With Toyota’s venerable Tazz having finally reached the end of the road, Fiat is taking aim at the 1 500 to 2 000 budget-car customers that will now be looking elsewhere for sound, basic transport each month. It has introduced the eCo, a low-spec version of its Palio.

Come on, admit it. There wasn’t a diesel car owner in the country who didn’t have a tear in his eye when Audi won the 2006 24 Hours of Le Mans in their diesel R10 sports car. After years of being condemned to use the leaky old diesel pump around the back of the service station, drivers of oil burners have finally earned the right to be accepted at all levels!

The business of building and selling motor cars, as the modern world knows it, is changing. While the established mainstream manufacturers struggle to keep costs down to remain competitive, their workers demand even higher wages. China, in the meantime, has an already enormous motor industry, largely owned by the state.

New best life fire passion Fiat … I’m sorry. This isn’t really working, is it? It’s just that, having driven the new Fiat Grande Punto at the launch, I returned to my office and opened the press pack to see if I’d missed anything during my 600km on the road, only to be assaulted by a 36-page press release, loaded to the gunwales with no less than 11 885 words, writes Gavin Foster.

Competition has become fierce in the entry-level sedan market, with Tata’s Indica and Indigo, Hyundai’s Atos, Kia’s Picanto and the Chevrolet Spark all taking huge chunks of market share away from their long-established opposition. Of these , the Corsa is by far the most modern package, and stands the best chance of survival.

Where three players have for years been used to taking 95% of half-ton bakkie sales, the rules have suddenly changed. The arrival of Fiat and Proton’s small pickups has caused a moderate stir, and Ford, General Motors and Nissan will in future all have to work harder for smaller slices of the growing sub-one-ton pie.

Motorcyclists, ex-motorcyclists and wannabe motorcyclists are in for the treat of the year at the sixth annual Association of Motorcycle Importers and Distributors (Amid) motorcycle and quad lifestyle expo at Kyalami next weekend (May 5 to 7).

"The Mazda MX5 delivered to us for test purposes got me thinking along these lines, because it’s such a gorgeous driver’s car that I’d seriously contemplate buying one, if I had the money," writes Gavin Foster. "The Mazda is, quite simply, the closest thing to the traditional British sportscar that money can buy, without the irritating foibles."

Mossel Bay, it is claimed, has the second-mildest climate in the world, after Hawaii, but that isn’t the reason Toyota South Africa chose the coastal town to launch its new Fortuner wagon. A vehicle as capable as this needs to have a decent stage on which to flaunt its assets, and the numerous mountain passes leading across the Outeniqua mountains to Oudtshoorn were tailor-made for the job.

I don’t know of any law that says speedometers have to over-read, but there are a few that prohibit speedometers from reflecting a lower speed than the vehicle is actually travelling. In the United Kingdom, for instance, speedometers may legally be up to 10% optimistic, but there’s no leeway for under-reading.