You can also get the paint in purple, just like those 70s Hillmans

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To Dudenhofen to look at, and try, some new Opel (aka Vauxhall) engines and gearboxes. So up rolls a new Adam - my first look at one - with an automated manual (yuck) and a purple interior....

This colour I have seen before. About 40 years ago. In Hillman Hunters and Avengers.

The local CKD assembler in New Zealand had spared us such horrors by combining local vinyl seat and door trim in fetching shades of beige, brown, red, blue, etc with black hardware but a temporary relaxation of import restrictions to meet exceptional demand for new cars led to a flood of built-ups from Mother England in '73-'74 so we got 'full colour keyed interior' Hillmans in such hues as blue, brown and purple. Very Seventies, we recall, as we look back.

Over the years, I've talked paint and interior colours with a number of expert forecasters and the key message is that materials may change but colours tend to come around again every few decades. The purple in the Adam is not pervasive; it's seat covers, door trims and dashpad with the rest, thankfully, black. And it didn't look too bad, actually.

Forty years of material advances should also ensure one more thing: the coloured dashtops in those marvellous English Hillmans all turned black under Antipodean sun in a year or two; I suspect Opel's colours will prove rather more durable.

Like those '70s Hillmans, you can also get the Adam painted in purple - it looks pretty good with a contrasting roof.

An interesting take on the high price of fuel here in Europe.

Driver rolls Honda Fit (Jazz) seven times and...

Lots of excitement on Twitter today about Nissan's new Note. Notable, according to a UK PR, is the self-cleaning rear view camera which "knows when it's dirty and automatically cleans itself with a drop of water and a puff of air".

Hmmm, wonder where Nissan got that technology from? Perhaps another well known Japanese manufacturer named Toto?

New Zealand's famous driving dogs, who hit the news in December, have more fame coming.

Reportedly a starring role in a future episode of Top Gear.

Awww.

More on the clever canines here.

Gotta love it. A do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do British MP and government minister - of railways, no less - gets his come-uppance courtesy of newspapers the said government has just finished investigating.

Wonder how long he'll keep taking the train with the rest of the plebs?

Ooops. What not to do with the pricey coupe you bought with a lotto cheque.

And, while we're enjoying a little schadenfreude, what about this 'typical BMW driver'?

Seems to be a day for disaster pix of cars.

And it's not just the US (and us) with a crumbling road infrastructure.

Just as the Arctic lifts (slightly) from the UK came this from a colleague in an email headed 'Why wimps go south for winter'.

If you're a snowbird, you're lucky. Some of us are regretting we didn't install winter tyres...

Following on from yesterday's blog about Apple Maps problems in Australia, you might like to know that a Google Maps app for the iPhone is back.

Just out today and it seems to work ok, based on a very short trial.

If you like it, the Google Earth app is also well worth grabbing while you're at it.

Just when you thought the outcry over the replacement of the Google Maps app with Apple's own version on the new iPhone had died down a bit comes this news from Australia.

Oh, darn.

To be fair, Apple has made some changes. When I updated to iOs 6.0, and got Apple Maps whether I wanted it or not, my town of 30,000 people had disappeared, acquiring the name of a suburb instead. With the iOs 6.0.1 update, we're back on Apple's map.