The good oil: Grylls in adventure with Nissan

Bear Grylls. Photo / Supplied

British adventurer Bear Grylls has signed with Nissan Australia to plug the carmaker's all-wheel-drive X-Trail. He says it's a car "that is all about fun, families and adventure - all the things I like in life". Grylls, son of late Conservative Party politician Sir Michael Grylls, has just finished filming episodes of his Man vs Wild television series in New Zealand and Australia: "The two episodes I've just filmed in Australia were the hardest I've ever done. That's the magic of Australia - things like crocodiles and heat all reduce your margin for error."

Christchurch confirmed for NZ Open

Battered Christchurch might have lost Rugby World Cup games but so far it is hanging on to another high-profile sporting event - the NZ Golf Open. Senior sponsor BMW New Zealand remains right behind the December tournament at the Clearwater course. "I have assured NZ Golf, Christchurch City Council and the Government that BMW is 100 per cent committed to the tournament," said BMW managing director Mark Gilbert. "There are obviously some things that will influence this, such as the availability of accommodation, but we felt it important to reconfirm our support."

New slant on British roads

Archaeologists have found Britain's oldest properly engineered road, and the discovery could change the way historians look at a key aspect of British history. Many of the country's key A roads - long thought to be Roman in origin - may be substantially more British than scholars initially thought. The discoveries, in Shropshire, suggest that ancient Britons were building finely engineered, well-cambered and skilfully metalled roads up to 100 years before the Emperor Claudius' conquering legions ever set foot in Britain in the middle of the 1st century BC.

Queensland youth miss out

Young drivers in Queensland are to be banned from driving the new version of the Holden Cruze. Although it has won the maximum five stars in official crash safety testing, the Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads has refused to allow learner and provisional drivers an exemption to drive the 1.4-litre Cruze because its petrol engine is turbocharged. But the government body will allow inexperienced road users to drive the much more powerful Cruze 2-litre diesel manual, whose turbo-diesels are exempt from the ban.

Mixed messages on Evo X

Mitsubishi has updated its Facebook page after a report that the go-fast Lancer Evolution may be culled in favour of an electric vehicle after the current model, the Evo X, runs its course. It said: "Further to some comments published recently, production of the current Lancer Evolution continues as planned. As for its successor, regulations and market feedback will dictate its engineering package and architecture. Stay tuned." The mixed message of high-efficiency and the Evo's high-performance would confuse consumers, said Mitsubishi's global product director, Gayu Eusegi.

US considers prod to buckle up

About 15 per cent of vehicle occupants in the US still don't buckle up, says a study. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking at higher fines for non-use of belts. When US seat-belt law was changed from a secondary law to a primary one - meaning that motorists could be specifically fined for not wearing a seat belt - front seat-belt use increased by 10 to 12 per cent. Raising fines, it says, would raise seat-belt use by up to 8 per cent. Among states, seat-belt use ranges from 98 per cent in Michigan to just 68 per cent in Wyoming.

We are the world

A man walked into a gun shop in Kansas City, asked the assistant for a box of bullets, plonked down $40 to pay for them - then pulled a pistol and demanded all the shop's money. The assistant pulled out a bigger gun. The would-be robber fled to a waiting car, leaving behind his $40.