The good oil: On cleanup track

Four-wheel-drive fans are in for a busy weekend. On Saturday, Auckland members of the New Zealand Four-Wheel-Drive Association will clean up Ti Tree Island, on South Kaipara Head.

It's part of a national spring-cleaning day done with the help of tyre company Firestone and the Department of Conservation. Ti Tree Island is home to endangered plants and birds, in particular the Fairy Tern, a bird rarer than the kakapo.

On Sunday a four-wheel-drive show day at the Clevedon polo ground will include the final of the Jeep/Warn driver of the year. There are nine finalists - eight men and one woman.


Oiling the wheels


The Good Oil and his family, on a compassionate flight to Britain a couple of weeks ago, hurriedly hired a car on arrival at Heathrow airport. The Avis woman rattled off a rate for a Peugeot 406 sedan - about $180 a day plus insurance. The Good Oil took a deep breath, mentally noted how thrilled his bank manager would be about $1300 to $1400 for a week's car hire, signed on the dotted line, and quickly drove off. Back at Heathrow seven days later, an Avis man with a mobile adding machine cheerfully greeted the Good Oil in the carpark and printed out a bill for more than $2200. The Good Oil clutched his chest and stumbled towards the "Help" desk in the Avis office. A red-coated, silver-tongued man explained the pain. The first item of $70 was a "collection" fee, for hiring the car at Heathrow, a major Avis "site." Next came $315 for damage insurance, $125 against theft and $95 covering personal injury. Estimated cost of refuelling the car came to $92.00 (unleaded petrol in Britain costs $2.35 a litre). On top of all this was Value Added Tax of $328.29. The bank manager no longer confers "preferred customer" status on the Good Oil, unlike Avis which has invited him to become exactly that. The Good Oil didn't follow his own advice - don't just book a hire car before you leave these shores, pay for it as well.


Luxury cars clash


BMW is about to launch its new station wagon, the 3-Series Touring, on the New Zealand market. Those interested in comparing it with its obvious rival, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class 280T, can tune into Auto Motor and Sport on Friday night and watch the two cars go head-to-head. The Triangle Television show also looks at hi-tech traffic guidance systems designed to preserve motorists' mobility while making roads safer, a convertible version of the New Beetle called the Beetster, the international Renault motor sport finals, and the history of the exclusive English sports car company Jensen.


Honda's easy riders


Own a Honda motorcycle and want to zip around Pukekohe racetrack? Then get out to the circuit on Saturday and Sunday. The invitation is part of Blue Wing Honda's sponsorship of the national championship event. "It's a lunchtime ride for the fans who go to watch the racing but seldom get a chance to feel what it is like to take the track themselves," said the company's boss, Clive Cooper-Smith. "We are going to some lengths to ensure safety. The riders will be staged in groups and we are not allowing any cowboys or Aaron Slight wannabes."


We are the world


* From the Only in America file: A highway patrolman in Long Beach, California, has been suspended from duty after stopping and fining his mother-in-law for traffic offences 48 times in just 12 weeks. Katty Needham claimed that her son-in-law Ed Burt would wait outside her house and follow her every time she jumped in her car.

* Thieves in Holland woke the owner of a new Porsche 911 and asked him to turn off the car's alarm because it was keeping neighbours awake. The owner sleepily did as he was asked and went back to bed. Then they nicked the car.