BMW has responded to the arrival of the euro with the harmonisation of basic prices across the Euro-zone.
The euro's launch also highlights just how much national taxes contribute to new car pricing. Our Vehicle Registration Tax (VRT) means that Ireland is the most expensive euro country in which to buy a car.
MITSUBISHI has scored again, winning the 2002 Arras-Madrid-Dakar rally with Japanese driver Hiroshi Masuoka driving a Pajero.
For Mitsubishi it was a record seventh Dakar victory: the Japanese marque also filled all of the top eight places.
BOSCH is a famous name not just for spark plugs but much more, injection systems, radios and the like.
But it was 100 years ago that it first patented the spark plug, and in 1902 it was producing 300 a year. Now its Bamberg plant manufactures one million a day.
DIESEL cars, as we mentioned last week, now account for over 13 per cent of all new cars sold here. But in Britain it's a much different story.
Diesels took 22 per cent of all car sales last year and the prediction for 2002 is 30 per cent. The Ford Focus, best-selling car in both Ireland and Britain, is also the best-selling diesel car in the UK.
IT'S the best-known registration mark in Dublin, D1. The city's first citizen, Councillor Michael Mulcahy has been presented with a Volvo S80, registration number 02-D1. This is the twelfth year Volvo Car Ireland has given the Lord Mayor a new car.
THE national Mazda dealer of the year is O'Brien's Garage, Cork Road, Midleton, Co Cork, where the dealer principal is Philip O'Brien.