eight out of 10 customers ordered at least one item from the Mini list of motoring accessories. Seven out of 10 paid cash for their car. Nine out of 10 said their top three reasons for buying a Mini were the driving experience, styling, and individuality.

Glass act

Citroen has joined Virgin airlines boss Richard Branson to launch its new C3 model in France. The Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees in Paris, France's largest music and entertainment store, is featuring the C3 enclosed in a giant glass ball. Nothing so elaborate for Citroen New Zealand. A left-hook C3 is parked in the window of its Greenlane headquarters. It's there as a teaser until the New Zealand-spec model arrives about September.

Reckless abandon

French motorists are the most dangerous in Europe, say European Union statistics. But they are even worse on the eve of the first round of presidential elections because of the custom of successive French presidents to announce a sweeping pardon of traffic violations within days of taking office. Georges Pompidou, after his victory in 1969, was the instigator, declaring an amnesty on parking tickets. Now French drivers have come to regard the pardon as a right. Safety campaigners, citing the sharp rise in accidents before presidential elections, have called for the amnesty to be abandoned. The 1995 poll, won by Jacques Chirac, is blamed for an extra 300 road deaths. France has the worst road safety of any leading industrialised nation - more than 8500 people die on its roads each year, Another 30,000 are crippled or seriously injured.

Get them young

Sydneysiders call it U-Turn at the Wheel. It's a young-driver programme designed to make learner drivers aware of the pitfalls on the road. It's backed by Rotary International, Honda Australia, Sydney councils and business sponsors. More than 6000 students from Sydney schools have gone through the programme in recent weeks and there are plans to broaden the scheme next year. The students were told that organised driver training is a fact of life in some countries. Germany, for instance, requires its learner drivers to take three months of intensive driver training and assessment. Auckland driving instructor Wayne Price has been pushing for something like the Sydney programme for some time. One day maybe, when he can get through all the red tape.

We are the world

* Honda's new mini is called the Jazz in Europe and Fit in Japan. It will probably be called Jazz in New Zealand, too, when it gets here this year. But Jazz wasn't Honda's first choice. Honda liked the name Fitta best, until Swedish speakers pointed out that Fitta was a rude Swedish word for female genitals.

* Billboard advertisements for cars in Belgium must carry a warning stating that safe driving is the driver's responsibility. Belgium's Institute for Traffic Safety is behind the new law and carmakers are concerned that the legislation might spread throughout Europe.