WAR HITS HIRE FLEETS: The Iraqi war is expected to impact on car sales to rental fleets.
While figures for the first 20 days of this month show the market actually grew by 3.7 per cent on the same month last year, the normal Easter sales to car hire fleets may be influenced by the likely drop in visitors, particularly from the US. It's estimated that sales to car hire firms account for about 25,000 of the 150,000 annual car sales.
In the market overall, the latest expectations are for a drop in car sales this year of just under 4 per cent.
PROFITS DROP: Ferrari's net profit halved last year after chairman and chief executive Luca Cordero di Montezemolo scored a record €18.2-million bonus. Net profit fell 54 per cent to €21.6 million in 2002 from the previous year, despite a 14 per cent increase in both sales and operating profit.
The volume of sales was up by 22.3 per cent, with a total 7,537 cars sold under the Ferrari and Maserati brands. Over a quarter of Maserati sales were in the US, where the brand had been absent for more than a decade until last year.
The luxury car-maker blamed its reduced bottom line on a series of one-off tax costs and bonuses. Ferrari's Formula One boss Jean Todt (above) also got a €3 million salary top-up "in recognition of his important contribution to the growth, prestige and value of the company" - the same reason given for Di Montezemolo's bonus.
DESERT SHOWDOWN: On a dusty runway in Arizona, US sports car maker Dodge pitted its supercar Viper against a US Air Force Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet last Saturday. In a side-by-side, standing-start drag race on parallel air base runways, the rules were simple - race for a half-mile, or until the jet becomes airborne.
The Dodge came out on top, covering the half mile race in about 18 seconds. Surprising when one considers the 500 bhp car has a top speed of 185mph. The Lockheed fighter, nicknamed the Viper, has a top speed of more than 1,300 mph.
There are no plans for a right-hand drive version of the Dodge - and the Aer Corps has no plans to buy any Viper jets.
NO FOOL'S DAY: DG Opel has a novel slant on the scrappage theme. For one day - April 1st - the Navan Road dealer will give a €2,500 scrappage allowance on anything on wheels against a new Corsa Comfort! That covers bikes, prams, buggies, even skates.