Possum's car for sale

A few years ago, after Possum Bourne had won his first Asia/Pacific rally championship, Subaru gave him an Impreza STi for his own use. "How'd you get one of those?" asked Subaru New Zealand general manager Wally Dumper. "I can't even get one and we want to sell them." Joked Bourne: "You get one of these when you're the best rally driver in the Asia/Pacific." In March, this year, two high-performance, limited-edition Subaru Legacy S401 sedans arrived from Japan - one for Bourne to keep, one for Dumper to use as a demonstration model.

"How come you got one, too?" asked Bourne. Joked Dumper: "You get one of these when you're the best Subaru distributor in the world." A few weeks later Bourne was dead. Now his S401 is sitting at Winger's in Greenlane, with $64,990 on the windscreen and 900km on the clock. Dumper's demonstration car was sold some months ago.



AWARD TO FORD FOCUS

The Ford Focus has received a "lifetime achievement" award from British magazine Autocar. The weekly credited the Focus with changing the small-family-car market forever, saying: "There may never be another family car as good as the Ford Focus". Collecting the award, Franz Laermann, engineering manager through the original Focus development programme, said: "The Ford Focus is the single achievement I am most proud of in my career." Launched in 1998, the Focus won the European Car of the Year 1999 before going on to gather more than 50 major European and American awards.

PRAISE FOR PRIUS

The new petrol-electric Toyota Prius, which went on sale in limited numbers here last month, has just won American magazine Motor Trend's car of the year award. Volkswagen's Touareg won the magazine's four-wheel-drive category. Motor Trend is the best-selling automotive magazine in the US.

PUBLICITY FROM CUP

Peugeot might have been a sponsor and the official vehicle supplier to the Rugby World Cup, but Ford and Nissan got in on the act, too. Ford ran an advertisement on billboards and newspapers across Australia showing Wallaby players crammed into a Falcon, and Nissan bombarded television viewers with commercials. But there were no cries of ambush marketing from Peugeot. Ford has been official vehicle supplier to the Wallabies since 1993 and Nissan simply cashed in on blanket TV coverage of the games.

MILLIONTH AA MEMBER

The New Zealand Automobile Association has just signed up its one-millionth member, a few months after it celebrated its 100th birthday. Taupo dental technician Ben Cowman returned from working in Britain and joined up when he went looking for wheels. "I'm just an average bloke who has never been singled out for anything before," said Cowman. "Before I went overseas, I used to be an AA member. I remember breaking down in my Datsun 120Y late one night in the Manawatu and the AA sorted me out in about half an hour. It was really good." Cowman and his British wife, Amanda, who is expecting their first child in February, win a package of goodies from the AA, including accommodation and the free use of a rental car.

WE ARE THE WORLD

Police in Michigan blamed a traffic accident on truck driver Brian Anderson, who they said lost control on Interstate 75 while making himself a bologna sandwich. In Florida, a motorcyclist was killed on Interstate 95 when he crashed into a cow that had wandered out through a hole in a fence. The Palm Beach Post said the hole was made by trespassers looking to get high from the mushrooms that grow on cow pats.