The good oil: Ford angling to sell Volvo

Ford is trying to sell Volvo to Chinese carmaker the Geely Group. Photo / Supplied

Ford is angling to sell its premium Volvo brand to Chinese carmaker the Geely Group. "Ford believes Geely has the potential to be a responsible future owner of Volvo and to take the business forward while preserving its core values and the independence of the Swedish brand," said Ford chief financial officer Lewis Booth. Ford says it will soon begin more detailed talks with Geely. Analysts in Europe put a possible sale price for Volvo of around US$2 billion. Ford paid US$6.45 billion for Volvo in 1999.

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Triumph car clubs in the region will get together on November 29 to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Triumph Herald. It's part of the annual show and shine parade, which starts in the Viaduct Basin and finishes up at St Heliers. The two-door Triumph Herald was launched at London's Royal Albert Hall on April 22, 1959. Its maker, Standard-Triumph, knew it had a winner - prototypes had survived a gruelling test run through Africa, from Cape Town to Tangiers. The first models ran a 948cc four-cylinder engine. Standard-Triumph was taken over by Leyland Motors in 1961 and the car was relaunched with an 1147cc engine as the Herald 1200.

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Motorcycle club members in Auckland are taking to the streets on November 10 to protest the proposed hike in Accident Compensation Corporation levies on motorbikes. Submissions on the new charges close that day and the bikers are going to rev things up outside ACC offices on both sides of the harbour bridge before riding en masse at 5pm to Prime Minister John Key's electoral office in Kumeu. A two-wheel group spokesman said: "It will be a slow, calm ride in peak traffic ..."

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This week's Targa rally has had a few hiccups with its ambassadors, big-name drivers who give local dignitaries on the Auckland-to-Wellington route a blast on special stages. Ambassador One Chris Amon got crook before the start and had to take himself and the Lexus IS-F he was going to drive out of the event. Ambassador Two Neil Tolich took over VIP duties in an Aston Martin Vantage but retired after damaging a wheel rim on a run through Waitomo. Targa director Peter Martin briefly became Ambassador Three in a BMW before handing over to Ambassador Four, Peter Johnson, in another Lexus IS-F. The Targa finishes tomorrow with a prize-giving breakfast in the Wellington Town Hall.

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Herb Caen has been dead 12 years now but he used to write a wonderful column for the daily San Francisco Chronicle. It usually ran around 800 to 1000 words. Except for one day in 1974, after US national guardsmen shot dead four students during an anti-war protest at Kent State University, in Ohio. "Herb Caen doesn't feel much like writing today, not after US soldiers are shooting dead US kids on US soil." Something like that, anyway, a small block of print sitting in the middle of two columns of blank space. Caen later said he was surprised the paper's editor approved it. It came to mind after a colleague despaired at news that New Zealand has the world's worst child death-by-maltreatment rate.

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Police in the tiny east Texas town of Tenaha have allegedly been running an extortion racket where they would drop trumped-up traffic and drugs charges in exchange for property. The goods were then sold to fund police social activities, such as monthly barbecues and the annual knees-up. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the police and local prosecutor Lynda Russell. Russell has formally asked the state attorney- general if she could pay her legal expenses from the Tenaha police social fund.

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Catherine Stotts, 62, was driving too fast down a blocked-off road construction lane in California when she hit a 60-year-old male highway worker. The worker was taken to hospital and Stotts was charged with a driving offence. Now she's challenging it, saying the man could have jumped out of the way faster.

alastair.sloane@nzherald.co.nz