Pranksters at work

An American company called PrankPlace.com offers just that - tricks to play on friends or enemies. Things like half a baseball on a piece of clingfilm with shatter marks. Put it on a car's windscreen and it looks like the damage is terminal. Or fake parking tickets which, on closer inspection, reveal things like: Ugly Driver Violation; Not Driving an American Car; Parking too Close to a REAL Car; Inventing a Parking Space.

Prank Place

Classics converge

Organisers of New Zealand's largest classic car show are looking for missing car clubs. The 30th annual Intermarque Concours d'Elegance will be held at Auckland's Ellerslie racecourse on February 9, 2003. The host club, the Alfa Romeo Owners Club, says that many of the country's car club contacts change annually and keeping in touch can be difficult. If you belong to a car club that wants to be part of next year's show, concourscomm@hotmail.com

Focus of attention

The Toyota Corolla is still the best-selling car in history, despite the Volkswagen Golf recently producing number 21,517,415. A few months ago, production of the Corolla had reached 25,827,000. The Golf, which is now Europe's best selling car ever, relegated the former No 1 Beetle to the No 3 spot. Toyota likes to remind everyone that the Corolla reached the top spot in less time than the Beetle. The most popular car in the world today is the Ford Focus. More Focus models were sold worldwide last year than any other car.

Great expectations

Mazda New Zealand is excited by the overseas response to its new mid-range Mazda6 sedan. The car was launched in Japan and Europe last month and already sales are running well ahead of targets, to the point where the company has had to boost production by almost 50 per cent. In Japan, more than 7500 orders for the car were received in the first few weeks. In Europe, 30,000 orders were placed. The Mazda6 is due in New Zealand in September. The carmaker's marketing manager, Andrew Clearwater, said: "We are already referring inquiries for the car to our dealer network as many people have read the rave reviews the car has received. We are expecting big things from it in New Zealand."

Birthday bash

Ford New Zealand staffers baked a birthday cake the other day to celebrate the Mondeo's first birthday and its 3500th sale. The Mondeo's best sales month was last November when 491 were registered. The car has collected a handful of awards since it went on sale in June last year.

Strength in numbers

Land Rover and Volvo are to develop the replacement for the four-wheel-drive Freelander. The move is seen as putting the two Ford subsidiaries in a strong position to compete with the BMW X3, the 3-Series version of the X5 sports utility vehicle.

We are the world

* The colour of the car you drive can reveal more about your personality than you might like to admit. Those at the wheel of a black car are the most volatile on the road, far more prone to fits of road rage than other drivers, says British information company Trafficmaster. The hapless black-car brigade, which includes celebrities Tom Cruise and Victoria Beckham, aka Posh Spice, are also said to be indecisive and more likely to get lost on their travels.